Stanley Cohen's ideas
Defiance Amplification - This occurs when the media focuses upon negative aspects of behavior amongst defiant groups.
Moral Panic - This is a public panic over an issue deemed to be a threat to, or shocking to, the sensibilities of "proper" society, often caused by over exaggeration in the media.
Folk Devils - Deviants of society such as teenage tribes of the 60's such as mods and rockers.
Moral Entrepreneurs - Keeping the social norm.
A Clockwork Orange 1971
The film is set in a future dystopian Britain showing the violence of a gang within it, it features disturbing, violent images, facilitating its social commentary on psychiatry, youth gangs and other social, political and economic subjects.
The film received negative press as it created what the media called a number of "copy-cat crimes". For example, Edward Laxton reported in the daily mirror "The terrifying violence in the film A Clockwork Orange fascinated a quiet boy from a grammar school...And it turned him into a brutal murderer". Laxton continues "Th boy viciously battered to death a harmless old tramp as he acted out in real life a scene straight from the movie A Clockwork Orange".
These are two newspapers articles depicted crimes that have been compared to A Clockwork Orange due to there brutality and violent nature, it shows how the film is still shown in a bad light by the media, its always had negative press since its release and because the film is such a strong deviance film it is often referred to when violent crimes such as this occur during modern day society. A Clockwork Orange created a moral panic in society and the media could use this to fall back on to show the intensity of their news stories.
Cohen's theory's can be linked very well with the issues raised by A Clockwork Orange, his theory of moral panic for example. The film creates the sense of moral panic due to its shocking story line and violence, this is exaggerated by the media by comparing actual crimes to the film itself even if they are not really linked with each other. Another Cohen theory is Deviance Amplification is when the media focuses on the negative aspects of behavior amongst deviant groups and this can be related to A Clockwork Orange as the media always assume gangs relate to the film although the film may not of been intended to be portrayed in this way. This allows the media to focus on the worst parts of society, such as gangs, to show deviance within their newspaper headlines such as "Clockwork Orange gang found guilty of killing bar manager."
Quadrophenia 1979
Jimmy - His character is portrayed as care-free and naive because of his age, he wants to be someone and uses his appearance to try and achieve that, wearing parker jackets, staypress trousers and skinny ties. Jimmy cares only for his MOD gang, his scooter and becoming intoxicated with alcohol or drugs rather than caring about getting a job to earn an income. Jimmy is rebelling against thinking of himself as an individual although really he is just following a trend.
Steph - Her character is a more unique member of the MODS as she is portrayed as a more feminine female of the group, a girly girl with long, blonde, wavy hair who wears make-up and wears a leather jacket with nice clothes to make her stand out. Steph has no loyalty as she sleeps with who ever she wants, she leads men on and cheats on them for fun.
Kevin - Kevin is the complete opposite to Jimmy, he's mature and doesn't care about his image unlike Jimmy, however he still wants to be friends with him, even though he is from a rival social group. He joined the army to get away from it all and to be an individual, rather than doing the same thing with the Rocker influenced group he was a part of.
Mise en scene
Mods - Parker jackets, smart suits, skinny ties, staypress trousers, scooters
Rockers - Gelled hair, leather jackets, motorbikes, pubs, clubs, roadside cafe's, street corners
Quadrophenia can be linked to Stanley Cohen's theory of moral panic that was created over the mods vs rocker gang brawls.
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