Other than being the Big Swinging Dicks in their very different respective ‘hoods, there might at first sight appear to be little in common between a rap superstar and the editor of the Daily Mail.
But following on from a comment in a Shakilus Townsend post I wrote on my blog, I am rather taken with a possible parallel between 50 Cent (pictured) and Paul Dacre, namely the role they wittingly or otherwise play in popularising ‘knife culture’.
Fiddy, of course, routinely glorifies violence for commercial reasons, because that’s what sells records. For his part, Dacre regularly ramps up the reportage of the latest moral panic, becauses that’s what sells newspapers.
And as a commenter using the name Asquith points out:
I think the media’s relentless focus on ‘knife crime’ is having a terrible effect, because it sends a message that carrying knives is cool and street and will piss off the Daily Mail, your parents, teachers, and twats of that variety. A vicious circle.
This point inevitably puts me in mind of my own youth, especially the media furore that surrounded a Sex Pistols’ interview on London Weekend Television back in 1976. Several of the band used four-letter words.
The resultant outrage was spectacular. Before the incident, the Pistols - yet to release their first single - were unknown to those who did not read New Musical Express. Thanks to front page coverage across the tabloid press - ‘Must we throw this filth at our pop kids?’, the Daily Mirror famously wondered - they became the most controversial group in the country. The more the press urged teenagers to hate them, the deeper a generation fell in love.
Of course, both rappers and newspaper bosses will insist that they reflect social conditions and do not create them. Moreover, both popular song and popular journalism have treated crime as suitable subject matter for centuries, so there are traditions at stake.
As an ex-punk, I would never join the array of politicians - from Tipper Gore to David Cameron - that argue for the censorship of music deliberately designed to shock parents. Such a step would only be counterproductive, anyway.
But just maybe one practical means of defusing some of the tension that really exists on the capital’s streets right now would be to keep the reporting straightforward and the four page spreads to a minimum.
Related
BBC - Is knife crime as common as we think?
Septicisle - Even more thoughts on knife crime and the Sun
Hahaha!
Another old chestnut - to what extent does culture inform or reflect politics (*and vice versa)?
I suggest the answer lies in the false definition of the question. The transition from youth to maturity is the process by which innocence is corrupted - so how you describe the nature of the paradox is a statement of self-description above anything else.
Isn’t it funny that the Daily Mail is so concerned that sex sells when its own founder admitted that it makes its money by selling hate. Don’t get me wrong, a culture where sex sells can be very bad for women in many ways. However, I think its easy to conclude that out of the two, a culture where hate sells is far more dangerous than a culture where sex sells.
If i ever meet Paul Dacre, I would have one question for him: how can the Daily Mail be outraged by youths murdering other youths when it has spent the last decade breeding hate, contempt and fear against those very youths.
If i ever meet Paul Dacre, I would have one question for him: how can the Daily Mail be outraged by youths murdering other youths when it has spent the last decade breeding hate, contempt and fear against those very youths.
Spot on.
This is certainly no surprise to anyone familiar with the concept of ‘social proof‘ - the more that the media tells kids that ‘everyone’ has knives - and I’ve seen plenty of well-meaning media morons parrot this line over the last few months - the more likely they are to think that ‘well, if everyone is doing it, I don’t want to be the only one who isn’t…’. And kids are uniquely vulnerable to this, because they don’t have enough experience and sense of self to defy what must look, to them, like unstoppable social trends.
All of this pathetic politics while another young man has died today.
A blog worth its salt as a moral and political force would be arguing today for a black leader in City Hall with the mutual backing of all 3 parties, to fill the vacuum left by the departures of Jasper and Lewis and get a grip on the situation.
Instead it’s party politics as usual, and you lot having YET another wank about the Daily Mail.
Pathetic.
More of concern than whether teenagers etc are carrying knives to strike out at the Daily Mail is whether youths are being influenced to carry them precisely because of the media coverage which suggests that so many are carrying them.
Incidentally, there’s another excellent post by Mark Easton here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2008/07/sceptical_of_knife_epidemic.html
disputing the IoS figures which were publicised yesterday. I don’t think anyone is disputing that there is a serious, potentially intractable problem in parts of London, but to suggest it’s country-wide is simply not backed up by the facts at the moment.
@5 you waste your breath and by the terms of your prescription it would be an empty gesture. As for the rest, look in the mirror, friend.
[...] very sensible point that Mr Easton makes, as also made coherently and provocatively by Dave Osler at Liberal Conspiracy, is that the massive and deranged overhyping of the non-event [...]
Ah, the Sex Pistols. Whenever I think how much worse the world is becoming that’s the first counter-argument I think of - a bunch of mad Christians and local politicians stopped me from seeing them but I can see them now. Of course it costs 10 times as much and I’m far more likely to be stabbed on my way home. but still…
“I’m far more likely to be stabbed on my way home”
As the BBC piece linked above highlights, no you aren’t.
Re: BBC on knife crime - that’s reported knife crime.
My girlfriend has 3 flatmates, they’ve been mugged 4 times in the last year between them. I realise that’s no survey but I wouldn’t trust Home Office (BCS) statistics any further than I could happily throw them.
BCS isn’t reported crime, it’s survey-based and nobody serious questions its methodology. It only applies to over-18s, but I’m assuming your girlfriend and her flatmates fall into that category.
…thus proving the point in my article linked above, about The People having massively exaggerated fear of crime because they don’t understand that anecdotes are worthless and statistics are vital [ha ha...].
Stabbed victims tell no tales (not sure which smiley would be appropriate here!)
More muddifying anecdotallage: I actually saw far more violence in my youth in Sheffield than I’ve seen in London, and I never saw any in notorious Nottingham.
Maybe it’s the places I go - and not living in Brixton like my girlfriend.
Hmm. “Partisan think-tank claims, without evidence, that police claim, without evidence, that knife crime is getting worse” might be a more accurate summary of the above.
“Policy Exchange is an independent think tank whose mission is to develop and promote new policy ideas which will foster a free society based on strong communities, personal freedom, limited government, national self-confidence and an enterprise culture.”
Sound like Tories to me.
Quite. So “social authoritarians with a dislike of the current government claim, without evidence, that social authoritarians whose funding goes up if crime goes up claim, without evidence, that knife crime is getting worse”, then.
In JULY 2001 the Daily Mail newspaper published the FRONTPAGE headline as follows:-
“KNIVES ARE OUT FOR GORDON BROWN”
Since July 2001, the Daily Mail has used “Knife” ‘dysphemism’ headlines on over 100 occasions.
Whenever they print such a headline, there is always guaranteed to be at least one murder, which is then reported a few days later. When I wrote to Paul Dacre about this in 2001, he responded by using “Knives come out” or “Knives are out” at least once a week for about 6 weeks.
The expression “Knives are out” printed as a headline is a catalytic trigger to mentally unstable people with a predisposition to kill with knives, there’s no doubt about it.
So when will the Daily Mail stop doing this? Other papers have done similar things. Recently, the Sun printed “MPs queue up to knife Brown” on page 2 of their paper. That afternoon a man was killed in Oxford Street in broad daylight.
There is a massive connection, because I have interviewed someone who threatened shop staff with a knife (in 2006) and she says she felt compelled to do it after reading one of these “Knives are out” headlines!
I don’t know whether Peter D’s comment is earnestly barking or an absolutely superb satire on the media’s use of statistics, but either way I love it.
- direct link -
thomas