Moral Panic Notes
Moral Panic - Abstract concept used to make sense of "Irrational public hysteria" - it is unsure where it comes from or when it started, an example of a Moral Panic would be paedophilia.
- a public and academic debate on moral panic works on the assumptions that the media plays a significant role in determining the characteristics of a moral panic.
- It signifies complex processes that shape public perceptions of a perceived threat to the moral code of society.
Processual Model (Stanley Cohen article)
- Attends to process, argues there is an actual process to moral panics
7 different stages
emergence - when a form of behaviour becomes perceived as a threat
media inventory - explanation of threat is manipulated by media
moral entrepreneurs - groups or organisations speak out and offer solutions
coping and resolution - reactions of media, moral entrepreneurs and experts reads to legal reform
fading away - the condition disappears, submerges or deterines and becomes more visible
legacy - a moral panic has a long term effect and creates big changes policy, the law or society's views of itself.
Attribution Model - (Eric Goode and Nachman Ben article)
- "moral panics: the social construction of deviance"
- Claims those working in the media, political institutions and the legal system have an impact on moral panics trough "claims making"
- 5 elements or criteria distinguishing attributes to moral panics
1 Concern - a heightened level of concern, measured through opinion poll etc
2 Hostility - Increased hostility to a group or category - seen as 'enemy' to 'respectable society'
3 Consensus - a substational segman and and society agrees that the Moral Panic is real and caused by the 'wrongdooers'
4 Disproportionality - the reaction by the public is out of proportion to the actual harm
5 Volatility - the idea that the moral panics an volatile by nature, erupt quickly but also often subside quietly, each episode cannot be sustained for long
Here I have written some notes on different moral panics we have been studying and noted different areas of the processual and attribution model which could be related.
Moral Panic - Case Studies
"Video Nasties"
- First Introduced in the early 1980s, was a term used to describe violent content (emergence)
- Term used by religious organisations - Mary Whitehouse (moral entrepreneurs)
- 'Video Recordings act' 1984, provided tighter restrictions in video content
- was down to individuals who accused some films as "video nasties" (Coping and resolution)
- "video nasties" was blamed for the increase in violent crime, became a scapegoat for all areas of social ills. (Media inventory)
"Paedophilia"
- There was a big shift between 'Child Molesters' and 'paedophiles' - paedophiles were seen as organised (emergence) (media inventory)
- there was more of a rise in stories about paedophiles then there was in the crime itself
- the stories in he media and the whole moral panic could undermine the seriousness of paedophilia (media inventory)
- more precautions were taken in social care and paedophilia was cracked down on much harder (Coping and resolutions) (legacy)
- stories around paedophilia are still popular in the media and is still seen as a 'scare' (legacy)
