moral panics

• The public and political reactions to marginalised individuals in the community
• Cohen 1972, Folk Devils and Moral Panics
• subcultures that appear to threaten the dominant culture and provoke a reaction called a moral panic. it is amplified by the institutions of the state, especially the media
• The key sequential processual stages involve: 

  1. Labelling and identifying the outsider group 
  2. Provoking a public reaction 
  3. Exaggerating the outsiders or ‘otherness’ through the media stories, press and TV 
  4. Amplifying the so-called deviance or outsiders 
  5. Pouring on control restraint laws government policy 
• exaggeration and distortion are important in a moral panic
• threat of predictability- it will happen again
• while media frequently associate certain minority groups with deviance and condemn their use of violence, they nonetheless accept that violence is a legitimate way for police to deal with problems
• moral crusaders- people who are concerned with the moral issues of society and try to change it, giving attention to the deviants and leading them to their criminalisation and marginalisation, like journalists, politicians, police, etc
• can lead to marginalisation and in some cases individuals may become closer to how the media depict them, self-fulfilling prophecy
• creates an 'us' and 'them' mentality
• politicians and political groups use fear the media has whipped up to get votes, by highlighting they will solve the problem
• Moral panics tend to happen during periods of rapid social change or unease, the folk devil will be created to bring society together against a common enemy, distracting them from bigger structural economic issues