Representation of Events

Representation of Events

Euro 2012

During the build up of euro 2012 the competition was hit with a lot of controversy with regards to racism and violence. The competition was due to take place in Poland and Ukraine two very racist countries. Poland and Ukraine are two countries known for their gang violence and racist groups within their football society. The media created a minor moral panic in the build up of the European championships as the media focused very strongly on the violent groups of football fans based in Poland and Ukraine who boasted about their notorious violence and warned foreign fans to ‘stay away’. This portrayed all of the polish football fans as thugs and hooligans who should be feared during the tournament. This put a very negative image in the minds of football fans and created a sense of fear and not only for the fans but for the people at home. The violence shown within the media was harrowing.

The Media portrayed the Polish as racist thugs who cared only about violence. The threatening behaviour from the thugs aimed to put fear in the eyes of travelling fans in order to take the light away from the glorious tournament. However this may have been down to the media creating a moral panic. Not all Polish and Ukrainian fans could have been thugs. However a video made by sky news shows how the reporters used a secret camera to film footage of a group of racist hooligans aiming to vent fear into the travelling supporters.

During the tournament a number of racial incidents occurred which caused outrage as Spanish fans allegedly changed racist chants to black Italian international Mario Balotelli. The fans club was punished but the punishment was light, which made the headlines as a larger fine was handed to another player within the tournament because he advertised a betting company.

If we put this event into context of Stuart Hall’s audience theory we could look at the preferred, oppositional and negotiated readers. The preferred reader for these stories would be the football fans or any other reader who agrees with the medias views that racism is wrong. The negotiated reader would be a reader who agrees that racism is wrong however believes that it is understandable due to that specific countries beliefs for example some countries are very racist countries and racism is accepted. Finally the oppositional reader is a reader who disagrees totally with the medias views on racism and believes racism isn’t a bad thing.

London Riots 2011

The London riots took place in August 2011. This was another moral panic created by the media. The riots took place due to a police incident that occurred in Tottenham London. The peaceful protests suddenly turned into chaos as young opportunists seen this as an excuse to riot and cause mass destruction because mass amounts of people believed it was acceptable. The media provided the world with coverage of these events, which portrayed British youths as thugs and animals. Which is morally wrong because the majority of youths within Britain attend higher education in an attempt to visit university in order to get a good job. The represented all youths as disgraceful thugs who only had eyes for destruction and theft because it was an open opportunity.

We could argue the media is to blame for the widespread riots as the coverage increased which showed people stealing products from shops and not being stopped. This was seen as an opportunity for other people as they thought it was acceptable due top the mass amounts of people participating. As the news spread around the world people began to see all British youths as thugs who laze around accepting benefits and disrespecting the government because a minority of mindless and idiotic opportunists took advantage of a peaceful protest.