topic 6: interactionism and the media Flashcards
interactionism on deviant youth subcultures
definitions of normality + deviance are SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION 🏗 , up to interpretation
No youth subculture is normal / deviant, but they are LABELLED 🏷 as so based on social context
labelling theory 🏷
MOST ppl commit crime/deviance
only SOME are caught and stigmatised for it.
we should try to understand REACTION TO and DEFINITION OF deviance,
not the cause of it
Howard Becker
“Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label” 1963
deviance is NOT a quality of the act, rather a consequence of society’s perception and labelling of it
6 stages of labelling process
- PRIMARY DEVIANCE (young person commits deviance)
- SECONDARY DEVIANCE (police/moral entrepreneur catches criminal/deviant act)
- LABELLING (young person is labelled by moral entrepreneur as deviant)
- MASTER STATUS (if label is successfully applied, status overrides other statuses)
- SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
- REJECTION: individuals of HIGH STATUS may have the power to negotiate identity and avoid master status (Cicourel)
Becker + labelling theorists on rule creation and moral entrepreneurs
“rules are the products of someone’s initiative and we can think of the people who exhibit such enterprises as ‘moral entrepreneurs’’”
laws = reflection of moral entrepreneurs’ interests, may unfairly impact certain groups e.g. youth subcultures
Akers
labelling theory = INCOMPLETE THEORY
—> surely there must be some reason labels are applied
—> deviant people can’t just be 100% normal and no different from anyone
Philips and Bowling
SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY of black people as criminals
negative treatment of black people by CJS —> black community feels hostility towards CJS —> high crime rates amongst black people
crime = expression of hostility 🤬 felt to CJS because of negative labelling
Marxism against interactionism
— lacks discussion of nature of POWER + power differences between groups
—> Becker’s article “Whose Side Are We On” says sociologists should side with the powerless
— Philips + Bowling fail to discuss why police label some ethnicities more negatively than others (Hall et al shows that scapegoating is a deliberate tool by bourgeoisie)
stanley cohen 1987
DEVIANCY AMPLIFICATION SPIRAL 🌀 : media exaggerates deviance, gets blown out of proportion and panics society
MORAL PANIC 😧 : ‘a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests’
FOLK DEVIL 😈 : someone whose behaviour is considered a threat to social order
60s: mass media produced DISTORTED IMAGE of disturbances between mods and rockers in Clacton 1964
—> rival gangs “hell-bent on destruction” not only exaggerated deviance but caused more deviance
Jock Young 1986
— criticises moral panic
—> crime may be exaggerated by media 📰 but not CREATED 🎨
crime should be taken seriously and not reduced to media construction 🏗
Lea and Young (left realism)
media representation of crime reflects public concerns
—> working class people live in high crime areas, working class read tabloid newspapers 📰, tabloid newspapers reflect working class interests, so media just reflecting reality of working class people?
