Book Review: From the Dance Hall to Facebook: Teen Girls, Mass Media, and Moral Panic in the United States, 1905-2010, by Shayla Thiel-Stern

Abstract

From the Dance Hall to Facebook: Teen Girls, Mass Media, and Moral Panic in the United States, 1905-2010. Shayla Thiel-Stern. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 2014. 203 pp. $80 hbk. $22.95 pbk.Shayla Thiel-Stern analyzes media coverage of teenage girls over more than a century in the United States to build a convincing case for the way in which journalists mitigate the power of young women as a public, social force. Written in a lively and accessible style, the book provides a wealth of evidence from phenomenon ranging from dance halls to social-networking sites to demonstrate how teen girls are systemically constrained from empowered participation in the public sphere. Thiel-Stern, an associate professor in journalism and mass communications at the University of Minnesota, contrasts the lived experience of the young women-finding many sources to give their authentic voices-with the moral panic manufactured by the media. Through careful historical study, she demonstrates convincingly how the media work to keep young women within defined hegemonic roles that do not threaten a capitalistic, maledominated society.There are two key factors in this book that make it particularly valuable: the way in which it convincingly demonstrates an ongoing media campaign to disempower young women as well as the way that this historical force can explain much of the media hysteria surrounding teen girls online today. This is particularly useful as researchers often struggle to articulate how media norms and social history affect the online sphere. With her historical approach, Thiel-Stern is able to build a convincing narrative that shows how teen girls represent a particular threat to society when they challenge narrow roles laid down for them. Over more than a century, teen girls have continued to struggle with being framed by the media as either sluts or sexual victims. This framing existed with their visits to public dance halls, participation in sports, being fans of Elvis Presley, being punk rock fans, as well as in the digital sphere. By quoting contemporary media accounts and tracing the narrative of moral panic, ThielStern convincingly demonstrates how media simultaneously silence the nuanced, authentic experience of women as they participate in these windows of public life. At the same time, the media exaggerates or fabricates narratives or events to show how participation threatened women's morality or physical well-being-particularly their ability to be wives and mothers.In each case study, the book discusses the current state of the U.S. media and how changes in the media environment contribute to coverage and consumption. Much of this is very useful and helpful in understanding the shape of the coverage, although it might have been helpful to consider in more depth the rise of images in popular media after the spread of television. In addition, although the discussion of popular television series (such as CHiPs and Quincy) was useful in terms of defining popular metanarratives about punk girls, it was difficult to compare this information with that in the other case studies that was related to the news media. …