Moral Panic! ISSUE 1
EDITED BY EYLIA HIZAM
Can the world be more accurately informed of issues instead of heavily relying on mass media leading to unwise decision making for themselves? This new and latest issue of Moral Panic! will introduce the most colourful way possible the theory of moral panic based on Stanley Cohen’s study of the moral panic and Goode & Yehuda’s criterion for what makes a moral panic. With moral panic having been a concept that explains the actions and consequences of individuals, the examples of the ancient and contemporary world will aid in understanding the concepts through a world’s eye view. As the examples revolve around the different forms of media, the effects of a moral panic are evident through the outcomes of a panic on the basis of art, immigration and law. Hence, this issue of Moral Panic! will cover the fundamentals of what constitutes a moral panic. xx
I. Editor’s note II. III. IV. V.
Moral‌ what? Role of media Immigration, war & moral panic Art & moral panic
VI. Reference list
The book Folk Devils & Moral Panics (1972) by Stanley Cohen is a study of Mods and Rockers in the 1960s, investigating the inner workings of subcultural groups and explaining the concept of a ‘moral panic’ which is produced by mass media.
In the wider context of post-war British society, Cohen puts example of mods and rockers to illustrate how moral panic occurs at times of social change. Cohen’s use of the folk devil created by the media brings about a focus to popular anxiety, symbolising a certain social disorder that he observed in the society.
Stanley Cohen, a sociologist, used the term moral panic as a concept to examine the enmity toward hooliganism of a social group in 1960s Britain. He focused on the social construction of non-conformity in public and media discourse during that period. In situations of a moral panic, people associated with hooliganism were deemed as a threat to the social order of society.
In the context of Cohen’s study, media’s representation of events relating to mods and rockers have led to an irrational fear of the social groups. Hence, the more the media defined these groups and their subcultural styles, more youths would have had actually adopted these styles. This might seem counter-intuitive in the perspective of the authorities and of those policing the social order in a society against the ‘folk devil’, but the emergence of media its method of representation through news articles has brought to light the sociocultural changes that happened in Britain during the 1960s.
The elements in the concept of moral panic does include that of concern, hostility, consensus, volatility and disproportionality (Goode & Yehuda 2009). These elements are crucial in determining a moral panic s a moral panic may be similar to merely a response of a society or its constitution.
and knowledge (Lazarsfeld & Merton, 1948). The repetition of events throughout the different forms of media signifies how influential the media is towards the public, forming a collective understanding of its importance (Perse, 2001).
Its functions and effects
Societal standards
The common knowledge of media is that the fundamental purpose of media coverage, according to the functionalist point of view, is to be a provider of surveillance. Mass communication contributes a heavy-handed role of feeding individuals in complex societies the knowledge needed for them to function. Hence, taking into account the particular effects of mass media is necessary in exploring the role of media within the concept of a moral panic (McCombs & Shaw, 1972).
How often do we see someone going against the grain? Exactly, not always. Society depends on transmission of media in shaping the customs and beliefs that individuals in society conform to. Hence through media, society understands the importance of societal norms as it would have been enforced in the public eye (Perse, 2001) through different mediums.
Status Media especially through news coverages or reports during specific events, reinforce the status and positions of individuals due to their significance deserving of the public gaze
Unexpected outcomes As many news agencies continue to flourish today, the need for attention is enhanced, encouraging reporters to sensationalise news coverages. Such attention-grabbing media reporting may only bring about a turn of events that stray from media’s initial aim - increasing the numbers of unconformity through deviance instead of actually preventing it (Wilkins 1964).
Make haste, lose face The concept of moral panic does bring to light the reactions of not only the people but that of the legislature as well. When the foundation of a society falls into a social hysteria, the authorities would do whatever it takes to quell the media and political storm. This may result in addressing a situation fabricated by the media with a great deal of peripheral detail instead of focusing on the causal factor of such panics (Goode & Yehuda 2009).
The Burqa Affair The burqa was a style that did not exist in the minds of most Westerners in the late 90s. There was no mention of such until the 9/11 event that occurred in 2001, indicating the start of a new era of conflicts in Afghanistan (Hughes, Petley & Rohloff 2013).
Media representation According to data from experts (Hughes, Petley & Rohloff 2013), the escalating conflicts in Afghanistan resulted in a spike of articles mentioning it hence the increased mentions of burqas as well. The volatility of the issue was evident when it vanished from the media and the public eye soon after until 2009 when the parliament re-opened the investigation. As the media continued to mention the Muslim women’s appearances, the implications, mental and social construction of them would be made in a negative light. This would then make such perceptions affect the behaviour of society towards them, according to Cohen (1972), a process called ‘sensitisation’.
Stereotype & disproportionality The mayor, Mr. Gerin also conformed to the stereotype and declined marrying a couple due to the woman’s practice of donning a burqa. The media’s role in hyping the issue through misrepresentation of the Muslim women as well as the constitutional processes to acknowledge it can be seen as disproportionate in the context of France and her domestic challenges (Hughes, Petley & Rohloff 2013).
Moral panic With the passing of the law banning religious symbols through appearances, it had also banned masks in the public (Hughes, Petley & Rohloff 2013). This is especially in relation to the burqa or the niqab in which Muslim women had become the main attention of such panics.
Art porn? Michelangelo’s controversial Last Judgement sits on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, in Vatican City, entertaining the eyes of thousands compensating for the deafening silence one can only imagine in a grand archaic chapel. The 16th century clerical elite in Italy, especially Pope Paul IV and Gregory XIII were supportive of putting away the painting for the nudity (Preston 2005) and obscenity through the depictions of bare-skinned individuals and characters from Dante’s Inferno (Patridge 1996). There was widespread concern amongst the popes as Michelangelo’s illustration did not align with the fundamental teachings of the Church (Preston 2005). As the clerical elite were intolerant of sacrilegious acts, the wave of moral panic settled in pushing the popes to fix the seemingly obscene, adding loincloths to bared bodied figures wherever appropriate by Daniele da Volterra (Patridge 1996). Although one can argue how representatives of the Church should not condone sacrilege, other chapels with the same painting were completely indifferent to its emphasis on nudity in some scenes (Preston 2005).
Reference List Cohen, S 1987, Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers, Routedge, New York. Goode, E & Ben-Yehuda, Nachman 2009, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, United Kingdom. McCombs, M. E. & Shaw, D. L. 1972, The agenda-setting function of mass media, Public Opinion Quarterly, Oxford. Perse, E 2001, Mrdia Effects ad Society, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey. Wilkins, L. 1964, Social Deviance: Social Policy, Action and Research, Tavistock, London. Lazarsfeld, P. F. & Merton, R. K. 1948, Mass communication, popular taste and organised social action, New York University Press, New York. Hughes, J, Petley, J & Rohloff, A 2013, Moral panics in the contemporary world, Bloomsbury, New York.