A study of Media representations of white working class in the UK

DECLARATION

I [Thato Mkhabela], declare that to the best of my knowledge and effort, this report is my work. I have taken possible steps to avoid any misuse of information. Any issues that may arise are accidental and not intentional in anyway.

Signed: ______Edith Mkhabela_____. Date: _________________.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to extend my appreciation and gratitude to my instructor who has been a sign of inspiration and a true guide helping be through the process of conducting this research. The research was made possible by the help of a number of people who directly encouraged me. My husband and family if not for them it would have been difficult to complete this course.



Abstract

Crime is strongly associated with the activities of young people that many theories deal almost with exclusively with juvenile delinquency. The growing reports of crime in the media have created concern which has circulated across UK and Europe suggesting that youth crime has been neglected and this has merged in perception that youth crime is a serious issue in the UK (Reiner, 2007:315) A review of analysis of the content of the media representation of crime suggest that news fiction stories about crime are prominent in all media, and that they concentrate overwhelmingly on serious violent crimes against individuals. The media has been seen by some as playing a part in several of the pre-conditions for crime to occur these can be identified as labelling and means of opportunity. Cohen1972, Hall et al.1978, Becker, 1968) The news media has heightened the belief that working class youths are largely responsible for social undesirable activities such as deviance phenomena. Deviance phenomena have been classified as any behaviour that violates social norms. However, Cohen (2004) argues that moral panic belong to cluster of social identity young, working class and violent males and it has been shown that when working class people deviate social norms there is still class difference in reporting of crime thus those who have power are likely to escape the label whilst the working class who have less power are more likely to attract that label. As highlighted by Conflict theory that society is divided into groups that the group with high power makes the laws and controls society and those lacking power to make rules will continue within their social norms.

The topic of the study was to examine media representation of youth crime perpetrated by white working class men in the UK. This study aimed to explore how these groups are being negatively portrayed in the main stream press using quantitative analysis method. Tabloid and broadsheet newspapers were selected and negative words used to describe the working class. The use of Chi square test was analysed to reveal the scores.

Summary

This dissertation is a response to concerns about the influence that mass media has on youth and society. The paper makes the assertion that media illustrations are not simply a mirror of society but rather that they ...