Assess Sociological Explanations Of The

Assess sociological explanations of the role of the mass media in creating moral panics about crime and deviance (21 marks)
There are many sociological explanations about the role of the mass media in creating moral panics about crime and deviance for example the mass media can create moral panics in many ways like imitation, arousal, desensitisation and target of crime.
According to item A ‘the news media are one of our main sources of knowledge about crime and deviance’. This means that the information that we allowed to take in is the information that someone else has chosen, so if the newspapers focus on one thing more than another there will be more of a chance that there will be a moral panic over this thing for example if the newspapers focused more on muggings in the street than pick picketers people would be more scared of the muggings as would be seen as something which is more common creating a moral panic.
Stan Cohen also agrees with this as he believes that the media plays a crucial role in social construction of crime and deviance because distorting and exaggeration by the media create a public reaction, thus leading to the public labelling of certain groups. Therefore if a certain group is labelled in a negative way people are more likely to be scared of the group for example black gangs are targeted in the news and information can be exaggerated so that maybe a group of 3 or 4 black boys walking down the street would be seen as dangerous and therefore maybe targeted by the police whereas if it was a group of three or four white boys people would be less panicked as there is no labels attached to them.
Research conducted by Schlesinger and Tumbler found that tabloid readers and heavy users of TV expressed a greater fear of going out at night and becoming victims. This is an example of exaggeration as it is not likely that every single time that you leave the house at night you are going to become a victim, however it is the fact that the media focuses on these specific things which then causes a moral panic against crimes like this when in fact these crimes actually occur a lot less however when they do occur they come to the attention of the media thus scaring people.
However, some sociologists would say that these crimes need do need to be reported to make people more aware and that the media does not only report this to make people scared or cause a moral panic, for example if people just went outside un prepared at night then anything could happen whereas if they had read something which makes them even more aware they would be able to protect themselves. They also argue that the crimes are only reported as often as they occur and if they do come across as terrifying it is because they are.
Another way in which the mass media can create moral panic is through imitation. This is when the media will display one act and other people will copy it for example the riots which took place in England 2012. This was originally in one part of the country but as it was announced in the news more people from different areas joined in and started setting fire to shops and stealing things from store. This then creates moral panic as the fear if these people coming near you and starting to set fire to your store or steal from you increases as this act is not just in one place anymore but in multiple.
However some sociologists would say this is down to the upbringing of a child as they say that if a child has been brought up to do good deeds only then no matter what happens they will stick to their morals whereas if a child was brought up in a broken home they are more likely to use this as an excuse to do things they know they are not supposed to be. Also, some sociologists have a similar view to the government which is that it is down to the parents of the children to know where the child is at all times and when they have new things as well as they believe it is down to socialisation and if these children were socialised properly then these problems wouldn’t have occurred and there would be no moral panic.
Also, another way would be through arousal. This is when violent imagery is viewed. The more violent the image the more moral panic is will create for example if there is someone’s leg covered in blood due to attacks it was cause more cautious then if someone was scratched during an attack but everything depends on what the news allows us to view and all the different perceptions and opinions would be shaped because of the images that are shown to us through the media
However some sociologists would say that these articles fail to appreciate violence which was cause by a variety of factors for example poor socialisation, bad parenting, peer group influences, mental illness and drugs and alcohol as the media does not show the meaning behind the actual picture and how these pictures could be cause by different things and therefore we need to take this different factors into account before we panic about anything.
To conclude, there are many sociological explanations of the role of the mass media in creating moral panics about crime and deviance and each explanation is backed up with a different piece of evidence but at the same time something that goes against it.
By Anisa Kosar