The London 2011 riots or the dubbed by the media sometimes as the "Blackberry riots" were a series of riots that took place from 6 - 10th of august which was sparked after a protest in Tottenham following the death of Mark Duggan. Such a story is an example of a moral panic in the media as even though the story was reported 2 years ago it still resonates in the media today with new stories and footage being uploaded to the web on the events or recent headlines such as this 2012 article by radio show LBC 97.3 called London Rioter: "It was war". Such a headline features the use of hyperbolic language such as the lexical choice of war which may exaggerate the violence in during the riots to readers. Such a word sensationalises the event causing people to instantaneously think of the violence as something as bad as say if the violence seen well known wars and conflicts; we get an image of brutality and chaos. Not only this but such a word depicts the riots as something more organised that it is reported to be, one can argue that although it is said that they were organised via social networking it was no where as organised as say if a war manuvure. This evidences how the riots were a moral panic as reported stories would use exaggerated words with many interpretations to entice fear in its readers as they are either left to their imagination first reading the headline and anticipate the worst or they are told an exaggerated headline to get them to consume the article.
When actually reading the article take note that in the main body of writing it does not actually quote the rioter on those words exactly in fact it mentions that he describes what happened as being like like a war zone. This may evidence how a sense of bias can be seen in the article as they has altered the so called description of the riots from a simile to a direct metaphor to add emphasis to the violence and excite readers. Furthermore, the article only features one point of view which has been slightly skewed.
Another article from the same source features a similar sense of sensationalist article. The article called London riots: The Top 10 photos which features well composed photos to depict the violence during the riots as if it were a set from a Hollywood thriller to once again convey a sense of drama and action which may be a misrepresentation of the violence in the event. In addition the article's headline is a top ten which conveys a sense of entertainment as if its a list show such as top ten fashion etc.
The image below is another example of the article used shocking images to exaggerate the violence of the riots by featuring an image of a bloodied person but not only this omitting any real able person in the image to shock readers and create a panic of the riots.
Such an article evidences that the riots were a moral panic as it shows just how much of a narritve the media created around it by using shocking images to exaggerate the violence and get readers to panic about there own sense of security whilst these events are taking place. Some readers would feel inclined to consume more of the story for surveillance purposes to know if they are safe or not.
any real concern
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