Another way in which the news media can interpret and extend the life of a news story is to make them relevant to whatever social insecurities that they can. The Shannon Matthews’ Abduction has had three notable “spins” on the original event. The first “spin” revolving around benefit’s fiends, or people who deliberately have children too claim benefits. The other two spins have been Shannon being “drugged” has caused up-roar and her mother to be charged for acts of child neglect. Finally BBC Radio 1 news stated, “The social services had already visited the Matthew’s household a year before the incident”. Both child neglect and the social services have recently become targets to media induced panics, because of the case of Baby P.
The “Baby P” news story occured when a child was murdered, even though it was said that he had been visited by the Social Services numerous times. According to Cohen “sometimes the object of panic is quite novel and at other times it is something which has been in existence long enough and suddenly appears in the limelight”. It is not always immediately apparent that a value or societal norm is being targeted or threatened. Child neglect and abuse has been a part of society for as long as society has been established, it just took one strong and horrific case for the news media to induce another panic into our current society.
According to Kitzinger in The Ultimate Neighbour From Hell? The Media Representation of Paedophilia, “innocence is a powerful and emotive symbol, but to use it to provoke revulsion is counter-productive”. This is effectively what the news media is achieving with the case of Baby P, a counter-productive reaction to innocence, to create a synchronised annoyance throughout Britain. It also uses the interruption to the Babies innocence on a level to horrify people, to the point where they want to hear more and know the details. This has had effects such as hate groups, naming and shaming and in particular up-roar over the effectiveness of the Social Services.
Stan Cohen argued that the media has the ability to “exaggerate” a localised social situation, into a nationwide panic. He was referring to the fight of the Mods and Rockers in 1964, which happened in small seaside town, Clacton-upon-sea. Cohen named the separate groups “folk devils”. A good current example of this would be the bird-flu epidemic (a folk devil), as it was widely publicised, and people did begin to panic, to the point where the sales of Turkeys for Christmas dinner were drastically affected. However, even though there have been outbreaks in the UK of bird flu among birds, no humans have been affected by the virus. This is reflective of how the idea of a threat to society can affect the way people act, effectively scaring people into a reaction.
Cohen also discussed the effects of deviancy and delinquency. As K.T Erikson discussed, “A considerable portion of what we call “news” is devoted to reports about deviant behaviour and its consequences”. This is a notably one of the biggest causes of panic, ever, from Hippies to today’s Hoodies, and youth knife crime. It could be argued that news media deliberately report on youth culture, for example the news on BBC Radio 1, on the 11th of December, was about how police reports show that youth knife attacks and the number of youth that carry knives has decreased in the ten highest risk areas. The news report however, asked real people about their experience with youth knife culture. The interviews contradicted the report from the police, which almost encourages more negative publicity.
The mass media has a huge control over what we do and see everyday. According to Young’s, The Vertigo of Late Modernity “40% of one’s waking life is spent watching television or listening to the radio”. That conclusion was based on a study conducted in 1999, and it is safe to suggest that with the vast improvements in the quality of the Internet, this figure now will substantially be higher. Particularly with the advances that technology is allowing today. For example Virgin Media as of the 15th of December 2008 are introducing a new range with connection speeds of up to 50Mbits/ps. This is the fastest connection rate to date so far. All of this allows for the consumer access to the biggest database of news, ever.
It is debateable, that by giving people access to such a wide variety of information, it could have the opposite effect, as to where the consumer reads further into the story, perhaps, for example a consumer who would normally read a sensationalist paper, would read a broadsheet version of the story. Thus, having the effect of being more informed, and the panic induced lessoned.
Regardless, the papers would still make sales, regardless of how “informed” the reader is. Papers are there to entertain, and people enjoy bad news, more than they enjoy positive news. Another reason news media often put a spin on, or exaggerate stories, is because it is what is demanded of the audience. It is not surprising that when a celebrity is caught taking drugs or acting anti-socially, they get widely publicized. Celebrities and negativity are two big sellers for the newspapers. An example of this would be the mass coverage Britney Spears received when she shaved her head.
The news media has a way of taking a situation, and placing a spin on the event or story, that can often be misconstrued through exaggeration and elaboration. It could be anything from something someone has said, to an event or situation. The Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests that the media “inject” these ideas of societal values and norms into the mind of the audience. So when the news media report a change to those norms, it causes a reaction. One of the most effective ways the news media targets the audience is through emotions, for example the harming of innocence, or threat of a new disease (Aids, Super-bug, bird flu) or even just a threat to safety. All in all, bad news sells, and this is why the news media push issues for as long as they can. It is debateable that moral panics are a creation of the news media. Without the news and mass media, people would be uninformed, and situations such as moral panics, would not exist.
Bibliography
Websites
10th December 2008, Economic Times, USA
13th April 2008, The Independent, UK
15th November 2007, www.boots.co.uk
9th December 2008, www.broadband-finder.co.uk
Books
Kitzinger, J. (1999) “The Ultimate Neighbour From Hell? The Media Representation of Paedophilia”, London, Routledge
Cohen, S. (1973) “Folk Devils and Moral Panics”, London, Routledge
Mayhew, P. (1989) “The 1988 British Crime Survey”, London: HMSO
Young, J. (2007) “The Vertigo of Late Modernity”, London, Sage
Critcher, C. (2006) “Moral Panics and the Media”, London, YHT
Branston, G. Stafford, R. (2005) “The Media Student’s Book: Third Edition”, London, Routledge
Other
BBC Radio 1, news report, 11 December 2008
