Transcript Moral Panics & Folk Devils

Moral Panics
& Folk Devils
Representation of people, events,
places, issues.
What are ‘Moral Panics'?
• If we do not take steps
to preserve the purity of
blood, the Jew will
destroy civilisation by
poisoning us all.
•
• Surely if the human race is
under threat, it is entirely
reasonable to segregate
AIDS victims, otherwise
the whole of mankind
could be engulfed.
(Hitler, 1938)
• (The Daily Star, 2 December 1988)
& Folk Devils
• From the Witch Hunts of the Renaissance to the Pokémon Panics of
the early 21st century, the media has long been a central part of the
sociological phenomenon known as 'Moral Panic'.
• According to Key Concepts in Communication (O'Sullivan, Fiske et
al 1983)
• "Moral panics then, are those processes whereby members of
a society and culture become 'morally sensitized' to the
challenges and menaces posed to 'their' accepted values and
ways of life, by the activities of groups defined as
deviant. The process underscores the importance of the mass
media in providing, maintaining and 'policing' the available
frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both
public awareness of, and attitudes towards, social problems."
• Those deviant groups were labelled by Stanley Cohen in
1971/2 as folk devils.
Moral Panics in the media can formally
be broken down into 3 stages
• 1. Occurrence and signification
• An event occurs and, because of its nature, the media decide it is worthy of
dramatic coverage ("Full Colour Pics of Satanic Abuse Site", "Razorblade
Found In Babyfood" etc) and the event is signified as a violent, worrying
one.
• 2.Wider social implications (fanning the flames)
• Connections are made between one event and the wider malaise of society
as a whole. After the initial event, the life of the story is extended through
the contributions of 'expert' opinionmakers, who establish that this one
event is just the tip of the iceberg, and that it is part of an overall pattern
which constitutes a major social menace ("Child abuse figures on the up"
"Safety concerns at babyfood packing plants" etc etc). Thus public attention
is focused on the issues
• 3.Social Control
• Moral panics seek some sort of resolution and this often comes with a
change in the law, designed to further penalise those established as the
threatening deviants at the source of the panic ("New clampdown on devilworshippers". "Strict New Safety Controls on Babyfood"). This satisfies the
public who feel they are empowered politically by the media.
Mods & Rockers
• Cohen goes on to discuss the
way in which the mass media
constructs, frames &
represents these episodes, or
stylises them, amplifying
the nature of the facts and
consequently turning them
into a national issue,
when the matter could have
been contained on a local level.
• The Mail, Express & the Sun
repeatedly ask for
“something to be done”!
Cohen's study originated from his
interest in the youth culture and its
perceived potential threat to
social order.
Throughout each era, a group has
emerged who 'fits' the criteria, such
as the Teddy Boys, Mods and
Rockers, Skinheads and Hells
Angels. They all become associated
with certain types of violence, which
in turn also provoke public reaction
and emotion, as topics in their own
right. Youtube
Mods & rockers & Moral Panic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61ks18Bd7I
ISSUES
• Such issues as football
hooliganism, drug abuse,
vandalism and political
demonstrations, all struck a
chord in public opinion, but
the impact might not have
been on such a large scale,
were it not for the part the
mass media play in the
exposition of the facts.
Amplification & Repetition
• The 'amplification' which takes place
through the media's work serves to appeal to the
public so that they agree with ready-made opinions
about the course of action to be taken, and these
opinions have been found from the members of
what Cohen refers to as the 'moral barricade', i.e.
bishops, politicians and editors. Combined with the
opinions of the 'experts' who are wheeled out to give
their diagnosis, they reach an agreement(often
legislation) about how to cope with the
situation in hand, and the problem either
disappears or at least deteriorates.
The McCarthy Witchunts
& the
HUAC
• In the post WW2 period, 1945, the new
•
threat to the U.S was seen to be the
Soviet union, The USSR
This marked the beginning of the Cold
War.
McCarthy argued that covert communist
messages and propaganda were in
Hollywood films
Many in the film industry were called to
testify and name names to save
themselves.
“Have you now or ever been a member of
the Communist party...answer the
question”
Many writers, directors & stars were
blacklisted, sacked and many never
worked again.
Youtube HUAC
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfKSykTPzA4
•
•
•
•
•
He May Be A Communist!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWeZ5SKXvj8
Anti-Communist
propaganda
AIDS/HIV The Gay Plague & Homophobia
• The media have been involved in
giving false information about
several matters, including BSE, Ecoli and the AIDS virus and
HIV. Indeed several newspapers
declared in the early 1980's that
HIV could only be contracted and
passed on through homosexual
activity. This along with the opening
statements had an increasingly
damaging effect on the gay
community
Press reports stated that AIDS was highly
infectious. For example,
"Cough can spread AIDS, warns Doc"
(The Sun),
"It's spreading like wildfire" (The Sun),
"Kiss of Death" (The Star),
"A million will have AIDS in six years"
(Daily Mail),
"AIDS threat to one in five" (Star),
"March of the gay plague" (News of the
World).
This issue of infectiousness was
reinforced by:
AIDS Is Everywhere - There was no
escaping AIDS - it was reaching into every
corner of society. "AIDS on the QE2"
(Sun), "AIDS death shock at BBC" (Star),
"AIDS: Three British Airways crew die
(Sun), "[Government] Minister killed by
AIDS (News of the World),
Can you think of any other medical moral panics?
Child Abuse and
Paedophilia
• Easy for newspapers to
sensationalise and it is an
ongoing tabloid campaign in
the UK
• 2005 a man in Manchester,
England was killed by knife
after being mistakenly accused
of child molestation by an
insane man in the
neighbourhood.
• This resulted in the
persucution of Paeditricians
by an angry mob (which had
confused the two words) in
August 2000
Paediatrician
attacks 'ignorant' vandals
Wednesday, 30 August, 2000, 19:04
The front door was daubed with yellow
paint
• A hospital paediatrician has hit out at
vandals who forced her to flee her home
after apparently taking her job title to
mean she was a paedophile. South Africanborn Yvette Cloete - a 30-year-old trainee
consultant at the Royal Gwent Hospital,
Newport, south Wales - said she planned
to move home after returning to find the
outside of her property daubed with the
words "paedo".
• She said she can not rule out the possibility
that the paint attack was connected with
her job at the hospital.
Asylum & Immigration
as you can see the Mail & Express are obsessed...
Immigration Bingo
In pairs
• Read a Mail or Express story
on immigration & identify the
words in the bingo chart
Tick off the words you find
Looking at these examples list which
social group is scapegoated by these
panics. Work in pairs Scapegoat – social group
Moral Panic - Issue
• AIDS
• Paedophilia
• Child Abuse
• Immigration
• Asylum
blamed
The next slide represents youth subcultures.
In pairs identify the subculture & the decade.
Time 5 mins.
How well did you do?
• 1950;s
• 1960;s
• 1970;s
• 1980;s
• 1990’s
• 2000’s
• Rock & roll (Elvis etc Devil’s music)
• Teddy boys
•
•
•
•
Hippies & drugs, Hells Angels
Mods (and drugs & violence)
Hells angels Drugs & violence)
Punk
• Raver’s, Travellers & Crusties
• Emo’s- Rappers • Can you identify others?
The whole War on Drugs Discourse in
the media is a moral panic
Teens are represented as both perpetrator.s & victims.
• Did the Moral Panic about
Meow Meow lead to
legislation?
“Last night on my television I saw the
dirtiest programme..”
Mary Whitehouse
• Mary Whitehouse (‘Defender of the public
morals’) introduced the term video nasty in
1982, which was then to emerge as a press label
within the same year.
•
The phrase described an apparent influx of
horrific and sickening videos that had arrived in
the UK after the 1979 introduction of the VHS
to the British market.
The uproar began in May 1982:
‘…Sunday Times journalist Peter Chippendale
published an article entitled ‘How High
Street Horror Is Invading The Home’.
“Uncensored horror video cassettes have
arrived.
- The newspapers wrote articles to shock and grab
readers attention with extremist points of view.
- murderers could use the excuse, and this would
lobby press and public.
Video recordings Act 1984
• When the Mary Whitehouse
and The Daily Mail
supported Video Recording
Act was passed in 1984, it was
noted that a survey taken of
the general public was less
supportive than the press were
keen to suggest.
• The full list of banned
“nasties” can be found at
•
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty#DPP_li
st
• The editorial then attempted
to use its considerable voice to
bring about a new ‘tough
law’ even going as far as to
print four of their own
policies, and finishing with:
• ‘The Daily Mail, which has
been in the forefront over the
years exposing the obscenity of
the video nasties, will not rest
until this law is on
the Statue book.
Task
• Can you think of any specific texts that have
been the cause of a moral panic?
•
In Pairs find examples......................
The “Facebook” killer
Teenagers represented as victims
Technology moral panic & paedophila
Stanley Cohen, in his work, Folk
Devils and Moral Panics. (1987)
• who first coined the term 'moral panics'. He
defined the concept as a sporadic episode which,
as it occurs, subjects society to bouts of moral
panic, or in other terms, worry about the
values and principles which society
upholds which may be in jeopardy. He
describes its characteristics as "a condition,
episode, person or group of persons [who]
become defined as a threat to societal values and
interests." [Cohen, 1987: 9]
Task – Pair work –
Using class tabloids analyse how
a specific moral panic is
constructed –
Key terms: Images, cropping & framing, shot
type & NVC & dress codes.
Anchorage, type of language, rhetoric, emotional,
mode of address
Repitition, calls for something to be done
Althusser
was a Marxist thinker, his analysis of ISA’s show how
important the media are in conveying the dominant ideological messages.
ISA
Ideological State apparatus
RSA
Repressive State apparatus
• ISAs function primarily by ideology.
• The examples which Althusser
provides of ISAs include forms of
institutions which function to
maintain and perpetuate the
means of production
primarily through violence or
the threat of violence.
Unlike ISAs, RSAs derive from
the private sector and their
influence forms one
cumulative force. Examples
include the government
and the police, the army.
•
•
•
•
•
•
organized religion,
the education system,
family unit,
legal system,
political parties,
trade unions, media and
the arts.
Task –Apply Althusser
Find examples of texts that have
been banned or censored.
In pairs
Gramsci & Hegemony
• Gramsci describes two different
modes of social control:
• Coercive control: manifested
through direct force or its threat
(needed by a state when its
degree of hegemonic leadership
is low or fractured);
• Consensual control: which
arises when individuals
voluntarily assimilate the
worldview of the dominant
group (=hegemonic leadership).
• Gramsci was also a Marxist. He
argues that the dominant
ideology never ideology is never
totally won.
•
Hegemony is a theory written by
Gramsci in The prison
Notebooks .
• Identify HOW the
media wins
Hegemonic consent
for a specific moral
panic.
Further research
• In The LRC – read the Daily mail /Express & Sun/Mirror boxes & identify moral panics –
please bring to class.
• http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-gram.htm
• http://imomus.livejournal.com/423638.html
with film extracts
• http://froberto.dnsalias.org/shared/Althusserian_Ideology/theory_althusser.html
• http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/mtw9403.html
• Aberystwrth – www.aber.ac.uk/media
• Furedi, Frank (1994): 'A Plague of Moral Panics' (Living Marxism issue 73, November
1994). [WWW document] URL http://www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM73/LM73_Franf.html
• http://www.new-diaspora.com/Media/tabloids&AS2.html