The Connection Between Media And Moral Panics
Introduction
Moral panic is an intense feeling that is expressed by a group or an individual when an issue is perceived to be of threat to the current social order. The moral panics are the controversies that increase social tension and arguments among the people and it often becomes difficult to disagree with them, as taboo is at its center. Media played role of agents to moral indignation, even when there was no one consciously involved in muckraking or crusading. Revealing of facts are often enough to develop anxiety, panic or concern among the people. The persecutions of groups or individuals such as Stalinist purges and Reign of Terror are often included in moral panics (Rohloff & Wright, 2010). Several Muslim activists groups have recently …show more content…
demonstrated distress due to the claims made through some actions of the western countries against the Arabs and Muslims following the 9/11 attacks, and this has raised moral panic among the Muslim countries. Some of the sociologists have considered such responses to those attacks as a kind of moral panic.
Discussion & Analysis
Some sociologists have defined moral panic as an event that is often triggered by distressing media stories and it is also reinforced by public policy and reactive laws of misdirected or exaggerated public fear, anger, anxiety or concern over an apparent threat to the social order (Weisberg, 2012).
The role media is playing in the society and how it is affecting communities and individuals is important to investigate. Crime and criminality have a strong connection between moral panics, as moral panics are dependent on them. Criminals are the main key persons, who try to create moral panics, as it helps them in shifting the focus of the society from them to those who are innocent (Goode & Ben, …show more content…
2010).
Moral panic has several differentiated characteristics such as concern, consensus, volatility, disproportionality, and hostility. All these characteristics can have crucial consequences on the wellbeing of the people living in the society. The characteristic hostility, increases toward the questionable group, and the group in question become a “folk devils”. The second characteristic concern implies that there must be a subjective awareness or belief from the dominant group that the group in question is likely to have a negative impact on society (Ungar, 2011). Disproportionality, the third characteristic of moral panic is synonymous with exaggeration, is the action taken by the dominant group to exaggerate the threat the questionable group poses. Consensus, the fourth characteristic, is the significance of the dominant group agreeing to be vocal in making the questionable group seems disorganized, dangerous, and illegitimate. The fifth and last characteristic is volatility that refers to the nature of moral panic and how it has a tendency to dissipate in public interest or the media varying topics.
Moral panic offers a framework for how dominant groups through the media can represent, intensify, or create a state of panic among the people living in the society over a questionable group (like Muslims after 9/11 attacks). The irony of moral panic over the questionable group is that the attention gained from the principal group could increase the power of questionable group. The civil rights movement that began in the 1950s and peaked in the 1960s is important to examine because of the tension between a dominant group and a group that sought to overthrow the established social order, which is a moral panic in other words (Weisberg, 2012).
The civil rights movement along with the public outcry over the Vietnam War led to a national situation of chaos. Nowadays, media takes part in naming practices to demean and help quell political-cultural uprisings that seek to overthrow a perceived system of oppression and moral panic or social inequality. Moral panics revolve around a perceived threat as a standard value to a society, which is normally stimulated by glorification in the media or other popular legend in the societies (Best, 2011). Moral panics have several distinctive kinds, such as medical panics, crime panics, political panics, media panics, sexual panics, and religious panics. All these kinds of moral panics have several kinds. The main reason behind all these kinds of moral panics is to encourage criminal activities in the society and make the people of the society fearful and stressed. Moral panics supposedly concentrate on issues created by bounded social minorities, and these panics are generated to fight against intra-social circumstances and mechanisms of social control. When the major goal of life is money and the dominant idea is earning from an unregulated market economy, the chances of moral panics improve and these are used a way to achieve those goal. Examples of Moral Panic
Following are the examples of moral panic that were observed in the past decades and are still found in our societies.
1. Human Trafficking
There are several psychological facets that become the strongest reasons behind human trafficking in both cases as a victim or perpetrator. Some of the psychological facets are specific to victims, such as the presentation of Stockholm syndrome, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Ritual Abuse Torture (RAT) throughout and after the trafficking ordeal. Other psychological triggers that can be applied to both perpetrator and victim are the lack of primary care support, and problems related to the social environment and education, issues related to economic status and occupation, and continuous interactions with the rigid or biased legal system (Klocke & Muschert, 2010).
Several critics have highlighted the fact that the current human trafficking activities observed in the society is linked with prostitution and other kinds of sexual acts, which is a characteristic of moral panic i.e. concern. According to Abraham Maslow, people are motivated to fulfill their basic needs before moving onto other advanced needs which are important in shaping an individual’s experience, awareness, perception, response, and outlook in life. The immoral path is often selected by individuals to fulfill their needs, which they were found unable to fulfill through ethical way. Human trafficking can be traced back to ancient Roman and Greek times, where after land conquests the constituents were taken as slaves and forced to work in agriculture or as domestic servants
2. Increase in Criminal Activities
The fear or terror of increase in criminal activities often becomes a cause of moral panics. Even though the crime rates are declining but the moral panic developed by various cultures and societies does not allow us believe in it. There are populations which are trapped in herd mentality, these populations believe in things that are accepted by larger number of people even though they do not have any proof for validation (Weisberg, 2012).
3. Satanic ritual abuse
Satanic ritual abuse was originated in the United States and was passed on to other western countries in the 80s and 90s era, this was one of the most critical series of moral panics. There have been several instances of moral panics in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1990s and 2000s, related to informal uses of the term “pedophilia”, which refers to those unusual criminal activities such as high profile cases related to abduction of child (Best, 2011). A moral panic is a reaction of a group of people based on the exaggerated or false perception of some cultural behavior or group, mostly a minority group or a sub-culture, which is dangerously deviant and poses a threat to society.
4. Abortion
A medical procedure in which the fetus or embryo is removed from the womb to stop a pregnancy is known as abortion. It is a procedure that causes medical panic, which is also an essential kind of moral panics. The groups that do not wish to have girl child are the ones, who have adopted this medical panic, which is a crime and unethical practice (Goode & Ben, 2010). Due to awareness people have become more conscious about committing such immoral activities, as strict charges are imposed on those people who are found involved in this moral panic.
Conclusion
Changes in the laws and its enforcement are the main consequences of moral panics. Normally, panics occur in part, as they accomplish a function of confirming the moral values of a society. The moral panics are growing with the passage of time and will continue to develop the deviants, on which it condemns. Social movements are the most influential acts made by a group of people based on organized expressions of reaction to an imagined or real social condition. The movements, protests and demonstrations are used in appeal to gain access to media and to public opinion. Media is more often considered as a passive vehicle for claims making of others and sometimes it plays an active role in spreading of moral panics. Moral panic fades away when the public and media lose interest.
AIDS, child abuse, drugs, immigration, media violence, street crime, and youth deviance in general are some of the areas in which moral panics have played huge role. Global warming, overpopulation, war and Health dangers from obesity, cigarette smoking, and trans-fat acids are not examples of moral panics. Moral panics need to be controlled and should be closely monitored in order to make the society a better place to live in. References
Best, J.
(2011). Locating moral panics within the sociology of social problems. Moral panic and the politics of anxiety, 502-510.
Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (2010). Moral panics: The social construction of deviance. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SbY2Mksi1kcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=moral+panic+and+crimes&ots=KKV4MO7gh_&sig=yyoEZ9QhI1lqnNIP_-o1dGRZNjQ
Klocke, B. V., & Muschert, G. W. (2010). A hybrid model of moral panics: synthesizing the theory and practice of moral panic research. Sociology Compass, 4(5), 295-309.
Rohloff, A., & Wright, S. (2010). Moral Panic and Social Theory Beyond the Heuristic. Current Sociology, 58(3), 403-419. Retrieved from: http://dspace.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/5573/2/Fulltext.pdf
Ungar, S. (2011). The Artful Creation of Global Moral Panic. Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety, 190. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HLyTgaErBZ8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA190&dq=moral+panic&ots=zraHoPMCJo&sig=n-JI4OVnAYrBdTA0AdBI4un7xE0
Weisberg, R. (2012). Crime and Law: An American Tragedy. Harv. L. Rev., 125,
1425-2201.
Moral panic is an intense feeling that is expressed by a group or an individual when an issue is perceived to be of threat to the current social order. The moral panics are the controversies that increase social tension and arguments among the people and it often becomes difficult to disagree with them, as taboo is at its center. Media played role of agents to moral indignation, even when there was no one consciously involved in muckraking or crusading. Revealing of facts are often enough to develop anxiety, panic or concern among the people. The persecutions of groups or individuals such as Stalinist purges and Reign of Terror are often included in moral panics (Rohloff & Wright, 2010). Several Muslim activists groups have recently …show more content…
demonstrated distress due to the claims made through some actions of the western countries against the Arabs and Muslims following the 9/11 attacks, and this has raised moral panic among the Muslim countries. Some of the sociologists have considered such responses to those attacks as a kind of moral panic.
Discussion & Analysis
Some sociologists have defined moral panic as an event that is often triggered by distressing media stories and it is also reinforced by public policy and reactive laws of misdirected or exaggerated public fear, anger, anxiety or concern over an apparent threat to the social order (Weisberg, 2012).
The role media is playing in the society and how it is affecting communities and individuals is important to investigate. Crime and criminality have a strong connection between moral panics, as moral panics are dependent on them. Criminals are the main key persons, who try to create moral panics, as it helps them in shifting the focus of the society from them to those who are innocent (Goode & Ben, …show more content…
2010).
Moral panic has several differentiated characteristics such as concern, consensus, volatility, disproportionality, and hostility. All these characteristics can have crucial consequences on the wellbeing of the people living in the society. The characteristic hostility, increases toward the questionable group, and the group in question become a “folk devils”. The second characteristic concern implies that there must be a subjective awareness or belief from the dominant group that the group in question is likely to have a negative impact on society (Ungar, 2011). Disproportionality, the third characteristic of moral panic is synonymous with exaggeration, is the action taken by the dominant group to exaggerate the threat the questionable group poses. Consensus, the fourth characteristic, is the significance of the dominant group agreeing to be vocal in making the questionable group seems disorganized, dangerous, and illegitimate. The fifth and last characteristic is volatility that refers to the nature of moral panic and how it has a tendency to dissipate in public interest or the media varying topics.
Moral panic offers a framework for how dominant groups through the media can represent, intensify, or create a state of panic among the people living in the society over a questionable group (like Muslims after 9/11 attacks). The irony of moral panic over the questionable group is that the attention gained from the principal group could increase the power of questionable group. The civil rights movement that began in the 1950s and peaked in the 1960s is important to examine because of the tension between a dominant group and a group that sought to overthrow the established social order, which is a moral panic in other words (Weisberg, 2012).
The civil rights movement along with the public outcry over the Vietnam War led to a national situation of chaos. Nowadays, media takes part in naming practices to demean and help quell political-cultural uprisings that seek to overthrow a perceived system of oppression and moral panic or social inequality. Moral panics revolve around a perceived threat as a standard value to a society, which is normally stimulated by glorification in the media or other popular legend in the societies (Best, 2011). Moral panics have several distinctive kinds, such as medical panics, crime panics, political panics, media panics, sexual panics, and religious panics. All these kinds of moral panics have several kinds. The main reason behind all these kinds of moral panics is to encourage criminal activities in the society and make the people of the society fearful and stressed. Moral panics supposedly concentrate on issues created by bounded social minorities, and these panics are generated to fight against intra-social circumstances and mechanisms of social control. When the major goal of life is money and the dominant idea is earning from an unregulated market economy, the chances of moral panics improve and these are used a way to achieve those goal. Examples of Moral Panic
Following are the examples of moral panic that were observed in the past decades and are still found in our societies.
1. Human Trafficking
There are several psychological facets that become the strongest reasons behind human trafficking in both cases as a victim or perpetrator. Some of the psychological facets are specific to victims, such as the presentation of Stockholm syndrome, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Ritual Abuse Torture (RAT) throughout and after the trafficking ordeal. Other psychological triggers that can be applied to both perpetrator and victim are the lack of primary care support, and problems related to the social environment and education, issues related to economic status and occupation, and continuous interactions with the rigid or biased legal system (Klocke & Muschert, 2010).
Several critics have highlighted the fact that the current human trafficking activities observed in the society is linked with prostitution and other kinds of sexual acts, which is a characteristic of moral panic i.e. concern. According to Abraham Maslow, people are motivated to fulfill their basic needs before moving onto other advanced needs which are important in shaping an individual’s experience, awareness, perception, response, and outlook in life. The immoral path is often selected by individuals to fulfill their needs, which they were found unable to fulfill through ethical way. Human trafficking can be traced back to ancient Roman and Greek times, where after land conquests the constituents were taken as slaves and forced to work in agriculture or as domestic servants
2. Increase in Criminal Activities
The fear or terror of increase in criminal activities often becomes a cause of moral panics. Even though the crime rates are declining but the moral panic developed by various cultures and societies does not allow us believe in it. There are populations which are trapped in herd mentality, these populations believe in things that are accepted by larger number of people even though they do not have any proof for validation (Weisberg, 2012).
3. Satanic ritual abuse
Satanic ritual abuse was originated in the United States and was passed on to other western countries in the 80s and 90s era, this was one of the most critical series of moral panics. There have been several instances of moral panics in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1990s and 2000s, related to informal uses of the term “pedophilia”, which refers to those unusual criminal activities such as high profile cases related to abduction of child (Best, 2011). A moral panic is a reaction of a group of people based on the exaggerated or false perception of some cultural behavior or group, mostly a minority group or a sub-culture, which is dangerously deviant and poses a threat to society.
4. Abortion
A medical procedure in which the fetus or embryo is removed from the womb to stop a pregnancy is known as abortion. It is a procedure that causes medical panic, which is also an essential kind of moral panics. The groups that do not wish to have girl child are the ones, who have adopted this medical panic, which is a crime and unethical practice (Goode & Ben, 2010). Due to awareness people have become more conscious about committing such immoral activities, as strict charges are imposed on those people who are found involved in this moral panic.
Conclusion
Changes in the laws and its enforcement are the main consequences of moral panics. Normally, panics occur in part, as they accomplish a function of confirming the moral values of a society. The moral panics are growing with the passage of time and will continue to develop the deviants, on which it condemns. Social movements are the most influential acts made by a group of people based on organized expressions of reaction to an imagined or real social condition. The movements, protests and demonstrations are used in appeal to gain access to media and to public opinion. Media is more often considered as a passive vehicle for claims making of others and sometimes it plays an active role in spreading of moral panics. Moral panic fades away when the public and media lose interest.
AIDS, child abuse, drugs, immigration, media violence, street crime, and youth deviance in general are some of the areas in which moral panics have played huge role. Global warming, overpopulation, war and Health dangers from obesity, cigarette smoking, and trans-fat acids are not examples of moral panics. Moral panics need to be controlled and should be closely monitored in order to make the society a better place to live in. References
Best, J.
(2011). Locating moral panics within the sociology of social problems. Moral panic and the politics of anxiety, 502-510.
Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (2010). Moral panics: The social construction of deviance. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SbY2Mksi1kcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=moral+panic+and+crimes&ots=KKV4MO7gh_&sig=yyoEZ9QhI1lqnNIP_-o1dGRZNjQ
Klocke, B. V., & Muschert, G. W. (2010). A hybrid model of moral panics: synthesizing the theory and practice of moral panic research. Sociology Compass, 4(5), 295-309.
Rohloff, A., & Wright, S. (2010). Moral Panic and Social Theory Beyond the Heuristic. Current Sociology, 58(3), 403-419. Retrieved from: http://dspace.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/5573/2/Fulltext.pdf
Ungar, S. (2011). The Artful Creation of Global Moral Panic. Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety, 190. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HLyTgaErBZ8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA190&dq=moral+panic&ots=zraHoPMCJo&sig=n-JI4OVnAYrBdTA0AdBI4un7xE0
Weisberg, R. (2012). Crime and Law: An American Tragedy. Harv. L. Rev., 125,
1425-2201.