The media, reporting on the latest news around the country, there is no doubting that the media had influenced the 'moral panic' seen over Australia's youth. With article headlines such as "BODGIE RAZOR ATTACK", in the Daily Mirror , to "SAVAGE BODGIE BRAWLS" and another "BODGIE IN BOTTLE ATTACK" . These doom-laden headlines about the youth would cause mass hysteria and concern among man 'respectable' Australians. Moral panic fosters intense hostility towards the group in question as they are "fueled by a dichotomization process whereby folk devils are distinguished from folk heroes in a morality play of good versus evil" . Through the media, there may have been a mass wave of stereotyping taking place over what was considered a Bodgie/Widgie until it became anyone of youth. There will always be a bad proportion of society, so labelling a true juvenile delinquent as a Bodgie or a Widgie simply because of his or her age helps create the belief that the mistrust towards the ostracized minority group is justified.
In conclusion, this essay has discussed the media’s response to the recent issue of youth-related gangs in Melbourne, through the utilisation of the moral panic model. Goode & Ben-Yehuda’s five elements of moral panic were applied to analyse the recent media response to youth gangs in Melbourne, and compared to the media attention devoted to gangs in previous years. The functions of the media in facilitating moral panics were also discussed in order to justify the reasons why the current response of the media can be classified as a moral
Most people use second hand information as their core source of information about crime, this source of information usually being the media. When carrying out sample research in Birmingham, Susan Smith (1984) discovered that 52% of people obtained most of their information about crime from the media, 36% obtained it from hearsay or alleged experiences of friends and neighbours, 3% from their own experiences, and 1% from the police service themselves (cited in Jones, 2001; 8). However the media tend to exaggerate upon areas of criminal activity causing a moral panic. ‘A moral panic is a semi- spontaneous or media generated mass movement based on the perception that some individual or group, frequently a minority group or subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses menace to society. These panics are generally fuelled by the media, although not always caused by, media coverage of social issues… These panics can sometimes lead to mob violence… (newsfilter.co.uk).
Research Studies Relating to Media Influence on Pro and Anti Social Behaviour There have been many studies of TV violence and aggression - partly due because of the increasing amount of violence being shown on TV, and partly because of the increasing importance of TV in our day to day living. Media influence on pro-social behaviour. Hearold (1986) found that despite the relatively few studies that have been carried out on the media's pro-social influence compared to its antisocial influence, the influences observed have been larger and constant for both girls and boys. This is seen as being largely due to have an influence on viewers where antisocial messages are not. Research has shown that children imitate many figures of pro-social behaviour when exposed to models displaying these behaviors in the media.
Since the war in Britain the most recurrent types of moral panic has been associated with the emergence of various form of youth (originally almost exclusively working class, but often recently middle class or student based) whose behaviour is deviant or delinquent. To a greater or lesser degree, these cultures have been associated with violence. The Teddy Boys, the Mods and Rockers, the Hells Angels, the skinheads and the hippies have all been phenomena of this kind (Cohen, 2002). Youth appeared as an emergent category in post-war Britain, on one of the most striking and visible manifestations of social changes in the period. Youth...
This essay will look at the different ways in which young people are portrayed in the media. It will focus on how the idea of childhood innocence has been challenged by the media and rather than ‘little angels’ children are now seen as ‘little devils’ in the public eye. By looking at ‘The Bulger Case of 1993’ we can see where the idea of ‘little devils’ and children as evil beings began. It will examine why media stories of young people are focused much more on negative aspects such as crime and gang culture rather than positive ones. It will also look at how television programmes such as ‘Teen Mom’ and ‘Skins’ portray the youth of today and whether these programmes come across as a positive or negative portrayal of teenagers. The idea of a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ will also be examined and whether the way the media portrays children can be harmful to the construction of their identities and possibly lead to alienation.
Stanley Cohen, one of sociology’s influential academics in explaining society introduced us to the theory of ‘Moral panics’. A moral panic is defined as when “A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests” (Cohen (1972), p.46). A ‘folk devil’, a concept closely linked to moral panics is a reminder and example to those in society of what they should not be and how they shouldn’t behave. Examples of folk devils in the past have included ‘mods’ and ‘rockers’ associated with connotations of crime and deviant behaviour. This sociological concept relates to theories of domestic violence due to the way in which it is portrayed in the media, posing a threat to society’s views
In today’s world, it is not rare to walk into the living room and witness a man being violently shot in the head…in a television set. The general public seems to be constantly asking themselves where morality and values on television have gone. Taking a look back in time, it is easy to point out how violence in the media is much more evident than it was fifty years ago. Both in the past and now, the media has an ethical duty concerning the general public. Television’s content today has gotten incredibly dirty and contains content to detrimental for children. There have been advances in technology attempting to stop the violence from entering households with children. However it is still the responsibility of the media and the television industry to control the amount of immoral content shown on the air. While the media is only keeping up with the public’s distasteful demands, it has a responsibility to restrain the amount of offensive content because of the effect it is having on today’s audiences.
In the article, “Moral Panics: Culture, Politics, and Social Construction” the authors Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda discuss two different perspectives of moral panics. Each perspective give a different way of looking at how moral panics are portrayed to come about in society. The Objectivist perspective and the Constructionist perspective show how people view moral panics. However, the Constructionist perspective is more important and valuable to society than the Objectivist perspective.
It was the beginning of actual “teenagers”. The first Australian subculture that developed in the post-World War Two period was that of the ‘bodgies’ (and their female counterparts ‘widgies’, who modeled themselves based on the Americans who had frequented Australia during the War. Bodgies took on the ‘James Dean look’, after the young American actor who became a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment. This led to them being seen as the cause of teenage delinquency, violent, destructive and antisocial, and in the latter half of the 1950s, apprehension that teenage delinquency was becoming more and more frequent soon reached a crescendo. A ‘moral panic’ went throughout the Australian community, as more sensationalist media reports fueled the opinion that many Australian youth were out of control. Some promoted punishments such as sending them “to sea under a tough [navy] skipper” (Perth Daily News, 16/10, 1957). The social climate of the 1950s didn’t help the community paranoia, as many lived in fear of a nuclear World War. At the time, two thirds of Australian adults believed peace could not, and would not last beyond 1958. For the elderly, who had lived through the Great Depression and World War Two, the rebelliousness of these teenagers was treacherous. Youth were, after all, the hope for creating a different world, and the Australian youth of the 1950s did not instill much hope in the Australian
Moral panic comes from the late sixties and was used by sociologist and criminologist to describe an over exaggerated reaction to a type of behaviour that is seen as a threat to values and social problems. Sociologist, thus, used it discover abnormal subjects such as delinquency, youth cultures, subcultures and style as well as vandalism and drugs. Stanley Cohen stated that “moral panics are rather predictable” however, society scarcely notices the problem until is in black and white on the headlines of the news. The media takes small problem than makes seem as a massacre “warning sign of the real, much deeper and more prevalent condition” it could bring to light, when it’s rather not as problematic as media over exaggerates it to be. Moral
It is no secret that in the world we live in today we are reliant on the media as a source of information for what is acceptable in society and what is not. Due to the fact that technology has become widespread all over the globe and that we rely so heavily on it, makes it the best way to influence the masses on culture, social norms, and gender roles. How one is expected to look, dress, and act twenty four seven appears across screens of any kind. This form of socialization then divides us into groups of males and females forcing us to conform to the mold in which mass media portrays us to be. Media in today’s world takes many different forms; from movies, to advertisements, television shows, and comic books. The way each gender is expected
The media is a source that is integral to most societies around the world. It has the power to shape our every day lives and even facilitate social change, though this is not necessarily a positive thing. The media is well known for the use of hyperbole which can often have detrimental effects on people within society as this can cause moral panics. A moral panic is when a group of people or a particular act committed by a group of people is labelled as a problem that is threatening to the morals of society, "it is an exaggerated response to a type of behaviour that is seen as a social problem – the term indicates an over-reaction on the part of the media and/or other social institutions." (Ian Marsh and Gaynor Melville: 2) .
Throughout history, homosexuals have been persecuted relentlessly for their supposed immoral and grossly indecent behaviour. December 20th, 2013 saw the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act-2014 (previously noted as “Kill the Gays Act” by Barry Malone, 2011) being passed with a hefty penalty of life imprisonment for individuals found guilty of same-sex relations. Crippling economic sanctions placed on the country, local newspapers “outing 200 top gays” (Fry, M: 2014) and the associated international outrage all leads to the pertinent question: Is Uganda experiencing a moral panic? Drawing from Stanley Cohen’s definition of moral panics, the issue of homosexuality in Uganda will be contextualized. This essay serves to define the concepts of moral panics, deviance and perceived deviance, while applying the elements of the moral panic against the perceived deviance of homosexuality in Uganda. Secondly, both the moral entrepreneur and folk devil will be defined and the role of the two agents will be examined. Lastly, the relationship between homosexuality, individuals and socialization will be explored.
In our democratic society, mass media is the driving force of public opinion. Media sources such as Internet, newspaper, news-broadcasts, etc, play significant roles in shaping a person’s understanding and perception about the events occurred in our daily lives. As long as the newspapers, internet, network television, etc, continued to be easily accessible to the public, the media will continue to have an influence in shaping its opinions. Factors such as agenda-setting, framing and priming help shape the public opinions. Agenda-setting is when the media focuses their attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinion on, whereas framing allows the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then make them appear more salient. Similarly, priming works by repeatedly exposing certain issues to public. As the issues get more exposure, the individual will be more likely to recall or retain the information in their minds. This paper will discuss these three factors played out systemically by media and how our opinions are constantly being influence and shape by them.
As our technologies advance and our collective morality decreases, the American people are faced with a dilemma which impacts greatly the foundation of our society. What is acceptable in the media?