NEWSPAPERS AND ROCK AND ROLL RIOTS IN COPENHAGEN

In Aug 1957, riots followed the 1st performance in Copenhagen of the film 'Rock Around The Clock.' An ex-post facto study was carried out by the Copenhagen U Instit of Criminology of (1) an account of the police work; (2) interviews with the 63 youngsters apprehended (see J. Andersson, 'Rock and Roll-begivenhederne i Kobenhavin 5.-10. Aug 1957,' Nordisk Tidskrift for Kriminalvidenskab, 1965, 52. Arg. 2-3 Hefte 175-226); & (3) an evaluation of press reports. All reports re the riots which were published in the 12 Copenhagen dailies during the actual investigation period of 5 days were collected. The space allotted by each newspaper to reports about the riots was measured & compared with the 2; space used on reporting articles, ie, accounts of a descriptive & commentative nature dealing with topical events. Content-analysis elaborated by Berelson, Lasswell & Lazarsfeld was used. The words used in the newspaper-reports to describe the events & the participants involved were listed alphabetically. These 2 groups of words were then divided by 20 S's of criminology into 5 categories, from I to V, according to estimates of emotional intensity. It was found that: (a) The newspaper which quantatively allotted most space to reports on the riots, an unpol'al paper, belonged to the group that assumed a highly condemnatory att. (b) Clearly condemnatory att's, expressed within a comparatively limited column-space, were assumed by 3 unpol'al papers, 2 morning papers & 1 evening paper. (c) 2 evening papers, 1 Conservative, 1 Radical, used a comparatively large column-space for moderately condemnatory criticism of the participating youngsters. (d) The paper which used least column-space for covering the disturbance, a Communist morning paper, at the same time assumed a clearly positive attitude towards the participants & a very strongly condemnatory attitude towards the authorities. (e) No connection can be established in an ex-post facto study between actual reading & participation in the riots though 19 of the 63 rioters answered, when interviewed, that they had read about the riots in the papers. Modified AA.