IndexMedia 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 believed to be unruly and aggressive behavior associated with hooligans. This type of behavior is usually associated with sports fans, especially association football supporters. 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 outdoors on the street or in the stadium. It can involve as few as two people or as many as thousands. It can start with small incidents like spitting, insults etc. and subsequently develop into more dangerous confrontations that may involve objects and weapons such as knives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The term football hooligan was coined by the media to identify those who cause a scene during matches. During the mid-1960s the media was flexible and uncertain as to whether the hooligan label should be given to several incidents. For many people, football hooliganism is seen as violence or disorder involving football fans. Football hooliganism is seen as an easy target for the media. The chances of a story being missed are very rare as there are journalists present at every match across the nation. The use of cameras means that every disruption in the stadium is caught on tape. Since the 1960s, journalists were assigned to football matches where they had to report on the activities of the crowd and the match itself. For this reason, media coverage of football-related riots and violence is widespread, and the British tabloid press in particular takes an enthusiastic approach to any incident that occurs, complete with scandalous headlines such as "Savages!" Animals!'. Strong disapproval of hooligans is seen as the norm in the media and there has been controversy over the writing style exaggerating violence in football as much more problematic than it actually is. Press sensationalism was identified as a problem in the 1978 Sports Council and Social Science Research Council Report on Public Disorder and Sporting Events. He noted that: "... the outcome 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 added to the problem A study conducted by Murphy, Dunning and Williams in 1988, revealed that before the First World War chaos regularly occurred at football matches and reports of problems in newspapers were frequent. Although the style of reporting was much more different from the hooliganism coverage we receive today. A lot of the news that happened before World War I was done quietly. The articles were smaller and more accurate which meant there wasn't much to comment on and they were also located under a more sensible caption such as 'Football Association Notes'. The style of writing began to change during the interwar years because newspapers allowed more space for advertising, which meant that it was very important that stories had the power to attract people's attention more than before. Furthermore, Murphy and his colleagues believed that the media changed the way people were viewedfootball spectators as they became more systematic and well-behaved, or incidents that occurred but did not have to be reported. However, a hint of concern and accusations began to appear in the stories. This continued over the course of about a decade after the Second World War and reached the point where it was called the golden age of football (the period of large, vigorous but obedient crowds). Despite the fact that there was a decrease in the number of incidents, Murphy and colleagues suggested that this was not entirely true as there were some ailments that usually went unreported. The style of reporting on violence in football today dates back to the mid-1950s. A time when there was an increase in juvenile crime and youth violence which meant there was a great deal of panic which led to the press creating stories about this issue and the best place to find them were football matches soccer. Despite this, many articles tried to make it seem less important than it actually was, and articles began to generalize hooligans to football fans. By the mid-1960s, the date of the World Cup to be held in England was approaching and the press began to warn that hooligans might destroy the tournament. Although there were no riots during the World Cup, there was an increase in moral panic regarding hooliganism. By the late 1970s, many tabloids were calling for harsher consequences to be put in place for wrongdoers, as evident in headlines like "Smash These Thugs" and "Cage the Animals." Many of these demands were made in the 1980s, when tragedies such as the Heysel death in 1985 occurred, prompting British authorities to take further action. These acts did not do much in terms of eliminating hooliganism and may instead have triggered it. As a result, football hooliganism was still widely featured in newspapers and continued to be a target of the media and still is today. In covering football hooliganism in the press, Stuart Hall has discovered what he calls an 'amplification spiral', whereby exaggeration of coverage can lead to a worsening of the problem." ... This increased scrutiny creates a situation of confrontation, in which more people are involved than those originally involved in the deviant behavior... Next week's clash" will therefore be bigger, more organized, so will the coverage...". Hall explains that this spiral 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 as 'impactful editing' was essential to convey the message in a shocking and exciting way using 'graphic headlines, bold fonts, war imagery...'. This idea was Supported by a subsequent study conducted by Murphy et al, they argue that the direction in which football hooliganism has taken since the 1960s, namely the daily rivalry between opposing teams, has accelerated due to media coverage of incidents. In particular, the obvious writing style used by journalists in tabloids such as “Off – To a Riot”. Furthermore, Murphy argues that because people working in communications have the power in decision-making on policies affecting football hooliganism, this has led to largely short-sighted measures that have seen violence move from the terraces to the streets and cities outside the stadium area. . It is clear that tabloids do not provide social explanations for violence in football because it would not make front page news and is unlikely toarticle on the subject published in the popular press contains this insight. British tabloids are extremist in other European countries, there has been research which has highlighted the problem-related importance of media coverage of football hooliganism. With countries characterized by high levels of football-related unrest, the researchers concluded that hooligans tend to enjoy the media coverage they get and usually seek it alongside the opposing team who enthusiastically fight for column inches in newspapers and mentions in headlines sensational. . The media has a major influence on football hooliganism, as is evident in reports produced by the European Parliament in which implied that the media refrained from sensationalism and instead encouraged fair play and sporting values. Football hooliganism is often glamorized by the media in documentaries and films such as The Football Factory. This media representation contributes to the negative stereotype given to football fans. Transport has been provided for football fans by the West Ham company known as Inter City Firm (ICF), meaning fans can travel to matches using the rail network. However, when they used trains, they connected at a pre-arranged location to battle with the opposing team. Because of these clashes, the ICF left a calling card which generally led to disputes between them and the fans ruining their pubs. The company's reputation had been glamorized and was made clear to the public by films and books dedicated to the subject. Films such as "The Firm" haunted the ICF leaders with a cruel view of violence in football along with other related films such as "Rise of The Foot Soldier" in which Carlton Leach is seen raising the criminal underworld which begins including West L' Ham hooligan element. On many occasions football hooliganism has been labeled 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, some violent individuals within the Ultra faction have taken part in numerous violent incidents and attacks against English fans. Unrest in Italy was particularly high in Rome and led to the death of a police officer in 2007 due to hooliganism. In the same year, Manchester United fans also took an active part against the police during a match against AS Roma. Not long after, AS Roma scored a goal which saw Manchester United fans reciprocate with the home fans throwing objects such as bottles into the Manchester United end of the stand. When the two opposing teams joined together they were separated by Perspex barriers. The police were called to stop these violent individuals, but were overly forceful and attacked Manchester United fans with police batons. Instead of trying to improve the situation, they ended up making it worse by becoming the main reason for the chaos. It was claimed that Manchester United hooligans were responsible for the disturbance caused, but footage shows otherwise where the police did not handle the situation correctly and resulted in many United fans being injured. The incident made headlines, one of which The Sun wrote: "Manchester United fans were charged with batons by police during 2-1 defeat in Rome." A journalist featured in the article stated that "One supporter was shot in the head and needed treatment for a bleeding head." This shows that the United fans should not have taken all the blame, even if they reacted immorally to the situation, it was the Italian fans who started the brawl together with the police.