London Riots Study - Response

• What was the context of the riots? (reasons for riots)
  
  The riots had a lot of different reasons and a complicated context when it happened. The "Main" or outstanding reason for the cause of the protests which sparked the riots was a man being shot and killed by the police without arrest. On top if this there were a lot of underlying problems that had not been addressed and that many people felt angry over, contributing to the stress that was around at the time of the riots. The guardian said for example that the country has been unhappy since the coalition, which was reflected by multiple student protests, and the riots in discussion as well as the crash of trade unions, loss of jobs and scandals within the government and press. One man, when being interviewed by the BBC, said "This has been coming for a long time.", showing that the incident with the police is quite clearly not the only problem that the rioters were thinking about. I think the main contexts of the riots where as follows; the shooting of the man without arrest, the student cuts, raising unemployment, and tax payers money being spent elsewhere. Even those who do not feel for these causes may have joined in due to their own reasons for example one man made a comment about immigration levels when being asked why he supported the riots.

• Why were youths involved in the riots?
  
  There were many reasons why youths may have been involved in the riots,   their motives ranged from the student cuts and political standings, to simply wanting free loot. A good reason that i thought about was the social exclusion of those involved. Youths who are not rich, or intellectual  may feel excluded from society due to the lack of material items that consume us today. Many of the youths involved could be seen as lower class, or minorities. The riots could have been both a way for them to take a stand against the consumerism, as well as to gain some of the items that the majorities can afford.
  .
• Where the youths given a fair representation in the press coverage of the riots?
  
  I dont think they were. Most of the pictures of the riots show the police, and not the youths. The whole press coverage of the riots forgot about its "protest" beginnings and instead turned to blame the young of britain for everything that was happening. Using sensationalist words such as "Mob" and "Voilent" the press controlled what the public where thinking at the time of the incidents, clearly pointing the blame at youths. It could also be worth noting that over a quarter of the arrests made during the london riots were of over 25's, at least half of those being over 30, yet it was very rare to see any of them in the news.
• How can the coverage of the london riots be understood in relation to the ideas of stanley cohen?
  
  Stan Cohen says that events like these cause "Moral Panic" and they are blamed on the "Folk Devils" who had disrupted society. In this case the folk devils were "the youths" as painted by the mass media, and the disruption would be the riots. The moral panic was caused by the amplification of the events by the media. It would be unfair to say the riots were "hyped up" as they were quite serious however the media did group together images from different locations giving te feel that there were riots everywhere. But more importantly they used a lot of sensationalist words such as "Thugs", "Riot", "Violence" and "Mob" setting a tone of panic and moral discomfort around the country. 
• To what extent was the collective identity of the youths constructed by the press?
  
  The press played a bigger part in constructing the identity of those involved than they did themselves. The mass media are generally "in charge" of how people are represented in all aspects of our lives, due to a lot of our leisure activities and work being media related. During the riots the youths were portrayed as being violent thieves and had a very negative constructed identity despite a lot of the country not taking part in the riots, with many youths being involved in the cleanup of the riots being ignored by the press.  Again, the press used a lot of sensationalist words such as "Thugs", "Riot", "Violence" and "Mob" to paint youths in a negative light.