Moral panics and folk devils
" Mauled girl savaged by mans best friend"Each of these headlines from recent New Zealand newspapers is illustrative of an " episode, condition, person or group of persons" that have been defined as a " threat to societal values and interests"-what Stanley Cohen terms a Moral Panic. So how relevant are Moral Panics today? What role does the mass media play in shaping how our society views its youth and youth sub-cultures?This essay will examine not only the essence and meaning of the term Moral Panic but also the importance of the involvement of the media in the process of creating one. Moral Panic was an expression coined by Stanley Cohen in his 1972 book "Folk devils and Moral Panics". Cohen, a Sociology Professor at the University of Essex in the 1960s, developed the concept of Moral Panic as a way to describe the media coverage of the violence that erupted between two rival youth gangs (the Mods and Rockers) and to explain the subsequent societal reaction to that era's youth sub-culture.According to the findings of Cohen, a Moral Panic is a mass media generated movement based on the belief that some individual or group (frequently a youth or minority group or sub-culture) i
The public will persecute perceived folk devils through legislation that is based on these media created stereotypes. Furthermore there is no evidence to suggest this number is rising, in fact statistics support claims that since 1996 " overall crime has fairly consistently fallen and even violent crime has lessened". What began, as a minor incident became, in the eyes of the public, a violent event that would come to be repeated. Yet if we agree with Cohen's theory then we must also accept that laws created out of a Moral Panic are likely to be flawed and based on a distorted truth. But to look at the media reports of our youth sub-cultures it would be hard not to think this was the case. Nevertheless this case was played up by the media and became a symbol of everything that is going wrong with our youth and everything youth sub-cultures are capable of if our social controls are not obeyed. They can then identify victims on which all that is wrong in society may be blamed. One case in point was the severe dog attack on seven-year-old Carolina Anderson in February 2003, which resulted in a media frenzy with headlines such as " Fearful parents on the alert for savage beasts" and " Dog attacks prompt urgent law review". The fatal beating stunned New Zealand. Yet at no point did the media attempt to turn him from villain to victim instead reporting comments such as Children's Commissioner Roger McClay who said " we know all about poverty and violence but not all little boys who suffer those things are killers" or New Zealand First Law and Order spokesperson Ron Mark who said " there is no doubt that Michael Choy's killers were young trouble makers, there is nothing to be gained by treating the killers as the victims". After a Moral Panic society often moves for rapid and often not very well thought out changes to legislation. Since the 1970's when Cohen formed his concept of Moral Panic there has been also been a substantial increase in the quantity of media coverage given to issues that create Moral Panics. These Moral Panics are generally fuelled by exaggerated media reports of social issues. How common place this sensationalism has become in our media is summed up in a statement by the Hon John Tamihere in his 28th October 2003 speech " the impression one gets from reading newspapers and watching the television news is an explosion of youth offending, of young criminals running amok, committing more and more serious offences in greater numbers.
Common topics in this essay:
Moral Panic,
Moral Panics,
Offending Teams,
CYF's Baileys,
Cohen English,
Michael Choy's,
Mods Rockers,
Widgies Bodgies,
John Tamihere,
Anderson February,
moral panic,
moral panics,
folk devils,
youth sub-cultures,
dog attacks,
media coverage,
mods rockers,
mass media,
government agencies,
based distorted truth,
media frenzy,
media latched onto,
influences folk devils,
moral panic society,
concept moral panic,
|
Acceptance Essays
