Girls, Moral Panic and News Media

"In this book, Sharon Mazzarella examines the representational politics behind journalistic constructions of US girls and girlhood through a series of contemporary in-depth case studies which work to document a wider cultural moral panic about the troublesome nature of girls' bodies. The public concern and media fascination with youth so evident in the United States today is a century-old phenomenon. From the flappers of the 1920s to the bobbysoxers of the 1950s, from the hippies of the 1960s and on to the ever-present pregnant teens, this fascination has played out in the media and has consistently focused on (primarily White, middle-class, heterosexual) girls. A growing body of research, for example, has revealed the manner in which journalistic practice constructs such girls as problems. Girls, Moral Panic, and News Media takes a broad look at U.S. news media constructions of girls, girlhoods, and girl's bodies/sexualities through a series of contemporary in-depth case studies including, but not limited to news coverage of the 2008 Gloucester (MA) High School "pregnancy pact," teen gun control activist Emma Gonza lez, and the sexualization of "early puberty." In general, the news media constructs girls' bodies as troublesome and in need of adult surveillance and policing. Taken as a whole these case studies document a cultural obsession with girls' bodies-an obsession that often approaches moral panic. This book will be key reading for researchers and instructors in a wide range of disciplines. While the primary audience will be those in the area of the rapidly growing international and interdisciplinary field of Girls' Studies, scholars and students of Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Women's/Gender/Sexuality Studies, Communication and Journalism will also find this an important study"--