Urban Youth’s Perspectives on Flash Mobs
Issue Date
2013-07-01Author
Houston, J. Brian
Seo, Hyunjin
Knight, Leigh Anne Taylor
Kennedy, Emily J.
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, author accepted manuscript
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Flash mobs are new, emerging, and evolving social phenomena that have recently been associated with youth violence in U.S. cities. The current study explores how youth understand flash mobs through focus groups conducted in Kansas City, Missouri (a site of violent youth flash mobs). Results indicate that youth have varying familiarity with flash mobs and define them in different ways; that youth perceive youth boredom to be the most frequent cause of problems with flash mobs; that youth connect ongoing social disorder with the violence associated with flash mobs; and that while social media are facilitators of flash mobs, flash mobs have their roots in youth activities that have been going on for generations (e.g., hanging out in groups, cruising).
Description
This is the author's final draft. Copyright 2013 Taylor & Francis.
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Citation
Houston, J. B., Seo, H., Knight, L. T., Kennedy, E., Hawthrone, J., & Trask, S. L. (2013). Urban youth’s perspectives on flash mobs. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 41(3), 236-252. DOI: 10.1080/00909882.2013.825728.
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