Wikipedia defines the concept of social order as “a concept used in sociology, history, and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce normal ways of relating and behaving”1.
Social order is threatened by its opposite, disorderly behavior. Among the many definitions to be found on the internet, the most common one is the following: “Any act of molesting, interrupting, hindering, agitating, or arousing from a state of repose or otherwise depriving inhabitants of the peace and quiet to which they are entitled”2.
But is disorderly behavior something which exists irrespective of a social construction? Is it a real element of social disruption, regardless of the type of society we may be analising? Or is it often no more than a false perception inoculated by the media in the minds of individuals who feel their social wellbeing is jeopardised by harmless phenomenon they are simply not willing to understand? In this essay I will try to find, through the theories of Stanley Cohen and Stuart Hall, the answer to this question.
Stanley Cohen coined the term of Moral Panic in 1972. It is defined as “an issue that appears to threat the social …show more content…
The media sends this message to a population who accepts it, and in doing so social prejudices are accentuated and preserved. These prejudices can often lead to social policies taking one direction or another, and to legislations that may target the very groups that the media depicts as threatening. The role of the media, in both cases, is by no means harmless because in its most radical consequence it can greatly influence the future of a social group, or of the individuals who form