Essay on Mobs and Riots as Forms of Crowd Behaviour – 1. Mobs: Mob is an important form of the acting crowd. “A mob is an emotionally aroused crowd bent on violent action”—I. Robertson
Mobs have their own leaders and “are single minded in their aggressive intent”. They impose strong conformity on their members. Like any other crowd mob is particularly temporary and unstable in character. The mob has its own limited but immediate objectives and concentrates on its realisation.
Two Types of Mob:
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The mobs are of two types:
(a) The Purposive and Active Mobs:
These are deliberately planned by some interested parties to achieve their own predeceased purpose.
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Example: Opponents of a political leader purposefully attacking a big rally; or leaders of the opposition and trade union leaders direct their followers to attack government offices, public properties, etc.
(b) The Confused and Random Mobs. These are not deliberately created, nor there do any attempt in them on the part of the leaders to give direction for their followers. Due to confusion a crowd may get converged into a mob.
Example: (i) A ferocious bull may, all of a sudden, rush towards a big gathering of people who have assembled in a field to listen to a political speech. Due to fear and confusion people may become panicky. Some may consider it to be the handiwork of the political opponents and may resort to violence in a bid to register their protest against it; (ii) Sudden outbursts of people and unanticipated communal disturbances, can also be cited here as examples.
The Riots:
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The Riot is another important form of crowd behaviour. It is a violent and destructive collective outburst. “A riot is the action of a violently aggressive, destructive crowd”—Horton and Hunt.
Rioting crowds differ from mobs in that their behaviour is less structured, purposive and unified. On the other hand, the mob usually has some specific target — lynching a victim< attacking a police vehicle, burning down a foreign embassy, ransacking the property of an anti-national smuggler. It could be said that riot involves behaviour which has the main objective of creating nothing but disorder.
Audience — as a Crowd with a Difference:
“An audience is a crowd with centred on stimuli outside themselves” —Horton and Hunt.
Example: People who gather in an auditorium to listen to a lecture, constitute an audience.
The first requirement of an audience is that people must assemble or gather at a particular place to share some common or similar interest. The second requirement is that the audience is expected to conform to the universally accepted code of conduct.
For example, people are not expected to talk aloud in the middle when the speaker is performing his task on the stage. People are expected to clap at appropriate times only and not whenever they want it, and so on. But this code differs with the type of audience.
With an audience there may be significant two-way stimulus and response even though the audience situation discourages communication. The most successful performers cultivate a two-way communication which seems to make the performer a part of the group.
Members of the audience participate in communication particularly when they cheer, applaud, boo, whisper, mutter, doze or snore during the course of the performance of the performer. Social contagion still operates here; it may be very mild during a religious discourse and it may be highly expressive at a political rally or a sports event. Audiences may become unruly and may even become riotous.
Types of Audience:
Kimbal Young makes a distinction between three kinds of audience: (a) Information Seeking Audience. Those who assemble in a lecture hall to listen to a scholarly lecture; (b) Recreation Seeking Audience. Those who go to the playground to watch a match or to a theatre to witness a drama, and so on; (c) Conversional Audience.
Those who go to attend some meetings wherein they can dispel some doubts they have regarding some beliefs or ideologies etc. This also includes those who attend religious discourses or political meetings to familiarise themselves with some ideas or ideologies which are normally propagated through such meetings.
