Moral Panic Theory
The Social Construction of Reality
• Peter Berger and Thomas
Luckman, 1966
• Knowledge is derived
from and maintained by
social interaction
• The meanings of anything
are the product of human
interpretations and are
not in nature
• Our understandings of
the world are produced
by us, are socially
constructed
Moral Panics
• Stanley Cohen (1972)
Folk Devils and Moral
Panics: The Creation of
the Mods and the
Rockers
• A study of subculture
and the media’s role in
defining social problems
Cohen’s Case Study
• Conflict between Mods
(Modernists) and Rockers,
in Clacton on Easter
Sunday, 1964
• Two groups fought,
resulting in some
vandalism and property
damage
• In the end, 97 arrested
• Followed by events in
Brighton and Margate
Conclusions
• The media's coverage of
the episode was subject
to exaggeration and
distortion of the facts,
giving the impression
the event was more
violent than it actually
was.
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=Ud5vP0Rw
Ny0
The Who’s Quadrophenia
• Record released
October 1973
• Film released 1979
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=DYlSjawXzk
o
Moral Panics
Moral Panic, defined:
“A condition, episode,
person or group of
persons emerges to
become defined as a
threat to societal values
and interests”
The Role of Media
• An 'amplification' takes
place through the
media
• It appeals to the public
so that they concur with
ready-made opinions
about the course of
action to be taken
Actors in the Moral Drama
• Experts, sometimes called
“moral entrepreneurs,”
both inform and are
informed by media
• Politicians and policy
makers
• Law enforcement
• Action groups
• Agents of formal social
control
• http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=YM8t29gD8J8
Social Control
Moral panics function to
support and legitimize
particular kinds of social
control through:
1) Identifying a “social
problem”;
2) Simplifying its cause;
3) Stigmatizing those
involved;
4) Stirring up public
indignation or concern.
The Disaster Analogy: Panic Parallels
• Warning
• Sensitization to cues of
danger
• Coping mechanisms
• Overreactions
• Institutionalization of
the threat
• False alarms
Seven “Stations” of Moral Panic:
Chas Critcher
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
AIDS
Child Abuse
Drug Use
Immigration
Violence in the media
Street Crime
Youth “deviance”
Goode and Ben Yehuda (1994)
Moral Panics:
The Social Construction of Deviance
1. Concern
2. Hostility
3. Consensus
4. Disproportionality
5. Volatility
Concern
• Concern mobilized
• Becomes a subject for news
media focus
• Can generate anxiety, but not
always accompanied by fear
• http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=AvIyypo9VQk&feature=f
vst
• http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=AvIyypo9VQk&feature=f
vst
Hostility
•
•
•
•
Us versus Them
Good versus Evil
Morality play
Folk devils (villains) and
folk heroes
• Hostility to others
expressed in
stereotypes
Consensus
Fairly widespread
recognition that a social
problem exists
It need not include
everyone, but enough to
convey a general sense of
concern
Consensus can be built.
• http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=OiYqFXmVAFg
Disproportion
• Miscalculation or
overestimation of the size
of the problem, including
the number of people
involved
• Fabrication of figures
• Rumours or urban
legends
• http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=UTdmr5_tbfY
Volatility
• Moral panics appear
suddenly and can
disappear just as
quickly
• CBC report on
Dungeons & Dragons,
1980s
• http://archives.cbc.ca/li
festyle/leisure/clips/172
84/
Overlapping domains
• Deviance (to which we
can add constructions
of norms and
normalization)
• Social problems
• Collective behaviours
• Social movements
Three Theories of the Origins of Moral
Panics:
• Marxist Theory
• Moral Panics serve the
interests of the elite,
who benefit from them
in some way.
The Grassroots Theory
• Moral Panics begin in
and emerge out of the
people.
• Moral panics are
populist, they reflect
the anxieties and fears
of the people.
Interest- Group Theory
• Interest-groups, which
reflect the middle level
of power and are not to
be confused with the
elite, have their own
agendas, including
maximizing their own
ideology and morality
or seeking material or
status advantages
Ideology and Hegemony?
• Goode and Ben Yehuda
suggest that moral panics
need not be “ideological,”
while others suggest that
they are always
ideological.
• How should we conceive
of ideology and
hegemony as they are
expressed in Moral
Panics?
Case Study: Comic Books
• Frederic Wertham,
Seduction of the
Innocent, 1954
• Call for a Comic Code
Authority
• http://www.comicartville.
com/comicscode.htm
• http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=xr62iKBwQTM
Erving Goffman (1974) Framing Theory
• The ways that stories are
framed influences the
meaning they will have
• Definitions of a situation
are constructed in
accordance with
principles of organization
which govern events and
our subjective
involvement in them
Frames Defined
• Frames are cognitive
structures which guide
perception and
representations of reality
• They structure which
parts of reality get
noticed
• They are not necessarily
consciously manufactured
and are often
unconsciously adopted
Todd Gitlin’s (1980) definition
• “Frames are principles
of selection, emphasis
and presentation
composed of little tacit
theories about what
exists, what happens,
and what matters.”
• In sort, frames structure
our attention
Media Effects
• What effects does our
consumption of media
have on our
understandings of the
world?
Cultivation Theory – George Gerbner
• TV viewing has
quantitatively
observable effects on
the perceptual worlds
of audiences
• Watching violence on
TV creates an
exaggerated belief that
the world is violent or,
in his words, “mean and
scary”
The Hypodermic Model
• Also known as the
“Magic Bullet theory”
• The passive audience is
injected with ideas
about the world by
media
Agenda Setting Theory
McComb and Shaw
• The agenda of the media
and the public agenda are
closely matched
• The media’s agenda setting
function means that there is
a high correlation between
media and the public
ordering of priorities
• People are more likely to
attribute importance to an
event, issue, or idea
because of media exposure
Moral Panics Vs ....
How Risk is Defined in MPs:
• Risk found in people
• Risks are time limited and
infinitely substitutable
• Risks lead to scapegoating
• Risks are created by
media
• Moral outrage is the
outcome
• Moral panics can create a
culture of fear
...Vs Risk Society
Risk Defined in Risk Society:
• Risk found in our
environments
• Risks are not bound to
space and time
• Risks are defined not for
purposes of blame but for
purposes of increased
control
• Risks are created by
science and knowledge
• Moral imperatives to risk
aversion are the outcome
• Risk knowledges can
create a culture of fear
• What gets defined as a
panic and what not
depends on who is
doing the defining.
• Political agendas and
selectivity
• Pedagogies of fear
Technical explanations:
• Media amplification or
attenuation of risk
• Most people get
information by way of
media
• Fear sells
Social explanations:
• Change is experienced as
risk
• Concern about the future
• Impossibility of knowing
• Diminished humanity
• Reconciling limits
• All collect under the
umbrella of the last
theme: Diminished sense
of control