moral panics

Question 1

what are moral panics

Answer 1

Stan Cohen

moral panics - occur when an event, group or person defined by media as a threat

folk devils - person or group regarded as dangerous

being labelled as folk devil - lead to deviancy amplification spiral - deviance increased by societal reaction

form of scapegoating

Question 2

the interactionist view on moral panics

Answer 2

media plays key role in labelling offenders and creating moral panics - initiated by small outburst of behaviour and media selects emotive aspects to portrayed - determines how general public interprets

increase policing leads to deviancy amplification spiral creating self-fulfilling prophecy

socially constructed and have real impact

Stan Cohen - mods and rockers - folk devils
moral entrepreneurs - agents of social control whip up moral panic
influenced by Becker

Question 3

interactionist view eval

Answer 3

strengths
- folk devils and moral panics are common concepts - importance in illustrating how important media is in defining publish taste
- processes clearly still at work eg muslims

limitation
- cohen’s work reveals clear bias towards deviants and against forces of law and order
- neo-marxists - ruling class more important in agenda setting on what should constitute a moral panic
- PM - people can choose to reject

Question 4

neo-marxist view on moral panics

Answer 4

media - cannot tell us what to think but what to think about
- gate-keeping

media set agenda about what is discussed
can also give one side of story - selection

people are active, while most people have dominant reading, possibly to reject moral panic

Taylor, Walton and Young - process of deviancy amplification and moral panics - support capitalism
Stuart Hall - policing the crisis - 1970s mugging - moral panic preyed upon w/c anxieties and gave young black men to blame as scapegoat

Question 5

neo-marxist view on moral panics eval

Answer 5

strength
- combines action and structural approaches to studies of media and moral panics - strengths of each can compensate for each other

limitations
- examples of moral panics that dont support capitalism eg mps scandals
- hall’s policing the crisis criticised for failing to prove a link been economic crisis and moral panics - lacks representativeness

Question 6

postmodernist view on moral panics

Answer 6

McRobbie and Thornton - moral panics are a dated idea due to:

frequency - increase number so people fail to panic
content - society too fragmented
reflexivity - many groups try to generate moral panics eg antivaxers
difficulty - good and bad definitions different for everyone
rebound - way of starting moral panic as may backfire

Question 7

postmodernist view on moral panics eval

Answer 7

strength
- recognises that people are free-thinking individuals that can reject a moral panic - likewise journalists dont have to create them

limitation
- interactionists and neo-marxists argue the idea of moral panics being whipped up is still very relevant especially with knife crime