Mods and Rockers and the Media

In what ways do the media texts referenced above create a representation of young people as being a danger to society?

The sub - heading from the Daily Sketch reads, "Beach crowds take cover from battling Mods and Rockers". The choice of language that the media uses to portray this event is very interesting and creates visually stimulating images in the readers' mind. The Mods and Rockers were described to have been "battling" - the term battling has connotations of catastrophic wars and it also implies that the two sub cultures were heavily armed with lethal weapons such as swords; the nature of the conflict seems to have been greatly exaggerated. In addition, it reads that the crowds were forced to "take cover". Immediately, a horrifying image is inserted into the audience's mind of people cowering and hiding in unsafe areas to avoid the events that were taking place. The headline for the Daily Sketch reads "WILDEST ONES YET" - the use of the superlative "wildest" places extra emphasis and exaggeration in regards to the behaviour of the sub - cultures. The term "wildest" also has animalistic connotations which implies that the actions of the Mods and Rockers were uncontrollable and feral. The Mods and Rockers are in some way dehumanised by this label, and they are also referred to as "ones", therefore decreasing the value of their individuality and consequently assuming that all people who consider themselves as a Mod or a Rocker are dangerous and erratic. The Daily Sketch's use of the word "yet" can be interpreted to imply that they believe the fighting is not over and there will be further incidents of violence. However, in the article, there is a slight contradiction in their representation of the youths, as they claim that a 50 year old woman "routed 200 teenage youths and girls - with a mop". This suggests that the Mods and Rockers were not very aggressive in their pursuit for trouble and were indeed not a danger if they could be deterred by an elderly woman. Interestingly, the article separates the teenage youths from girls as there is not a collective term for them. The Daily Sketch could be attempting to alert their readers to the vast scope of the violence if even girls involved themselves, as women during the 60's were expected to act and behave demurely. "Youths" was a term that was only really applicable to boys. Statistics also feature heavily in the article such as "75 rioting teenagers", "20 youths were taken to police headquarters" and "200 teenagers smashed windows" to highlight the number of participants that joined in with the violence. Plus, the statistic is always followed with the specific age group such as "teenagers" and "youths" to depict that they were the sole perpetrators and deserve all of the blame. The image that accompanied the article shows two Mods holding deck chairs over their heads, ready to throw the objects over the promenade and onto the beach; two Rockers are seen trying to escape the rioting and uncouth Mods. The purpose of the image was to represent the youths as being dangerous and careless - although their enemy was each other, the Mods and Rockers risked the safety of other people. In three of the other newspaper articles or headlines, the sub - cultures are labelled the "wild ones"which shows how quickly a label can be adopted and perpetuated amongst the media and eventually the public. The Daily Mirror's sub heading reads "Scooter gang 'beats up' Clacton". The Mods are called a "scooter gang" - therefore, the public's perception of somebody riding a scooter would change dramatically, as they would most likely now associate someone on a scooter as a potential threat to them. The media also seems to personify Clacton if the gangs can 'beat up' the town; through this intentional and careful language choice, the media is attempting to create more victims of the conflict and contrasts a violent act with a beautiful seaside town. The Daily Mirror also include an image in their report - a youth is standing with presumably a police officer, who has a large Alsatian by his side. The policeman should automatically have substantial power of the youth due to his authoritative and high powered job. However, the presence of the Alsatian indicates and heightens the potential danger of the situation - readers will have believe that the Mods and Rockers are a danger and threat if extra precautions are took to wrangle their behaviour and keep them under control. Through careful language choices and deliberate emotive images, the readers and consumers of media would have truly thought that the Mods and Rockers and their rivalry were extremely dangerous, and associated them as a threat and symbol of violence.