Social media marketing.... it's a riot

If I stopped you on the street and asked you to join me in a rampage of destruction, trashing private businesses and setting vehicles alight, would you say yes? Unlikely. The chances are you'd politely decline my request, assume I was as high as a kite, and make good your escape.

Yet this is exactly the call to arms that has been broadcast via social media in the UK, and hundreds - if not thousands - of young people have turned out to join the madness.

Mindless criminality is nothing new. But the speed at which pockets of rioters have organised themselves across the UK has taken not only London, but the entire country, by surprise. Police and the British Government have singled out social media as one of the main reasons for this apparent acceleration in events - with ringleaders marketing their own cause to the masses on an unstoppable scale.

Is social media being used to market criminal behavior to people that would ordinarily have no interest in such events? Does it allow these people to feel involved, where they would otherwise not be? And why does marketing an openly illegal and seemingly causeless event in this way have such strong results?