Notities bij boeken

Sharon R. MAZZARELLA
Girls, moral panic, and news media - Troublesome Bodies [Introduction]
London-New York: Routledge, 2020;
ISBN-13: 978 04 2924 3509

(1) - Introduction

"Over the years, the research on news coverage of girls, once scant, has grown to include journalistic representations of girls at the present time (Draper, 2012; Duvall & Moscowitz, 2015; Edwards, 2005; Fyfe, 2014; Hartley, 1998; Mazzarella & Pecora, 2007; Projansky, 2014; Ryalls, 2012; Thiel-Stern, 2014) and historically (Helgren, 2013; Kearney 2005; Nash, 2006; Snelson, 2012; Thiel-Stern, 2014). (...) Based on her research, Nash (2006, p. 12) argues that media content (including news) exhibits a “deep and persistent fear” of adolescents — a fear that is particularly pronounced in the case of teen girls, and often linked to their sexuality, sexual expression, sexual identity." [mijn nadruk] (1)

[Ik denk dat dat waar is en dat een mannenwereld op die manier probeert om vrouwen er onder te houden (te disciplineren). Alles voor de dubbele moraal natuurlijk.]

Wat Mazzarella interesseert is:

"How do we as adults — scholars, parents, teachers, journalists, policy makers, and so on — “talk” about girls? And which girls do we “talk” about? This project is the culmination of this broader program of research, and as a whole seeks to answer those questions.
The study of girl-specific news coverage is situated in a long-standing and prolific body of scholarship on news coverage of youth in general, a discourse generated by broader cultural constructions of the young. The following sections of this introduction examine this research as well as “framing” as a theoretical approach for understanding the way media as a public forum has constructed youth in general, and young girls in particular. Because inherent in the media’s construction of youth is a belief in the concept of “childhood innocence,” I begin there. " [mijn nadruk] (2)

"Since the late Industrial Revolution, the adult culture in the U.S. has defined children and adolescents as different from adults, as needing protection from the realities of the adult world — as innocent (see for example, Cross, 2004; Giroux, 2000; James, Jenks, & Prout, 1998; Seaton, 2005; Spigel, 1993)."(3)

"As a result of this belief, the early years of the 20th century witnessed the designation of children as a group meriting the attention and intervention of reformers and activists (Wartella & Mazzarella, 1990). Specifically, it was at this time that public education was institutionalized. In fact, gradually across the decades of the last century, an increasing percentage of youth stayed in school for longer and longer periods of time, a phenomenon that immersed them in a world dominated by peers and kept them further out of their parents’ control. Moreover, children and adolescents (by this time also defined as a distinct group) became the focus of scientific study and inquiry. (...) Accompanying this inquiry were assorted pieces of federal legislation (for example, child labor laws and mandatory schooling laws) designed to segregate and protect innocent young people from the adult world." [mijn nadruk] (3)

"Before going further, however, it is imperative to acknowledge that not all children have been afforded the presumption of innocence. Dorothy Roberts, for example, asserts that the Western construction of youth as innocent does not hold for Black children (1997). This is especially pronounced when it comes to the perception of youth violence (Giroux, 2000) and childhood sexual innocence (Egan, 2013; Epstein, Blake & Gonzalez, 2017; Ferguson, 2001; Fields, 2005; Helgren, 2013; Seaton, 2005)." [mijn nadruk] (3-4)

[Dat is een scherpe constatering die ik nog nergens anders zag.]

"As R. Danielle Egan notes, this “socio-historical legacy” of childhood innocence has worked to “support dubious social policies” particularly when related to race and class inequalities (2013, p. 25)."(4)

"Not only are childhood and adolescence evolving cultural constructs, but they have been constructed, in part, to fill the economic, social, cultural, and signification needs of adults."(4)

"Indeed, during the 1940s and 1950s, teenagers — particularly teenage girls — were primarily considered consumers. "(5)

"In addition, Kearney (2004) points out that 1940s’ journalistic accounts of teen girls far outnumbered similar accounts of teen boys, evidencing a public fascination with the teen girl. So while there is no overwhelming consensus about the exact beginnings of a distinct girl culture in the United States, scholars are in agreement that it existed well before the 1950s as is typically thought." [mijn nadruk] (6)

[De motieven om met die leeftijdsgroep bezig te zijn zijn economisch van aard: er kan geld aan verdiend worden. Het neoliberalisme heeft ook invloed op hoe er naar meisjes en vrouwen gekeken wordt.]

"Harris and others discuss the ways in which U.S. (and other Western) cultures policed and regulated girls throughout the 20th century such that “Growing up ‘right’ has always been a highly managed process for girls in order for particular forms of gender relations to be maintained” (p. 15)."(7)

"Amy Dobson (2015) complicates this binary even further when focusing specifically on the topic of sexual self-representation of girls and young women in a neoliberal context. Specifically, she exposes the contradiction girls face to present themselves as sexy in a neoliberal, confident, “can-do,” fun-loving manner while not crossing the line into deviancy, victimization, or psychological distress. These contradictions, she argues, are rampant “in public debates and regulatory discourses of sexualization” (p. 40). In other words, can-do girls in the neoliberal, post-feminist context must present themselves as sexy but not slutty (the latter being characteristics stereotypically attributed to at-risk girls who are raced and classed differently). " [mijn nadruk] (10)

"Given the cultural constructions of children/adolescence in general and girls in particular, it is no surprise that our culture has generated numerous moral panics over youthful behavior and perceived transgressions." [mijn nadruk] (10)

"In fact, as McRobbie (1994, p. 199) notes, such panics over youth culture serve as “a means of attempting to discipline the young through terrifying their parents,” a phenomenon she describes as “a powerful emotional strategy.” (...) Moral panics are, they argue, used by politicians, the corporate world, and the media for their own gains and to control the public.
Interestingly, as noted by Gilbert Herdt (2009), moral panics, particularly in the U.S., are “becoming increasingly sexualized” (p. 2). In fact, he argues that such “sex panics” are a subset or subcategory of the larger category of moral panics, and that U.S. history is replete with such panics over the decades." [mijn nadruk] (10-11)

"One characteristic of such moral and/or sex panics is often hyperbolic and extensive coverage by the news media (Thiel-Stern, 2014). As such, it is imperative to understand how news coverage functions to frame youth. "(11)

Het beeld dat van de jeugd opgeroepen wordt in de media is in essentie negatief, zonder ze overigens zelf iets te vragen. Ze stellen vragen aan allerlei volwassen 'autoriteiten', niet aan de betrokkenen zelf.

"Within the broader neoliberal climate, such coverage ignores the need to focus on the larger social, cultural, and economic forces acting on the young (e.g., poverty, substandard schools, violent neighborhoods, and so on)." [mijn nadruk] (12)

[Alles wordt geindividualiseerd, de maatschappelijke oorzaken van alles worden buiten beschouwing gelaten.]

Hierna volgt een overzicht van het boek.