"Yob Culture" in popular press
G Daeb
a dealer-type from C4 television game show
"Big Brother" was reported as having been a
show of initiative from Police Officers, tuned
in at points in time when crimes which had
already been committed were being talked
about, but also seasoned with some crusted
rhetoric in tabloid speak along the lines of
"well, of course we gave the dossier of our
investigation straight to the police" being a
condiment often within easy reach of many
front page splashes, I'm not now going to
make the observation that yesterday's Star
agony-problem page called a blow job, er,
a blow job.
Instead I'm more interested in its coverage
of the threast made against a young single
mother, albeit one who appears to have a long
suit of issues to overcome.
I mean I would say that using national media
to issue vague threats against her security
of person, with no clear disambiguation to
fully clarify that violence will not be involved,
and having the paper trumpet the morals of
common decent folk for it in a clarion mode,
was a matter for the police.
After all, if language is behaviour then it is,
by definition, threatening behaviour.
On the other hand, this is a paper which tends
to trot out homogenised advice from a pallette
of social acceptability in much the same way
as BBC FOUR's social policy theory debate
steers clear of "naughty" subjects in such a
manner as would be entirely at home on Radio
4 at 6:30 PM, despite going to air in the wee
small hours and claiming to stimulate discourse
on all relevant satellites to a topic, well at least
as far as aforementioned agony-problem page
goes.
Still, at least it would seem that we should no
longer really expect vox populi headlines on the
lines of "What's wrong with Yob culture Britain?"
as, being instrument in stoking and fanning the
flames at grass roots level, it would seem that
The Express needn't pose its readers such taxing
conundra, not when the answers can be spelled
out peer-to-peer by their colleagues on its younger,
and somewhat self-consciously sluttier, sister title.
But when the journo's are there, presumably with
the editor's approval, egging the local masses on
to utter threats on indeterminate nature, not only
does it speak volumes about what self-regulation
adds up to, it also seems to be a matter for the
Police.
I mean, what's the point in having a justice system
at all if all its findings are is a trigger for vigilante
reprisals rather than any meter in its own right?
Perhaps this is one time when The Law has gone
and changed rarther faster than tabloid language-
use, and not enough of the people at the mob-face
were sober enough to have noticed at the time.
Or, in other words, it seems The Star may have
at best abetted criminality in Lancashire in its
edition yesterday, and at worst masterminded
it in an organised manner.
Though how serious it all is is another matter. If
the police, as has been alleged, can't do anything
about yobs persecuting a woman for bearing a
disabled child, then how on earth can we expect
them to intervene when someone "had it coming?".
Obviously, there was no real discussion of any
of the factors which contribute to excessive alcohol
abuse. It is The Star.
G DAEB
COPYRIGHT (C) 2009 SIPSTON
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