Girls, Moral Panic and News Media: Troublesome Bodies Mazzarella Sharon R.

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. A growing body of research has revealed the manner in which journalistic practice constructs such girls as problems. 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.

news media constructions of girls, girlhoods, and Girls, Moral Panic, and News Media takes a broad look at U.S.