MORAL PANIC & THE MEDIATHE RISE OF NEW MEDIA, AND IN PARTICULAR SOCIAL MEDIA, IS MAKING IT EASIER TO CREATE MORAL PANICS. IS THIS TAINTING THE PUBLICS VIEWS ON WORLD ISSUES?

HISTORY AND ORIGINS OF MORAL PANIC

• MORAL PANIC: “…a condition, episode, person or group of persons that emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests” - Cohen (1972).

• FOLK DEVILS: “a person or group of people who are portrayed in folklore or the media as outsiders and deviants, and who are blamed for crimes or other sorts of social problems. The pursuit of folk devils frequently intensifies into a mass movement that is called a moral panic”. – Cohen (1972).

• DISTINCT CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL PANIC:

1. Concern

2. Hostility

3. Consensus

4. Disproportionality

5. Volatility

MORAL PANICS WITHIN THE MEDIA

• A SHORT HISTORY OF MORAL PANICS:

- 1970s – War on Drugs (d.)

- 1980s – AIDS (a.)

- 1990s – Satanic Ritual Abuse/Dungeons and Dragons (c&b.)

- 2000s – Human Trafficking

a. b.

c. d.

SOCIAL IDENTITY GROUPS AND MORAL PANICS

• 7 groups of social identity which moral panics belong to:

1. Young, working class, violent males

2. School Violence and Guns/Bullying

3. Drugs and Drug dealers

4. Child abuse, satanic rituals & pedophile registers

5. Violence and sex in the media

6. Welfare cheats and single mothers

7. Refugees and Asylum seekers.

NEW MEDIAS INFLUENCE ON MORAL PANICS

• “As the cyber community of Facebook grows and becomes further integrated into our daily lives, alongside this grows the threat to our familiar ways of living”. Loizov (Internet journal of criminology)

MORAL PANIC: ‘HOODIE’/YOUTH CULTURE

MORAL PANIC: EU REFUGEE CRISIS

MORAL PANIC: POST 9/11 MUSLIM FEAR

HOW THE RISE IN MORAL PANIC CASES IS AFFECTING THE PUBLIC

CRITICISM ON MORAL PANIC

The term PANIC suggest irrationality and lack of control. Cohen (2012).

DISPROPORIONALITY: It is impossible to measure the appropriate reaction to a certain action. Thibodeaux (2014).

The mass media has evolved since moral panics were introduced and therefore what we define as panics should be revised. McRobbie, Thronton ().

Research into moral panic fails to approach the term critically, and moral panic is just accepted at face value. Jewkes ().

Moral panic is a fabrication of irrational middle class anxieties created to defend the fear of the working class ‘mobs’. Thompson, Williams ().

MORAL PANICS CREATING A CORRUPTED SOCIETY?

POSITIVE

• Modern day society is a lot more prepared for possible dangers.

“TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS, LIKE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGES CAN BE VIEWED POSITIVELY, AS INCREASING OPPURTUNITIES, OR NEGATIVELY, AS A SOURCE OF INCREASED RISK.”

NEGATIVE

• The public are living in a constant state of fear and anxiety due to exaggerated moral panics.

• The public become more prejudice, i.e Islam fear, youth fear etc…

CONCLUSION

Media creates moral panics for own agenda and new media has only increased the amount of mediums that can be used to create these scare mongering stories.

Receiving and sharing these moral panics are reactions to them online makes it easy for the public to be more judgmental than if they were having a real life debate. New media has made it easier for hatred toward certain social groups acceptable.

The way these stories are presented to us most often mask the truth of the situation, with my project I wish to show the moral panic the public are presented with, and then show the truth about the social situation highlighted. I will attempt to do this through a series of edited pictures accompanied by animated newspaper headlines.

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