Viral Online Press

Anika Rahman

Emily axed from the X Factor 03 Nov 2007http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/x_factor/article417626.ece

• The internet has the ability to spread messages virally on many different social working sites. This article consists of a girl, Emily, who appeared on the X Factor but was axed as a footage of her ‘happy slapping’ another girl was leaked which created the wrong image for those who may look up to her.

• The article allows people to have a poor opinion on her as her past has been dug up. This goes to show that nothing can be hidden once your in the limelight of being famous as the media is impossible to escape. The media constructs a strong identity of youth in general, but is not a clear representation of them. People will begin to stereotype us in a category causing them to expect us to be destructive and rebellious.

• Post modernism related to this as the mass media are a dominant factor in moulding our views to portray youth in a certain way.

• “She is giving out a bad message to other teenagers who watch and may look up to her.”

• Post modernism can relate to this as new technologies are created which enables footage and videos like this to be spread quite fast, virally.

• Regulation can be applied through many filter processes and organisations such as ASA or child filters whereby regular checks are made to keep people safer on the internet. However the advance in technology makes it very nearly impossible to find every single application of bullying whether that is through videos or network sites.

London Riots - 25 Oct 2011http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/3891972/August-riot-yobs-and-thugs-revealed.html

• The BBC website had regular updates when the riots were going on. Many websites followed this trend too like Twitter where the message spread fast. Online press has effected us as we can find anything instantly online through the use of websites and social networking sites. The media dominate modern society bringing us all to feel a certain way creating stereotypical views, which were highly created during the London Riots such as ‘youth were to blame.’ The articles headline on The Sun is ‘I predict a rioter’ with the image of a young teenage boy in a hoodie, therefore giving the impression that every rioter will look like this. This is one of the reasons why others are afraid of those who dress similarly to this and fear the streets when noticing them.

• Marxism can greatly relate to this incident as there is the thought that there is ‘one way of thinking and believing.

• Moral panic was created as there was a story where a persons house got broken into and looted, which had a domino effect on everyone else as they started to lock up and fear from leaving their houses alone.

• “36% excluded from school” is a shocking figure and