Mods vs Rockers in the 1960s : Creation of a Moral Panic

Read through and watch the text(s) below and then answer the question that follows in bold print at the end of the post...

One weekend in 1964 residents and holiday-makers in the seaside towns of Brighton, Bournemouth and Margate, were rocked by a sudden influx of young, cool gangs. They were Mods and Rockers, and the culture clash that occurred that weekend, described in the articles below in The Daily Sketch, Daily Mirror and others, has become iconic in the history of youth culture. 

Mods and Rockers were easily identifiable by their distinctive clothing styles: the Mods wore Fred Perry and Ben Sherman designer suits, covered by a Parka jacket; while the Rockers wore leather biker jackets and jeans. Mods also rode European scooters like Lambrettas and Vespas and listened to a mix of Motown, ska and bands such as The Who. 

The Rockers favoured motorbikes and listened to American rock and roll such as Eddie Cochrane and Elvis. Although the movements were short-lived, violent clashes between the two gangs were seized on by the media and used by moralists to exemplify the outrageous liberties enjoyed by Britain’s youths. 

The seafront vandalism and violence described in the newspaper article was later made into the 1979 film Quadrophenia.

The video below shows how the media in the 1960s reported the clashes between mods and rockers and considers whether or not the media coverage exaggerated the scale of events leading to a 'moral panic' in relation to the behaviour of these youth subcultures.

This is evidence of historical creation of collective identity for British youth cultures. 

Question

In what ways do the media texts referenced above create a representation of young people as being a danger to society?

The media will always generalise different age groups with a relevant stereotype. A subjective example is the 'mods vs rockers' occurrences on the south coast of England. The newspapers would be especially specific when referencing these two groups in the papers. They would use words that would compare them to animals and thugs although the situation was completely over-dramatised.

An example where the mods and rockers were described as a danger to society was in the 'Daily Sketch' newspaper on the 19th of May, 1964. The headline read 'WILDEST ONES YET' and the sub-heading was 'Beach crowds take cover from battling Mods and Rockers'. This very powerful use of language puts both groups into a bad light and makes the towns on Brighton, Margate and Bournemouth sound like a war-zone  The use of the word 'Wildest' makes them sound like out of control animals who can't be tamed. The phrase 'Beach crowds take cover' compares the the situation to world war 2 that had finished only 19 years before and portrays an image of the general public diving out of the way from the 'battling' Mods and Rockers who are being made out to be a threat to society. The situation was ,again, compared to a war where another headline was 'Charge of the Mods at Margate'. This is a possible reference to 'The charge of the Light Brigade'. At the time only very few people had television access and the internet hadn't been invented yet so the newspapers had a huge influence of knowledge around the country. They were casting a bad light over the south coast of England and also over all mods and rockers. For an example if a mod was to be living in Kettering at the time the rest of the people might associate him with the troublemakers and not as a normal human being.
This being said the papers were making a huge deal out of almost nothing. An example which shows that it wasn't as bad as everyone made out is that in one of the papers it was reported that a 50 year old woman managed to fend off the mods and rockers with a mop. It was just the initial reports on the happenings baited more people to go down to see what was going on which led to more police travelling to Brighton to keep it all in order. However this only gave an incentive for more and more people to travel down to see what the fuss was which caused the papers to write false stories that compare it to a warzone.