An Investigation Into the Influence of British Newspaper Narratives on Contemporary Discourse Around Children
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Title of thesis: Anatomy of an endemic juvenile panic: an investigation into the influence of British newspaper narratives on contemporary discourse around children. Candidate name: James Gordon Morrison Institution name: Goldsmiths College, University of London Degree for which submitted: PhD 1 Declaration I confirm that this thesis and the research it contains is my work alone, and that all secondary material (where used) has been fully referenced. Signed: ...................................................................................... James Morrison 2 Abstract Children occupy an ever-more prominent position in public discourse in late-modern Britain, with politicians, news media and other key definers consistently depicting childhood as inherently problematic. Popular portrayals of juveniles tend to conceive of them as being subject to multifarious ‘risks’, with younger children, in particular, considered vulnerable to all manner of threats – from illnesses and medical emergencies to technological perils to the predations of deviant elements in society. When not threatened themselves, moreover, they are frequently depicted as presenting a menace to others, in a manner redolent of earlier moral panics about subversive youth sub-cultures. Drawing on a rich literature of research into news- making, textual framing and media reception, this thesis uses a triangulated methodology to explore the interplay between contemporary newspaper journalists, their sources of news, the narratives they weave, and (actual or potential) members of their audiences. It argues that the dominant, at times paradoxical, positioning of children – by press and public alike – as either or both of victims and threats amounts to an endemic ‘juvenile panic’, which is rooted in a continuum of ambivalences about minors that can be traced through history. This simmering state of panic boils over whenever it finds purchase in singular dramatic events – fuelled by the demands of a commercially driven media; journalists’ pragmatic reliance on official sources with fear-promoting agendas; and the public’s appetite for a good horror story. It is further argued that a particular focus on the dangers posed by ‘familiar strangers’ (adult or juvenile) acts as a displacement for deep-seated concerns stemming from recent changes in Britain’s society and economy - notably growing personal insecurity and the slow decline of social trust. 3 Table of contents Chapter 1 – Literature review 5 Chapter 2 – Research methodology 47 Chapter 3 - Images of children: perceptions and portrayals down the ages 84 Chapter 4 – Focus-group findings 106 Chapter 5 – Textual analysis 139 Chapter 6 – News-making 172 Chapter 7 – Case study: the abduction of April Jones 199 Chapter 8 – Conclusion 269 Bibliography 284 Appendix 1 Textual analysis raw breakdown 322 Appendix 2 April Jones textual analysis raw breakdown 325 List of Figures 5.1 Breakdown of articles about children for July 2011 142 5.2 Breakdown of articles for 6 July 2011 142 5.3 Breakdown of types of juvenile articles in Sun 143 5.4 Breakdown of types of juvenile articles in Guardian 143 5.5 Breakdown of types of juvenile articles in Argus 144 5.6 Breakdown of threats faced by children 144 5.7 Breakdown of threats posed by children 145 5.8 Breakdown of discussion-thread posts by type 159 5.9 Breakdown of types of reactive opinion 159 5.10 Breakdown of total evidence-based responses 160 7.1 Breakdown of user posts by type 247 7.2 Breakdown of types of reactive opinion 247 7.3 Breakdown of evidence-based responses 248 4 Chapter 1 – Literature review Moral panics and media research: the story so far ‘Moral panics’ have become an enduring subject of scholarly debate in the social sciences and humanities. Though widely accepted definitions of what constitutes a panic were only crystallised relatively recently (McLuhan, 1964; Cohen, 1972), there is nothing new about the phenomenon itself. Today it is defined as a scare “about a threat or supposed threat from deviants or ‘folk-devils’” (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 2009, p.2). Even when vindicated by some measure of ‘fact’, the fears underpinning moral panics are exaggerated – and reactions from policy-makers, authorities, media and/or public disproportionate. From Medieval witch trials (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 2009) to modern-day witch-hunts against predatory paedophiles (Critcher, 2003; Meyer, 2007) and benefit cheats (Golding & Middleton, 1982), societal elites, their agents and/or community leaders – Becker’s “moral entrepreneurs” (1963, p.147) – are forever identifying convenient folk-devils to scapegoat for society’s ills. Given the ever-increasing ubiquity of news media, its role in fomenting moral panics has become a focus of sociologists, criminologists and communications researchers. In the 40 years since Young and Cohen published their seminal ethnographic accounts of the lifestyles of bohemian marijuana-smokers in Notting Hill (Young, 1971) and seaside skirmishes between Mods and Rockers (Cohen, 1972), a succession of studies have singled it out as the main conduit for promoting panics. For Hall et al (1978, pp.29-30) it was responsible for “relaying the dominant image of mugging to the public at large” during a largely spurious, elite-engineered early 1970s panic about black “muggers”. A near-contemporaneous study of another media- stoked “crime-wave”, in New York, demonstrated how an opportunistic police force and sales- chasing press contrived to ‘invent’ a whole new category of offence, “crimes against the elderly” – at a time when official figures showed rates of such incidents were either falling or comparable to those affecting younger age-groups (Fishman, 1978). 5 There continues to be lively debate, however, about the extent to which the media originates panics – rather than reflecting ones stemming from “grassroots” concerns (Goode & Ben- Yehuda, 1994), politically expedient scaremongering by elite “primary definers” (Hall et al, 1978) or a combination of both. However, it is consistently argued that (whatever their factual basis) news portrayals of moral panics typically betray an “ideological” bias: reflecting, and buttressing, the interests of power elites (Hall et al, 1978). To take one example, Blumler and Ewbank (1970), Morley (1976), Hartmann (1975 and 1979) and Philo (1993) have all examined portrayals of striking workers in 1970s and 1980s Britain – with Morley deconstructing value- laden language used in television reports to distinguish between the “dedication” of some workers (1976, p.253) and the “irresponsible action” (Ibid) of strikers, and the others finding evidence from audience research to demonstrate the anti-union, pro-elite framing effect such one-sided coverage had on public perceptions. This view of a homogenous, ideologically submissive news culture has not gone unchallenged, however. Ericson, Baranek and Chan (1987) and Eldridge (1999) have both used ethnographic observation of journalists at work to demonstrate that newsrooms can be hotbeds of disagreement about the best stories to pursue and angles to take – particularly between specialist reporters who know their beats and generalist news editors who, it is argued, harbour misconceived ideas based on crude institutionalised judgments about newsworthiness. Schlesinger and Tumber (1994, p.259) have cited stories “dealing with scandals inside the state apparatus or in the world of big business” as examples of news overtly challenging elite interests, while Goode and Ben-Yehuda (2009, p.90) say the same of “grassroots panics” – those, fuelled by rumour, that are disseminated as much by “word of mouth emanating from the street” as the media. Meanwhile, several studies of recent panics, particularly ones associated with concerns about aspects of public health policy (Reilly, 1999; Boyce, 2007), have demonstrated that news organisations are not averse to taking oppositional standpoints to the official “party line” (Critcher, 2006a, p.14) when there’s a good story to be had. This has repeatedly occurred in panics over medical risks – which can see doctors, scientists and other ‘experts’ supplanting ‘official’ sources like the government and police as primary definers. As Critcher has demonstrated (2006b, p.67-8), referring to Weeks’s 6 (1989) analysis of the rise and fall of the mid-Eighties panic over AIDS, the “gay plague” narrative originally aired in news coverage was ultimately rejected by politicians and public alike because “a sometimes uneasy alliance” of medical organisations and articulate, well- funded campaigners persuaded journalists to accept their expertise over that of others. Nonetheless, it is frequently contended that, in relation to classic ‘moral’ panics (those revolving around deviancy), correlations between the ideological interests of the powers-that- be and media proprietors tends to bias news outlets towards favouring elite sources (Fishman, 1980; Herman & Chomsky, 1988; Ericson, Baranek, & Chan, 1989; McManus, 1994). Moreover, studies focusing on day-to-day organisational pressures faced by print, television, radio and online news media – notably the need to generate content, meet deadlines and sell advertising for profit - have emphasised journalists’ pragmatic reliance on (readily accessible) official information channels that are bureaucratically geared towards supplying them with steady flows of ‘oven-ready’ material (Tuchman, 1972; Chibnall, 1975 and 1977; Gans, 1979; Fishman, 1980; Bantz, 1985; Schlesinger, 1989). Earlier ‘gatekeeper’ studies (e.g. Manning White,