How Theories Relate To The London 2011 Riots

The London Riots have been an awful event in which teenagers started looting shops and damaging property. This all started because a police officer in Tottenham shot and killed a man and some people made it out to be a racial hate crime. So in an uproar, the people of Tottenham stared rioting. The riots spread south all the way to Croydon.

Henri Tajfel's social identity theory assumes that individuals strive to improve their self image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, based on their personal identity or various social identities. Henri Tajfel's theory releates to the London Riots because this could be a reason for so many people joining in the riots. By fighting against the police, the people involved in the riots may have believed they were sticking up for what they thought was right and wanted to out the message that they will not stop unless the police apologise or something to that effect. The looter's self-esteem may have gone up as they looted with many others with the same idea in mind leading them into a false sense of what is 'right'.

Stuart Hall proposes that the media, as a principal form of ideological dissemination, produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals. Stuart Hall asserts that ideological things become 'naturalised'. Here Stuart Hall's theory could explain how and what the media portrayed the rioters to the public watching the news or reading a newspaper. They did represent the teenagers in a negative light and managed to make some people afraid of going outside. The media can determine most of the public views about the rioters. We can then think about whether the media is in the 'in-group' or the 'out-group'. I would say they are in the 'in-group' as they get to choose what to show and how they show it, leaving us very convinced that what they say is the truth.

Caroline Howarth is a social psychologist and has experience about writing about the Brixton Riots. The publication is called 'So, you're from Brixton?': the struggle for recognition and esteem in a multicultural community' and this article examines how the struggle for recognition and esteem among youths growing up in Brixton and how it invades their everyday experiences. Her theory could be used to explain the excessive amounts of other teenagers who joined it. According to her theory, it could be that because the youth of today struggle seen as 'different' by others and especially the media. Usually, when the media portrays a group of teenagers in an unattractive way, people seem to think all teenagers are like that. With teenagers struggling for esteem and to be seen in a positive light, they may group together to overcome this, like in the London Riots. This is also known as 'collective identity'. Caroline Howarth also writes about how youths reveal the importance in racial representation.

Unfinished essay

How do young people create their own representations? How are these different to those created and aimed at adults?

Everyone is different, including teenagers. However, the media seems to have the effect on people that teenagers are one big group this isn’t true. Teenagers have their own collective identities and are quite different to adults.

Teenagers have their own sub-cultures which they cannot helped being grouped into such as ‘nerds’, ‘goths’ ‘chavs’ and others. When represented in the media, some television shows do portray this such as The Inbetweeners. The main characters are portrayed as nerds trying to break into the ‘popular club’ and always failing. The main characters are portrayed as being friends with each other because of their similarities thus having a collective identity. In reality teenagers are under all sorts of peer pressure to do things that others are doing and The Inbetweeners represents this in each episode. Peer pressure can have a big impact on teenagers, especially if a teenager is seen as ‘different’. They will make the effort to change their image just to fit in.

It is possible for what is ‘cool’ currently to change instantly if popular labelled teenagers change their appearance or style of doing something, it may become a trend and other teenagers may follow.

When a teenager has a collective identity they feel more confident in what they do because others in their group are doing it to. A collective identity can sometimes be viewed as negative as seen in the London 2011 riots. Thousands of teenagers teamed together in order to loot stores, damage property and ignore police along the way. The media portrayed these teenagers as disrespectful and selfish. Judging by an interview, Sky News talked to some of the teenagers involved in the riots. They explained that they didn’t have a good social background and that they were struggling to earn money. One of them (ages about 16) even said he had to support his son.

Henri Tajfel explained that social identity assumes that individuals strive to improve their self image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, based on their personal identity or various social identities.

Adults are almost the complete opposite to teenagers when it comes to representation. This is because most adults have a very mature view on things and will not give in to pressures so easily.