Moral panics

Question 1

What happens in a moral panic?

Answer 1

1. The media identifies a group as a folk devil/ threat to societies values
2. The media presents the group in a negative, stereotypical fashion and exaggerates the scale of the problem
3. Moral entrepreneurs condemn the group and its behaviour

Question 2

Mods and Rockers

Answer 2

• Cohen
• Examination of the media’s response to disturbances between 2 groups of w/c teenagers (the mods and the rockers) from 1964-66
• Although the disorder caused by these 2 groups was relatively minor, the media over-reacted completely
• Exaggeration and distortion: extent of violence and damage was over-exaggerated
• Prediction: It was predicted that further conflict and violence would result
• Symbolisation: clothes, bikes, scooters, hair styles were all negatively labelled

Question 3

What does Cohen believe about the size of large-scale modern societies and the media?

Answer 3

Often, most people haven’t had any negative experience with those who have been labelled, so they rely on the media for ‘information’ and ‘facts’

Question 4

Post-war British society

Answer 4

• This was a period in which the newfound affluence, consumerism and hedonism of young people appeared to challenge the values of the older generations who had lived through the hardships of the war

Question 5

How do Functionalists view moral panics?

Answer 5

• As a way of responding to the sense of anomie or normlessness created by change
• By dramatising the threat to society in the form of a folk devil, the media raises the collective consciousness and reasserts social controls when central values are threatened

Question 6

How do Neo-Marxists view moral panics?

Answer 6

They argue that the moral panic over mugging in the British media in the 70’s served to distract attention from the crisis of capitalism, divide the w/c on racial grounds and legitimate a more authoritarian style of rule

Question 7

What are the criticisms of the idea of moral panics?

Answer 7

1. It assumes that the societal reaction is a disproportionate over-reaction
2. Why are the media able to amplify some problems into a panic, but not others?
3. McRobbie and Thornton: moral panics are now routine and have less impact. There is also little consensus about what is deviant

Question 8

Cyber crime

Answer 8

• Wall: 4 categories of cybercrime
  1. Cyber-tresspass: includes hacking and sabotage, spreading viruses…
  2. Cyber-deception and theft: includes identity theft, phishing…
  3. Cyber-pornography: includes porn involving minors…
  4. Cyber-violence: pyschological harm or inciting physical harm