Historical Case Study

Historical case study notes from declanhealey1994

London Riots News Articles

In this news report we see 4 youths that were involved in the London Riots being interviewed by Sky News, during the interview they we found out that although they did steal from shops and carry out mindless activities they do actually have a grasp on why they are committing the crimes. One of the youths tells us that he stole some clothing, nappies etc. for his son when he is only 16 year old himself. He also says he has tried to find a job handing out CV's and 'dressing smart' but he never gets a reply and he admits he saw this as payback for him being unemployed. One of the other youths also understands that the government aren't giving them enough of a chance from the government and says that the government are only looking out for the wealthy families and not them. Another youth also mentions that if the government where to change their ways then it would help these poverty stricken youths who are trying to survive change their own ways.

From watching these youths being interviewed it in my opinion gives the representation that they are misunderstood to an extent, in one way they are committing these crimes and stealing from people but at the same time some of them say they would want to work and one of them has a kid to provide for. So in some sense they have a sense of reality and want to try and make a better life for themselves and they aren't just 'Folk Devils'. We do see at points that they don't care about their actions such as when they are asked if they feel guilty about what they've dont and they just giggle around and say they are watching tele on their new TV they bought.

I wouldn't say that the broadcast is biased, the reason i would say that it isn't biased is because the reporter isn't labelling them anything, they are simply just having a conversation on the events that took place between themselves and the riots. The reporter is also listening and giving them a chance to get their own point across which is why i would say it isn't biased and the youths are been giving a fair voice and getting their point across well.

In this article which is been shown on CNN, which is based in America which shows that the London Riots are being talked about globally we see a young black youth confront the Mayor of London Boris Johnson. Whilst we are watching the news article in my opinion we see that many black youths are being stereotyped as thugs, criminals and all these other bad labels and then this youth in my eyes shows that everyone is different and that not all blacks are thugs etc. He talks to Boris about many of the problems surrounding him and to my surprise Boris is actually listening and the young man is very clever and educated in the way he is approaching the Mayor, he tells him about many of the problems such as Connexions closing down, which was a company that helped him find a job. He also mentions many things such as the EMA cut down and even says everything has a knock on effect and to look what has happened within the riots.

In my opinion this interview will have given people a very different representation of youths, for example in these modern days police, the older generation and many other people see black youths as a menace to society and mindless criminals. But during the riots we see interviews where white people are shown to be more of a Folk Devil to society then we see this young black man who seems to be very educated and equipped to be able to confront the Mayor of London and then go on to put some valid points across.

I wouldn't say that this interview is biased because the youth is able to put all of his points across to Boris and he doesn't get interrupted by the Mayor, the youth is also given a fair voice in this interview and he puts all of his thoughts to Boris and to his credit Boris listens to him. If anything this interview would be biased towards Boris as he doesn't say anything back to the youth, he just listens to what he has to say.

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