Exploitation Journalism

Thursday's class brought up an interesting idea, especially with the discussion of music hall critic Henry Mayhew.  Mayhew, also a co-founder of Punch magazine, focused much of his writing on the 'penny gaff' crowds at the music hall.  This was the entertainment for the working-class people (named 'panny gaff' because the original price was, in fact, a penny).  One particular quote given in our class reading focused on a group of gaff audience members waiting in line outside the hall.  The majority of these were allegedly kids, ranging in age from 8 - 20, and it was apparently a sexually charged group.  Mayhew reports an inappropriate comfort level shown among both the boys and girls with sexual behavior, and particularly describes dancing of an unacceptable nature among them.

Critics of Mayhew suggest, however, that his calls for the cessation of this crude entertainment are, at best only half the story.  These suggestions state that Mayhew was just as enamored by this culture as offended by it.  What we see with him is a form of exploitation journalism that has maintained popularity to the present day.  Mayhew exposes what he knows will be a controversial situation, and he profits from it.  In class, we compared this to modern 'journalists' such as Jerry Springer or Heraldo.  In these cases, we see a story that's only value is that it will get attention for the wrong reasons, featured in a public venue.  No longer do magazines or newspapers need to feature these stories; we have cable television for that now.  Like Mayhew exposing what high society would consider the utter abasement found among the more socially unrestricted youth of the lower class, these modern exploitation journalists thrust into the public light stories of a highly controversial nature, often focusing on examples of social or moral depravity.  In Mayhew's case, he and all his readers were not at all part of the portion of society getting the focus; they were outsiders making judgments to those whose lives they could never hope to understand.  From their removed soapbox, of course they could find the flaws that, in their minds needed to be eradicated for the 'improvement' of society; in other words, for those of this other culture to conform more to the life of those making the judgments.