SOCIOLOGY OF CRIME AND DEVIANCE
******Deviancy amplification is a useful model for exploring the issues of ‘crime waves’ and the ‘fear of crime’. It established the centrality of the media as a source of information and imagery about events and people beyond the individual’s immediate experience. It also links the forces of social control with both the public and members of deviant subcultures. However, members of deviant subcultures have a more complex relationship with the media
Cohen’s work was concerned with the mods and rockers and some incidents on the sea-front one bank holiday. Although the original incidents were relatively minor – some scuffling and shoving and a lot of drunkenness – the papers chose to headline the violence as if it was much worse than it was. Cohen established this through content analysis of the newspapers. This kind of reporting created concern amongst the readers, the police and moral entrepreneurs in society and led to demands that something must be done about ‘the young people of today’. This concern is described by Interactionists as a ‘moral panic’ about whoever is the ‘folk devil’ of the day. The media create folk devils all the time. The mods and rockers were in the 1960s, but today we might have asylum seekers. It doesn’t even have to be an identifiable group. The European Union is presented as a folk devil by some papers.
*******Media is a global enterprise that has saturated the world; it is where most of our social knowledge is gained, therefore it can be highly influential. It has been accepted as part everyday life as it is easily accessible in most cultures. This knowledge is transmitted through television, internet, radio, books, newspapers, journals, advertising, and magazines. In terms of news, it gets filtered and edited as to what can be the most newsworthy, that will sell papers. It has in the past and present cause moral panics, stigmas, and outsiders. Cohen and Young (1973) stated that, the media create moral panics about folk devils (Marsh &
Cohen’s work was concerned with the mods and rockers and some incidents on the sea-front one bank holiday. Although the original incidents were relatively minor – some scuffling and shoving and a lot of drunkenness – the papers chose to headline the violence as if it was much worse than it was. Cohen established this through content analysis of the newspapers. This kind of reporting created concern amongst the readers, the police and moral entrepreneurs in society and led to demands that something must be done about ‘the young people of today’. This concern is described by Interactionists as a ‘moral panic’ about whoever is the ‘folk devil’ of the day. The media create folk devils all the time. The mods and rockers were in the 1960s, but today we might have asylum seekers. It doesn’t even have to be an identifiable group. The European Union is presented as a folk devil by some papers.
*******Media is a global enterprise that has saturated the world; it is where most of our social knowledge is gained, therefore it can be highly influential. It has been accepted as part everyday life as it is easily accessible in most cultures. This knowledge is transmitted through television, internet, radio, books, newspapers, journals, advertising, and magazines. In terms of news, it gets filtered and edited as to what can be the most newsworthy, that will sell papers. It has in the past and present cause moral panics, stigmas, and outsiders. Cohen and Young (1973) stated that, the media create moral panics about folk devils (Marsh &