Moral Panics Flashcards
What actually is a moral panic?…
In order to fully wrap your head around this you need to know the definitions of a few key terms first.
A folk devil is the subject of a moral panic – the group who the media is focussing on, the group who is being targeted for exaggerated reporting.
Deviancy Amplification is one of the alleged consequences of a moral panic – it is where a group becomes more deviant as a result of media exaggeration of their deviance. It is very similar to the Self Fulfilling Prophecy.
What are moral panics?…
Moral Panic occurs when someone or something is defined by the media as a threat to the values or interests of society (or when a folk devil has been created).
The key moral panic theorist is Stanley Cohen. Cohen suggested in his 1972 book ‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’ that a moral panic occurs when “condition, episode, person or group of people emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests”.
Stanley Cohen believes the media play an important role in enforcing moral panic, even by just reporting the news.
How does the media play into this?…
In Cohen’s view the media overreact or sensationalise aspects of behaviour which challenge social norms. The media’s representation therefore then helps to define it, which can then lead to outsiders adopting and observing the behaviour based on the model they see in the media. The moral panic depicted by the media fuels further unacceptable behaviour.
In extreme cases moral panic creates mass hysteria within society. The general public start to believe whatever is being reported on is occurring everywhere in society (we get a perceived deviancy amplification).
5 stages of a moral panic…
- SOMETHING OR SOMEONE IS DEFINED AS A THREAT TO VALUES OR INTERESTS
- THIS THREAT IS DEPICTED IN AN EASILY RECOGNISABLE FORM BY THE MEDIA
- THERE IS A RAPID BUILD-UP OF PUBLIC CONCERN
- THERE IS A RESPONSE FROM AUTHORITIES OR OPINION MAKERS
- THE PANIC RECEDES OR RESULTS IN SOCIAL CHANGES
Cohen’s Mods and Rockers…
Stan Cohen’s (1972) first developed the concept of the ‘moral panic’ in his study of the relationship between the media and the Mods and Rockers in the 1960s.
The Mods and Rockers were two working class youth subcultures, the mods famously riding scooters and dressing in smart clothes such as suits, and the rockers riding larger motorbikes and dressing in leathers.
The battle…
These were also two of the first youth subcultures in consumer society, and initially they existed peacefully side by side – they were really just about style and music and the members of each were primarily concerned with having a good time.
However, during one bank holiday weekend in Clacton in 1964, where both mods and rockers visited to party, there were some minor acts of Vandalism and some violence between the two groups, this then led to the media turning up at the next big Bank Holiday weekend in Brighton (also 1964) ‘ready’ to report on any disturbances.
Public fear…
Once again at Brighton there was also some minor vandalism and violence between the mods and rockers, but this time the media were present and produced (according to Cohen) some extremely exaggerated reports about the extent of the violence between the two groups.
This had the effect of generating concern among the general public and the police then responded to this increased public fear and perceived threat to social order by policing future mods and rockers events more heavily and being more likely to arrest youths from either subculture for deviant behaviour (whether violent or not).
How did this affect the Mods and Rockers themselves?…
The exaggerated media reporting not only put young people in jail for minor disruption but potentially worse was that the mods and rockers came to see themselves as opposed to each other, something which hadn’t been the case before the media exaggeration.
Barker and Petley…
Every time a particularly high-profile crime of violence is committed, there are those who blame the effects of the media. The familiar culprits of cinema, television, video and rock music, have now been joined, particularly in the wake of the massacre at Columbine High, by the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Yet, any real evidence that the media do actually have such negative effects remains as elusive as ever and, consequently, the debate about effects frequently ends up as being little more than strident and rhetorical appeals to ‘common sense’.
Critiques of moral panics…
Cohen’s formulation of moral panic theory assumes that the audience are passive, but audiences today are much more active and able to critically evaluate media content, which means moral panics are less likely.
Thornton (1995) found that the media failed to generate a moral panic over rave culture, mainly because youth culture had become mainstream by that point, as had the taking of drugs such as ecstasy.
There are various reasons my ‘panics’ may not occur even if the media exaggerate the deviance of some groups – the media also exaggerate the police’s ability to deal with deviance and exaggerated reporting of deviance is so common these days that people are just desensitized to its effects.
Finally, some concerns which some may call moral panics may be legitimate – such as concerns over child abuse or rising knife crime today.
