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  • Essay / The Phenomenon of Football Hooliganism

    Table of ContentsMedia coverage of hooliganism has added to the problemConclusionBibliographyA hooligan is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as 'a violent young troublemaker, typically a member of a gang'. Hooliganism is considered unruly aggressive behavior associated with hooligans. This type of behavior is usually associated with sports fans, particularly supporters of association football. The link between hooliganism and violence in sport was established in the late 1960s in the United Kingdom with football hooliganism. Football hooliganism is behavior that can give rise to clashes between opposing fans, which can take place before, during or after the match, either outside, in the street, or at the stadium. This can involve as few as two people or as many as thousands. It can start with small incidents such as spitting, name-calling, etc. and then escalate into more dangerous fights that may involve objects and weapons such as knives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'?Get the original essayThe term football hooligan was created by the media to identify those who cause a scene during matches. By the mid-1960s, the media was loose and uncertain about whether the hooligan label should be assigned to different incidents. For many people, football hooliganism is seen as a sign of violence or disorder involving football fans. Football hooliganism is seen as an easy target for the media. The chances of a story going unnoticed are very rare because reporters are present at every game across the country. Through the use of television cameras, any interruptions in the stadium are recorded on tape. Since the 1960s, journalists were assigned to football matches where they had to report on the activity of the public as well as the match itself. For this reason, media coverage of football-related unrest and violence is widespread, and the British tabloid press in particular enthusiastically addresses any incident that occurs, with outrageous headlines such as "Savages!" Animals!'. Strong disapproval of hooligans is considered the norm in the media and there has been controversy over the exaggeration of the style of writing expressed about violence in football, as it is far more problematic than it really isn't. Press sensationalism was identified as a problem in the 1978 Report on Public Disorders and Sporting Events, produced by the Sports Council and the Social Science Research Council. He noted that: “…the result in terms of people arrested and convicted, people injured or property destroyed is negligible compared to the number of people potentially involved. » Media coverage of hooliganism has added to the problem. A study by Murphy, Dunning and Williams in 1988 found that before the First World War, chaos regularly reigned at football matches and newspaper reports of frequent unrest. Although the style of reporting is much more different from the media coverage of hooliganism we get today. Many reports published before World War I were written in a discreet manner. The articles were smaller and more focused, meaning there wasn't much to comment on and they were placed under a more sensible caption such as 'Football Association Notes'. The writing style began to change during the interwar period due todue to the fact that newspapers were giving more space to advertising, which meant that it was very important that stories had the power to grab people's attention more than before. Furthermore, Murphy and his colleagues believed that the media had changed the way football crowds were perceived, as they became more systematic and better behaved, or as incidents occurred but were not reported. Still, some concern and accusations began to appear in news reports. This continued for about ten years after World War II and continued into that era when people talked about the heyday of football (the period of large, vigorous but obedient crowds). Despite the fact that there was a decrease in the number of incidents, Murphy et al suggested that this was not all true because some disorders generally went unreported. The style of reporting on football violence today dates back to the mid-1950s. A time when there was an increase in juvenile delinquency and youth violence, which meant there was a great panic which led the press to report on this affair and that the best place to find them was in football matches. Despite this, many reports attempted to make this seem less important than it actually was, and articles began to generalize hooligans to football fans. In the mid-1960s, the date for the World Cup in England was approaching and the press was issuing warnings about how hooligans could destroy the tournament. Although there were no unrest during the World Cup, moral panic over hooliganism increased. By the late 1970s, many tabloids were demanding that harsher punishments be put in place for troublemakers, as evidenced by headlines such as "Crush These Thugs" and "Put the Animals in Cages." Many of these demands were made in the 1980s, when tragedies such as the 1985 Heysel death occurred, leading British authorities to take more action. These acts did little to eliminate hooliganism and may instead have triggered it. As a result, football hooliganism was still widely reported in the newspapers and continued to be a media target, and this remains the case today. In dealing with football hooliganism in the press, Stuart Hall has discovered what he calls the "spiral of amplification", whereby exaggeration of media coverage can make the problem worse. »… This increased control creates a confrontational situation, in which more people than were initially involved in the deviant behavior are drawn into this situation… Next week's confrontation will then be bigger, more staged. , the cover too…”. Hall explains that this spiraling effect has been a common problem in reporting on football hooliganism since the 1960s. At the heart of Halls' theory were the techniques used by the press, because "editing for impact ” was essential to convey the message in a shocking and exciting way using “graphic titles, bold font, warlike images…”. Supported by a later study by Murphy et al., they argue that the direction football hooliganism has taken since the 1960s, namely daily rivalry between opposing teams, has accelerated due to media coverage of these incidents. In particular, the obvious writing style used by journalists in tabloids suchas “Off – To a Riot”. Additionally, Murphy explains that people working in communications have decision-making power over policies related to football hooliganism. This resulted in largely short-sighted measures which saw violence move from the terraces to the streets and towns outside the stadium area. . It is obvious that the tabloids do not provide social explanations for football violence because they would not make headlines and it is unlikely that a report on it in the popular press would contain such an insight. Extreme British tabloids in other European countries, research has highlighted the importance of problems with media coverage of football hooliganism. In countries characterized by high levels of football-related unrest, researchers concluded that hooligans tend to revel in the media coverage they receive and usually seek it alongside the opposing team, fighting fiercely to get columns in newspapers and mentions in sensational headlines. . The media has a great influence on football hooliganism, as was clearly shown in reports produced by the European Parliament in 2017, which implied that the media should refrain from sensationalism and instead encourage fair play and sporting values. Football hooliganism is often glorified by the media in documentaries and films such as The Football Factory. This media representation contributes to the negative stereotype conveyed towards football supporters. Transport was provided to football fans by West Ham's company known as Inter City Firm (ICF), meaning fans could travel to matches using the rail network. However, when using the trains, they would meet at a specific location to fight the opposing team. Due to these clashes, the ICF would leave a calling card which usually led to arguments between them and the fans by ruining their ads. The company's reputation had been glorified and made visible to the public by films and books devoted to the subject. Films such as "The Firm" pursued ICF leaders in a cruel vision of football violence, as well as other similar films such as "Rise of The Foot Soldier", in which Carlton Leach is seen raise the criminal underworld starting with West. Ham's hooligan element. On numerous occasions, football hooliganism has been referred to as the “English disease”. Although this was not only used in England but also in other countries as they had big problems with hooligans. In Italy, a number of violent individuals within the Ultra faction have participated in numerous violent incidents as well as attacks on England fans. Italy's brewing unrest was particularly severe in Rome and resulted in the death of a police officer in 2007 due to hooliganism. The same year, Manchester United fans also took an active part in the fight against the police during a match against AS Roma. Shortly after, AS Roma scored a goal which saw Manchester United fans return the favor to the home fans who threw objects such as bottles into the away end of the Manchester United stand. When the two opposing teams got closer, they were separated by plexiglass barriers. The police were called to arrest these violent individuals, but they showed too much force and attacked the Manchester United fans with batons. Instead of trying to improve the situation, they ended up making it worse by becoming the main cause of the..