Moral Decline and Moral Panic?

There’s a thoughtful piece in The Times today from David Aaronovitch which covers a number of issues of interest to sociologists. You may have caught an episode of the Channel 4 series, “Boys and Girls Alone”. It’s a bit like a televised version of Lord of the Flies. The programme has been heavily criticised by viewers and in the press. The programme makers have defended themselves against criticism by arguing that the programme is a valuable social experiment that tells us a great deal about human nature. but Aaronovitch is critical of the idea that the programme is in any way a valuable social experiment. As Aaronovitch goes on to argue, people moan on about CCTV and ID cards, yet are prepared to connive in the invasion of the privacy of minors in this way, simply to be entertained, or to have their prejudices about youngsters apparently confirmed.

Aaronovitch also links in a comment about the case of the 13-year-old father Alfie Patten, arguing that it is depressing, although predictable that what he calls the ‘moral declinists’ should choose to use the Patten baby as a symbol of our broken society.

As David Aaronovitch observes, what such commentary leaves out is acknowledgement of the fact that teenage pregnancy rates in the UK have fallen substantially in the past ten years, even if they are still the highest in Western Europe. Aaronovitch argues that Alfie has - “become a pawn in a misleading argument; a child whose privacy has been violated and whose welfare we simply don’t care about, except in so far as he entertains us or reinforces our pleasurable outrage”.

The Channel 4 series, the Alfie Patten case, and Aaronovitch’s piece - they are bursting with sociological questions. TV documentary makers are often in a similar position to sociologists. If you’ve seen the film, do you think it was an ethically justifiable piece of work?

There is element of moral panic about the reporting of the Alfie Patten case. Stan Cohen noted the way that key features in a news story were exaggerated, distorted and sensationalised in order to make the story more interested. And of course, as Aaronovitch’s comments indicate, journalists were highly selective in contextualising the story, leaving out crucial facts about teenage pregnancy in the UK. And as Aaronovitch’s piece shows, there is always a broader agenda at work in media narratives: in these two incidents we can see a narrative being constructed about the problems of parenting and families in contemporary Britain - or at least, its a narrative about certain types of parents and families. You might be forgiven for thinking that teenage pregnancies and bullying only occurred lower down the class structure to judge from most of the media coverage. Do the media give us an accurate image of social reality?