The new media and hooliganism : Constructing media identies

This paper will focus on the new media, for the most part Internet. The main target is the production of the picture of hooliganism on Internet, as well as the consumption of this "picture". The paper, will thereby, examine the relation between "the new media" and "hooliganism". This discussion will be related to an analysis of the website www.sverigescenen.com, a Swedish online magazine. A central question is: How are different pictures/images of the hooligans constructed and described in the new media landscape.In this respect, Nordic criminologists have informed about the power and the influence of media. They have - close to a moral panic - uphold various social evils that have normally and frequently been related to the power of media in general. This power can be used to induce a fear amongst ordinary people; a fear of criminal act. This influence on the moral discourse could, in the extension, maintain a fear that is out of all proportion to actual risks. Previous research has in general indicated that mass media has a great impact on the (re- )production of the "narrative stories" of hooliganism and hooligans. Importantly, the new media landscape creates new conditions for this "narrative picture" of hooliganism, due to the fact that both supporters and the hooligans themselves are active and vigorous media producers. This ’new’ situation of participation/engagement involvement in the media production will expand and transform the research on the media process, focusing both on producing and consuming media. In this light, the modern media construction of hooliganism stand out as an important subject