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. …show more content…
This moral panic cultivated by the media neglects to show a central feature of what defines moral panic, its disproportionality "In essence, moral panic means that there is a consensus among many members of the society that a more sizable number of individuals are engaged in the behavior in question than actually are " .
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.
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).
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
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.
... groups such as the ‘mods’ and the ‘rockers’ the media persuaded the audience to think that these groups where criminals and not good role models to other kids without this actually being a fact. Again we need to be aware of how the media reports crime events.
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.
It's clear to see the media focuses on various reports, television shows, and even sitcoms regarding all forms of psychology. While watching television one can say media basically relies on psychology. The media of psychology views psychology through means of common sense versus an actual science. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processed. Behavior is anything you do that can be observed. In the media we can observe people through the television screen. Through our observations we learn from their behavior. For example in a famous experiment conducted by Albert Bandura called, "Bobo Doll Experiment," a preschool child is working on a drawing. An adult in another part of the room is building with Tinkertoys. The child is watching this adult through a television screen and watches as the adult gets up and for nearly ten minutes pounds, kicks, and throws around the room a large inflated Bobo doll, while yelling hurtful sayings such as, "Sock him in the nose" or "Hit him down" and even "Kick him". After the adult was done, the child was taken to another room and demonstrated the same actions as they have seen through the television screen to the Bobo Doll. It's clear to see from the experiment the media teaches society many aspects of psychology. From a psychological aspect we see a child observing violent behavior from what the media has presented. Humans learn through observation and in a world where technology is advancing, the media plays a large role.
The mass media is a vehicle for delivering information and to entertain. But implications that the media do more harm than good concerning its practices and its effects on the public. The two main categories of mass media are print media and electronic media. Although they overlap in some areas, they differ mostly in the subject matter they cover and in their delivery methods. Research had been conducted in using both these forms to gauge the impact that each one has on the public. Print media tends to be more factual based whereas electronic media tend to focus more on visual aids to help relay the information. The public’s fear of crime has an impact on the public agenda of policy makers. Fear of crime not only affects individual but may also have an impact on the laws that affect crime control and prevention.
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?
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.
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.