Techniques of Neutralization: A Case Study on the ‘Project: High Council’

Abstract

The Project: High Council is a 10-episode series that was aired on Astro from January to March 2023. This series revolves around an elite boys’ boarding school named Kolej Ungku Deramat (KUDRAT) in the year 2007. However, this institute had a ‘dark side’ where the students were regulated by a student organization named ‘high council’. As such, this drama showcases the unpleasant atmosphere due to the organization that acts as a social control. Fights between the Form Four and Form Five batch, bullying, breaking the school rules, violence that lead to injuries and near fatal experiences are some of the highlights. These deviant activities flourished over the years without any students reporting the incidents to the school management. The question here is why are students not willing to bring this matter to the teachers’ attention? Are they supporting these deviant actions? Hence, the researchers analyzed this issue by adopting the five techniques of neutralization. Moreover, the textual analysis methodology was utilized to examine the 10 episodes of the drama. On that account, the findings enlightened the audience in understanding how this vicious cycle that is camouflaged in the name of high council tradition survived: First, denial of responsibility where students refused to be held responsible for any untoward incidents that occurred due to their ‘established’ tradition. Second, denial of injury where students escaped by proclaiming their fights as a part of their tradition. Third, denial of a victim where the students were willing to victimize other students to become the next leader in their high council. Fourth, condemnation of the condemners where students criticized the significant others to conform to their brutal tradition. Fifth, appeal to higher loyalties that caused the students not to oppose their high council’s policies. In conclusion, the Project: High Council was a revelation of how educational management and leadership failed to recognize and acknowledge the deviant activities despite being a crème de la crème academy.