Moral Panics & Folk Devils Representation of people, events, places, issues.

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Moral Panics & Folk Devils Representation of people, events, places, issues.

Transcript of Moral Panics & Folk Devils Representation of people, events, places, issues.

Page 1: Moral Panics & Folk Devils Representation of people, events, places, issues.

Moral Panics & Folk DevilsRepresentation of people, events, places, issues.

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What are ‘Moral Panics'?

• If we do not take steps to preserve the purity of blood, the Jew will destroy civilisation by poisoning us all.

• (Hitler, 1938)

• Surely if the human race is under threat, it is entirely reasonable to segregate AIDS victims, otherwise the whole of mankind could be engulfed.

• (The Daily Star, 2 December 1988)

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& Folk Devils

• From the Witch Hunts of the Renaissance to the Pokémon Panics of the early 21st century, the media has long been a central part of the sociological phenomenon known as 'Moral Panic'.

• According to Key Concepts in Communication (O'Sullivan, Fiske et al 1983)

• "Moral panics then, are those processes whereby members of a society and culture become 'morally sensitized' to the challenges and menaces posed to 'their' accepted values and ways of life, by the activities of groups defined as deviant. The process underscores the importance of the mass media in providing, maintaining and 'policing' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of, and attitudes towards, social problems."

• Those deviant groups were labelled by Stanley Cohen in 1971/2 as folk devils.

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Moral Panics in the media can formally be broken down into 3 stages• 1. Occurrence and signification• An event occurs and, because of its nature, the media decide it is worthy of

dramatic coverage ("Full Colour Pics of Satanic Abuse Site", "Razorblade Found In Babyfood" etc) and the event is signified as a violent, worrying one.

• 2.Wider social implications (fanning the flames)• Connections are made between one event and the wider malaise of society

as a whole. After the initial event, the life of the story is extended through the contributions of 'expert' opinionmakers, who establish that this one event is just the tip of the iceberg, and that it is part of an overall pattern which constitutes a major social menace ("Child abuse figures on the up" "Safety concerns at babyfood packing plants" etc etc). Thus public attention is focused on the issues

• 3.Social Control• Moral panics seek some sort of resolution and this often comes with a

change in the law, designed to further penalise those established as the threatening deviants at the source of the panic ("New clampdown on devil-worshippers". "Strict New Safety Controls on Babyfood"). This satisfies the public who feel they are empowered politically by the media.

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Mods & Rockers • Cohen goes on to discuss

the way in which the mass media constructs, frames & represents these episodes, or stylises

them, amplifying the nature of the facts and consequently turning them into a national issue, when the matter could have been contained on a local level.

• The Mail, Express & the Sun repeatedly ask for “something to be done”!

Cohen's study originated from his interest in the youth culture and its perceived potential threat to social order. Throughout each era, a group has emerged who 'fits' the criteria, such as the Teddy Boys, Mods and Rockers, Skinheads and Hells Angels. They all become associated with certain types of violence, which in turn also provoke public reaction and emotion, as topics in their own right. Youtube

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Mods & rockers & Moral Panichttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61ks18Bd7I

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ISSUES

•Such issues as football hooliganism, drug abuse, vandalism and political demonstrations, all struck a chord in public opinion, but the impact might not have been on such a large scale, were it not for the part the mass media play in the exposition of the facts.

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Amplification & Repetition

• The 'amplification' which takes place through the media's work serves to appeal to the public so that they agree with ready-made opinions about the course of action to be taken, and these opinions have been found from the members of what Cohen refers to as the 'moral barricade', i.e. bishops, politicians and editors. Combined with the opinions of the 'experts' who are wheeled out to give their diagnosis, they reach an agreement(often legislation) about how to cope with the situation in hand, and the problem either disappears or at least deteriorates.

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The McCarthy Witchunts & the HUAC

• In the post WW2 period, 1945, the new threat to the U.S was seen to be the Soviet union, The USSR

• This marked the beginning of the Cold War.

• McCarthy argued that covert communist messages and propaganda were in Hollywood films

• Many in the film industry were called to testify and name names to save themselves.

• “Have you now or ever been a member of the Communist party...answer the question”

• Many writers, directors & stars were blacklisted, sacked and many never worked again.

• Youtube HUAC• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfKSykTPzA4

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He May Be A Communist! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWeZ5SKXvj8

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Anti-Communist propaganda

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AIDS/HIV The Gay Plague & Homophobia• The media have been involved in

giving false information about several matters, including BSE, E-coli and the AIDS virus and HIV. Indeed several newspapers declared in the early 1980's that HIV could only be contracted and passed on through homosexual activity. This along with the opening statements had an increasingly damaging effect on the gay community

Press reports stated that AIDS was highly infectious. For example, "Cough can spread AIDS, warns Doc" (The Sun), "It's spreading like wildfire" (The Sun), "Kiss of Death" (The Star), "A million will have AIDS in six years" (Daily Mail), "AIDS threat to one in five" (Star), "March of the gay plague" (News of the World). This issue of infectiousness was reinforced by: AIDS Is Everywhere - There was no escaping AIDS - it was reaching into every corner of society. "AIDS on the QE2" (Sun), "AIDS death shock at BBC" (Star), "AIDS: Three British Airways crew die (Sun), "[Government] Minister killed by AIDS (News of the World),

Can you think of any other medical moral panics?

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Child Abuse and Paedophilia

• Easy for newspapers to sensationalise and it is an ongoing tabloid campaign in the UK

• 2005 a man in Manchester, England was killed by knife after being mistakenly accused of child molestation by an insane man in the neighbourhood.

• This resulted in the persucution of Paeditricians

by an angry mob (which had confused the two words) in August 2000

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Wednesday, 30 August, 2000, 19:04 Paediatrician attacks 'ignorant' vandalsThe front door was daubed with yellow paint

• A hospital paediatrician has hit out at vandals who forced her to flee her home after apparently taking her job title to mean she was a paedophile. South African-born Yvette Cloete - a 30-year-old trainee consultant at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, south Wales - said she planned to move home after returning to find the outside of her property daubed with the words "paedo".

• She said she can not rule out the possibility that the paint attack was connected with her job at the hospital.

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Asylum & Immigrationas you can see the Mail & Express are obsessed...

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Immigration Bingo In pairs Tick off the words you find

• Read a Mail or Express story on immigration & identify the words in the bingo chart

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Looking at these examples list which social group is scapegoated by these panics. Work in pairsMoral Panic - Issue

Scapegoat – social group blamed

• AIDS

• Paedophilia

• Child Abuse

• Immigration

• Asylum

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Youth culture has always been the focus of moral panics.

The next slide represents youth subcultures.

In pairs identify the subculture & the decade.

Time 5 mins.

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How well did you do?

•1950;s•1960;s•1970;s•1980;s•1990’s•2000’s

• Rock & roll (Elvis etc Devil’s music)• Teddy boys

• Hippies & drugs, Hells Angels• Mods (and drugs & violence)• Hells angels Drugs & violence)• Punk

• Raver’s, Travellers & Crusties

• Emo’s- Rappers -• Can you identify others?

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The whole War on Drugs Discourse in the media is a moral panic

Teens are represented as both perpetrator.s & victims.

• Did the Moral Panic about Meow Meow lead to legislation?

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“Last night on my television I saw the dirtiest programme..” Mary Whitehouse

• Mary Whitehouse (‘Defender of the public morals’) introduced the term video nasty in 1982, which was then to emerge as a press label within the same year.

•The phrase described an apparent influx of horrific and sickening videos that had arrived in the UK after the 1979 introduction of the VHS to the British market.

The uproar began in May 1982:‘…Sunday Times journalist Peter Chippendale published an article entitled ‘How High Street Horror Is Invading The Home’. “Uncensored horror video cassettes have arrived.

- The newspapers wrote articles to shock and grab readers attention with extremist points of view.

- murderers could use the excuse, and this would lobby press and public.

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Video recordings Act 1984

• When the Mary Whitehouse and The Daily Mail supported Video Recording Act was passed in 1984, it was noted that a survey taken of the general public was less supportive than the press were keen to suggest.

• The full list of banned “nasties” can be found at

•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty#DPP_list

• The editorial then attempted to use its considerable voice to bring about a new ‘tough law’ even going as far as to print four of their own policies, and finishing with:

• ‘The Daily Mail, which has been in the forefront over the years exposing the obscenity of the video nasties, will not rest

until this law is on the Statue book.

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Task

•Can you think of any specific texts that have been the cause of a moral panic?

• In Pairs find examples......................

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The “Facebook” killerTeenagers represented as victimsTechnology moral panic & paedophila

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Stanley Cohen, in his work, Folk Devils and Moral Panics. (1987) •who first coined the term 'moral panics'. He

defined the concept as a sporadic episode which, as it occurs, subjects society to bouts of moral panic, or in other terms, worry about the values and principles which society upholds which may be in jeopardy. He describes its characteristics as "a condition, episode, person or group of persons [who] become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." [Cohen, 1987: 9]

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Task – Pair work – Using class tabloids analyse how a specific moral panic is constructed –

Key terms: Images, cropping & framing, shot type & NVC & dress codes.Anchorage, type of language, rhetoric, emotional, mode of addressRepitition, calls for something to be done

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Althusser was a Marxist thinker, his analysis of ISA’s show how important the media are in conveying the dominant ideological messages. ISA Ideological State apparatus

RSA Repressive State apparatus

• ISAs function primarily by ideology.

• The examples which Althusser provides of ISAs include forms of

• organized religion,• the education system,• family unit, • legal system, • political parties,• trade unions, media

and the arts.

institutions which function to maintain and perpetuate the means of production primarily through violence or the threat of violence.

Unlike ISAs, RSAs derive from the private sector and their influence forms one cumulative force. Examples include the government and the police, the army.

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Task –Apply Althusser Find examples of texts that have been banned or censored.

In pairs

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Gramsci & Hegemony • Gramsci describes two

different modes of social control:

• Coercive control: manifested through direct force or its threat (needed by a state when its degree of hegemonic leadership is low or fractured);

• Consensual control: which arises when individuals voluntarily assimilate the worldview of the dominant group (=hegemonic leadership).

• Gramsci was also a Marxist. He argues that the dominant ideology never ideology is never totally won.

•Hegemony is a theory written by Gramsci in The prison Notebooks .

• Identify HOW the media wins

Hegemonic consent for a specific moral panic.

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Further research • In The LRC – read the Daily mail /Express & Sun/Mirror boxes & identify mora

l panics – please bring to class. • http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-gram.htm• http://imomus.livejournal.com/423638.html with film extracts

• http://froberto.dnsalias.org/shared/Althusserian_Ideology/theory_althusser.html

• http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/mtw9403.html• Aberystwrth – www.aber.ac.uk/media

• Furedi, Frank (1994): 'A Plague of Moral Panics' (Living Marxism issue 73, November 1994). [WWW document] URL http://www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM73/LM73_Franf.html

• http://www.new-diaspora.com/Media/tabloids&AS2.html