Historical Case Study

Stanley Cohen ideas relate to moral panic and deviance amplification. Moral Panic is when the mass media report on an issue that threatens social order in society and the frameworks that regulate it. The "folk devils" which were the deviants labelled in 1972, this label was created after reports found conflict between to groups; the mods and the rockers, these are the types of people that can be seen as "dangerous culprits" by the media as there actions can cause major upset for not obeying the law in the correct way. A contemporary example of these types of groups in society today are "chavs" they are stereotyped in this way because they wear tracksuit bottoms and matching hoodies and can be seen as groups of people who cause a lot of trouble by drinking illegally on street corners.

So it's quite simple to understand what deviance amplification means; Deviance is a word to describe people going against society's rules, for example the "folk devils" I talked about above are the type of people that believe what they do is socially acceptable. Amplification is when a story/event is made more noticeable or "bigger" by the media. For example newspapers tend to broadcast stories (mainly negative ones) at a higher level to attract people's attention, even though sometimes they may not always be true. So by putting this definition together it's when people who go against the rules in society are "advertised" via mass media for what they have done wrong, which I personally believe that it will only make them worse.

Clockwork Orange

The 1971 film is an adaptation from the Anthony Burgess 1962 novel which had the same name. It features a group of male actors known as the "droogs", they commit horrific crimes through the film which some people could find disturbing due to the high level of violence shown. The main character is a psychopath who visits rehab to try and make he's life better again however the fact that he is in a group ruins hes plans of starting again as he is dragged into the society where violence is seen as the correct thing to do. The overview of the film shows "youth gangs" at their best with the "droogs" trying to make a "bold statement" wearing white strades, thin braces and a range of bowler hats, which many people back in the day would have thought was unique and different as the typical male would usually wear Levis jeans and dr martin boots, however these were named the "swedeheads". Overall I believe the background to this film was to give an overview of how the future of Britain was going to turn out and in some contexts they have been correct.
Many different reports have been released by the press in recent years linking to attacks and how Clockwork Orange has been the main part of it. In 2005 a gang of youths where charged for manslaughter after the death of a bar manager in London. They were believed to have beat him to death and filmed it on a mobile phone, like in the film. Also in 2010, 2 girls on a drink fueled night out "attacked a gay man to death" because of he's sexuality. Onlookers said it was like a scene from a clockwork orange. Both of these articles show the film in a negative light, as if it has been the cause of many attacks as people could be looking up to the characters in the film as "role models". However the media can portray stories at a more interesting level than they actually are and some of the situations may not have been so severe but because the film has been linked to 2 major death accounts then most of society would see this film in a negative way.
However when youngsters of the time where asked how Clockwork Orange had affected them they all replied with the same answer. That it's nothing they haven't seen before, the reflection of the gang of Droogs just made the generation think of football hooliganism and being loyal to your friends and family by standing up for them in serious situations.
Overall the film links back to Stan's theory in the way that many headlines where created relating to the film in a "serious way", this may have been broadened a lot just by the newspapers and TV as they have to try and make the most money out of stories and by including a world known film in the title they know that it's going to be a story many people will read, even if most of it isn't true. They also created the "moral panic" for society to think that many teens in that age group where going to be apart of a gang, so would stereotype them which isn't fair as hardly any of the teenagers would believe acting like that would be acceptable. The good thing to come out of this controversy is that many of the younger generation are used to seeing violence all the time so this film was no exception as they just identified the representation of what happens in the modern day with group fights e.t.c.

Quadrophenia

The 1965 film was set in London and followed the story of Jimmy Cooper who was classed as a London MOD. He is seen to be disillusioned by he's parents and also he's job in the advertising firm as throughout the film you can see that Jimmy has a very negative outlook on both subject separately; he's relationship with hes dad especially is quite obviously negative as in one scene, Jimmy is watching he's favorite band on TV and he's dad comes in and asks what all the noise is and starts to ask a range of questions, to Jimmy's annoyance. This shows they didn't communicate much as father and son. Then when at work he begins to not turn up on time and even decide to stay off some days before finally quitting he's job near the end of the film because he cannot deal with the fact that someone he doesn't respect is telling him to do things.
Jimmy is very proud of the team that he is apart of as you can see through the film, the group identity is very important to him. I always believed that he saw himself as the "leader" as in most scenes he is walking in front of everyone else and always had the last word to say, this shows he wasn't afraid to fight for what he wanted. You could see that he was trying to have that individuality from all the other MOD's, however they all still looked the same and nothing that Jimmy did made the situation any different.
He was always seen as a serious character and never seemed to have a laugh with he's friends, mainly because of the situations with family life and he's job which I have talked about above he just wanted to get away from it all, things like the scene of Jimmy vomiting at work and the two workers of a higher class stood either side of him not offering to help. This shows how divided the classes where back in the day. It's also youths and adults which are seen as totally separate species because of how different they can be seen in the public eye.
Steph was seen as quite a feminine and confident character through the film, she seemed to have a lot of sexual freedom in the way that in every scene she could be seen with a different male, much to Jimmy's upset as she saw there time together as a small fling but you could tell secretly he was starting to endure feelings towards her. She had no loyalty inside of her, because the way she lead Jimmy on and then left him when she felt like it shows she is the confident and dominant one who decides what is happening. Although she dresses slightly masculine she can be seen as a strong feminine compared to the outfits the androgynous MODS wore. For example the parka coats and blazers, she wore leather and quite a lot of make up to give her the edge and make her stand out from the crowd.
The outfits worn throughout the film are a prime example of what "youth culture" can be seen like these days. No matter what the trend of clothing is it just means that all group members are wearing the same. So in this instance the Mods wore skinny jeans, parkas and had slick back hair. This showed that the group had a very clear identity which is very recognizable and linked instantly to the film itself. I believe this film more than Clockwork Orange reinforces elements of youth culture as many of the teens today wear parks again and skinny jeans just for fashion trends not because they are apart of a group, as the groups tend to try and come up with their own personal ideas.

The ideologies/goals in this film are; sub cultural which means they have wanted to create this film for a range of different cultures/genders/ages to look at and make a direct link to in some way. for example the teens could see themselves being a part of one of the gangs, the adults would understand what they are going through as they can think back to their childhood e.t.c. Because Jimmy was so focused on changing he's life they wanted us to see that it's all about living for right now and not bothering about the future, this is true as these points can be thought about when that time comes, this would give the audience excitement and the confidence to enjoy every second of anything they seem to do as you only do live once. The dominance of being in a gang can also be seen and directors wanted to show the audience, each one of the group needs to be comfortable in what they are doing and have control over every situation, however some people maybe more in charge than others as it's exactly how people are it just depends on personality.
The main point shown is that it's them agaisnt us (mods agaisnt society) as they always broke the rules and regulations that the law put in place in some way but they always saw the positive and funny side to it, this point was introduced clearly as the mods were shown as bad people from the beginning and the story line throughout suggests the things they do they believe are right but the society (police, other groups) are trying to stop them. They wanted people to see each side equally however I believe more people nowadays would be on the society side as there is a larger amount of us and there are less and less groups around now.

Moral panic in this instance is shown by the mods breaking the law, exactly what I have explained above, but they never ever thought they were doing anything wrong which means they wouldn't have understood exactly why what they were doing was affecting a lot of people. However the deviance amplification of Stan's theory is again shown clearly through the amounts of newspaper and radio articles the fights and attacks between the mods and the rockers caused in the 60's, this was even seen as a "pat on the back" for group members as they would have felt like they had accomplished something successful, but they were being projected as bad people who didn't have respect for anyone and believed fighting is always the answer.

Overall I believe both films can link to modern day events as groups of all ages and genders are still around today, the films might give out the same message but overall I think the only message people will take from each of them is that they should have authority over any situation that may arise and they should react in the best way possible - this may not always be violence. For example world wide attacks and wars that are going on, these are seen on a much bigger scale but the terrorists involved are apart of a gang who rely on each other to come out with something positive at the end (in that case killing other people from other country for the countries conflict). Although I don't agree that violence is the answer to any situation, it's not going to stop a large amount of people in society today that do still fall back into it to get the revenge that they want, so both films will be memorable in that way. To me personally the message they give is not negative and any attacks that have happened cannot be in anyway their fault, its just the amplification from the press that make it all fire back.