Deviant youth subcultures

• What is a Deviancy Amplification Spiral?

  A process where media exaggerates youth deviance
• How does the media contribute to youth deviance issues?

  By creating or worsening problems they condemn
• What did Brown (2012) say about newspapers and rave culture?

  They distorted and exaggerated stories about it
• What did Fawbert (2008) study regarding hoodies?

  Media reports about young people wearing hoodies
• What conclusion did Fawbert reach about hoodies?

  They were socially constructed as symbols of mischief
• What happened to hoodie sales after media coverage?

  Sales soared as youth embraced the style
• What did Cohen conclude about the older generation's concerns?

  They feared youth culture undermined moral order
• What youth subcultures caused moral anxiety in the 1970s and 1980s?

  Punk Rock, new age travellers, and ravers
• What is a moral panic?

  A period of public anxiety about some imaginary threat to society during which the young are scapegoated
• How do moral panics contribute to a deviancy amplification spiral?

  The initial problem socially constructed by the media is transformed out of proportion into a major problem, making the problem worse
• How did the media contribute to the moral panic over hoodies?

  The media socially constructed hoodies as a symbol of mischief, leading to a rise in hoodie sales as young people realized wearing them upset people in authority
• What did Cohen's 'Folk Devils and Moral Panics' conclude about the older generation's concerns over youth-oriented consumer culture?

  The older generation was concerned that the development of a youth-orientated consumer industry, especially that symbolised by pop music, was undermining both the moral order and traditional authority
• How do interactionists argue that the media contributes to the social construction of crime?

  The media is an agent of social control that labels young people as criminal or deviant, contributing to the social construction of crime
• What are the stages of a moral panic according to Cohen and Young?

  1. The media report trivial events involving young people in an exaggerated way, using sensationalist and emotive language which demonises young people.
  2. Follow-up articles make the youth group more visible to the public by describing and commenting on symbols associated with the group.
  3. The general public are encouraged to see the group as folk devils to be feared, the police and courts are pressured to crack down on the group, and the notoriety leads to more youth being attracted to the deviant group.
• Why do interactionists argue that the media sensationalizes and exaggerates youth deviance?

  As a consequence of "news values" - the need to sell news, the social construction of news as the "silly season", and the labelling and creation of "folk devils"
• How does the neo-Marxist view explain media-led moral panics?

  As a distraction from problems actually caused by capitalism
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the media's role in creating moral panics about youth deviance?

  Strengths:

  • Draws attention to potential social issues
  • Encourages public and government response

  
  

  Weaknesses:

  • Sensationalizes and exaggerates problems
  • Scapegoats young people as "folk devils"
  • Contributes to a deviancy amplification spiral
  • Distracts from underlying societal issues