Cronulla Riots Research Paper

What role did the media play in creating a moral panic about the Cronulla Riots?
On December 11th 2005 around five thousand people gathered at Sydney’s Cronulla Beach. This was a racist and violent act against young Lebanese and other middle-eastern appearance people. It was believed in the week which led up to the Cronulla Riots there was texts messages and a couple of media sources which had a part in the events that happened on that day and afterwards. (Poynting, 2006)
The media sources that were involved and played a key role in shaping the public’s opinions of what was going to happen fuelled the media ethnic crime debate, which was then illustrated when the media sources were reporting daily on the happenings leading up to the riots. The 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones and the Daily Telegraph were the main culprits in spreading the word and discriminating against the young Lebanese and other middle-eastern appearance in the lead up to the riots. Every day the Daily Telegraph had front a page story discriminating against the Lebanese and was telling every Australian to get down to the beach and show them that this is our country. Alan Jones was also encouraging the violence to occur and therefore advertising on air for the attendance of all …show more content…
It is with the surroundings of moral panic that these young people are blames and framed in ethnic terms of who they are rather then class terms and taking everyone the same. This has happened from the very beginning of their lives. (White,