Social Media, London Riots and Representation Of Youths

How far were the responses of the rioters themselves given space in the media?

When the TV Crews for news channels went out they usually went and talked to the adults at the scene, getting their opinion, and not that of those who were taking part in the rioting. It talked to people who were in a position of power, for example David Lammy MP and Mayor of London Boris Johnson. This meant that they couldn't get a full picture, as those adults in a position of power may all have the same ideas, so this would be the only one that BBC/ CNN and ITV News portrayed.

Given the general framing of young people as the key participants in the events, how much space was given to young peoples voices - and what sort of young people were given space to respond in the media debates?

As mentioned above the young people who were given press coverage were kept to a minimum, with the broadcasters preferring to interview MPs and Mayors, or get the reaction of shopkeepers. In regard to the type of people who were interviewed, they tended to choose people who could hardly string a sentence together, or who's every other word was a swear word, getting rid of the people who had a valid point to get across, as in this video. This helped to portray the ideas that the news wanted them to, with the young people involved in the riots being illiterate thugs who were opportunist and took what they wanted because they could.

To what extent did social media challenge or confirm representation of youth identity in the mass media during the time of the London Riots?


A lot of the newspapers seemed to condem the young people involved in the riots before there was any sort of investigations into the sources of it, and the actual percentages of people who were there, as you can see below. This meant that they got a negative press straight away, which then reflected Stanley Cohens theory that the Mass Media can create Moral Panics, through portraying these Folk Devils in a wholly negative light. However some of this media did portray some of the youth in a good light, highlighting the clean up operations and trying to make it plain that there were some young people who were doing good and not trying to destroy their communities or burning anything that stayed still for more than 30 seconds. You can also apply David Gauntlet in this case, as he says that identities are not given, but negotiated and constructed. Although the general mass media had decided on their opinion of the youth who were taking part in the riots, their opinions were changed and then moulded to fit in with what the youths were doing at the time. This has always happened, with one day them saying how terrible the youths were, wearing hoodies and mugging pensioners, but then the next day how great they were for helping to clean up communities and setting up youth projects. It is difficult because of the oligopoly in the media, with few companies having much to say, which only really gives you 1 or 2 messages.