Selection + presentation

• Term 'Moral Panic' popularized by :


  Cohen
• Moral Panic


  • Reaction is fear & anxiety and therefore puts pressure on the authorities to take action
  • Concern is usually out of proportion
• Majority of the population rely on traditional methods of accessing the news
• Events were just a few scuffles between youths and vandalism but were reported in a very exaggerated way
• Headlines such as 'Day of Terror' and words such as 'riot' and 'battle' were used
• Prime sources for news coverage in 2005

  • Television (72%)
  • Newspapers (10%)
  • Radio (9%)
• Cohen suggests over-reporting which far outweighed the importance of the actual events
• 94% believed it important for TV news to be impartial
• 67% regarded TV news as the most trustworthy
• 7% saw newspapers as equally trustworthy
• ORGANIZATION & BUREAUCRATIC ROUTINES

  • Sources of News
  • Financial Costs
  • Time or Space Available
  • Deadlines
  • Immediacy and Actuality
• Consequently the mods and rockers were portrayed in a stereotypical and distorted way
• Awareness that papers supported political parties
• NEWS VALUES


  • News Values Introduction
  • Extraordinariness
  • Threshold
  • Unambiguity
  • Reference to elite persons
  • Reference to elite nations
  • Personalization
  • Frequency
  • Continuity
  • Narrative
  • Negativity
  • Composition
• BBC


  Attracts 2/3 of UK news audiences
• Independent Television News (ITN)

  ITV & C4
• The media adopt a disaster mentality and predict further problems if the individuals (folk devils) are not punished
• BSkyB


  Sky News & C5 but also is the main way people access 24 rolling news such as BBC, CNN, Fox News & Al Jazeera
• News Corp dominated 50% of the market in 2007
• News available in lots of new ways e.g. internet, blogs, text news, satellite, mobile phones
• 2009 - Showed however most of the hits were on the mainstream news websites e.g. BBC, ITV, Sky
• News consumption habits


  • 85% of people watch TV news 3 times a week
  • 23% access the internet news the same amount of times
  • Newspaper sales and terrestrial TV viewing amongst the young is in decline
• Signs that the internet access to news may grow explains the millions spent on websites by news providers such as 'The Guardian', 'The Sun' and BBC
• In 2003, there was a moral panic surrounding the number of refugees and asylum seekers entering the UK and their motives, with the tabloid press focusing on alleged links between asylum seekers and terrorism, creating public anxiety, while genuine reasons for migration were ignored
• Hoodies became increasingly popular as youths became aware that it antagonised people in authority
• Moral panic =

  • Social reaction to particular social groups
  • Society's values = under threat
• Folk devil =

  • Stereotype of deviance
  • Individuals = selfish + evil
• Deviancy amplification :

  • Cohen
• Media in a social consensus :

  • Cohen
  • Public = shared concerns
  • Eg - decline in mortality of young
  • Strong youth culture
• Social reaction + subsequent social policy = detrimental effect :

  • Just Say No - drug campaign
  • Attracted more young people to use ecstasy
  • Adults disapproved so want to rebel
• Rave raids 1980s :

  • Evidence - using riot gear + dogs
  • Encouraged young people to be anti-police
  • = more likely to confront
• Redhead:

  • Moral panic = acid house raves
  • Police road blocks
  • Riot gear
  • Law passed = banning illegal parties
• Thornton :

  • Reaction made raves more popular
  • Due to deviant label in media
• Borsay :

  • Moral panic = binge drinking
  • Argues media + public concern = not new
  • Problem linked to wider social breakdown
• Fawbe:

  • Examined news reports on hoodies
  • 1 article = linked thug and hoodie wearing
  • Bluewater shopping centre
  • Banned shoppers wearing hoodies + caps
• Response to fawbe :

  • Outrage of public
  • Tony Blair vow to clamp down on anti-social behaviour by hoodie wearers + media using term in headlines