What are Moral Panics? Hayley Burns

SUMMARY

• ·    The way in which the mass media fashions 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 Teddy Boys, Mods and Rockers, Skinheads and Hells Angels have all become associated with certain types of violence, which in turn also provoke public reaction and emotion, as topics in their own right
• ·      The impact of issues such as vandalism and football hooliganism 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
• ·      The media sensationalises events and then calls for a punishment to be set to persecute the offenders
• ·      Some articles were subject to exaggeration and distortion of the facts. Such phrases as 'orgy', 'riot', 'siege', and 'screaming mob' were incorporated into the text, and exaggeration of the numbers involved all resulted in the perception of the event as a much more violent affair than the facts support
• ·      In a similar fashion, the media have been involved in giving false information about several matters, including BSE, E-coli 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 damaging the gay community
• ·      The majority of people in society share common values of reality and what is what is acceptable and not acceptable. Generally topics outside of their shared ideas are deemed wrong or detrimental
• ·      The sad truth about the information we receive from our mass media industry is that more often than not there is a hidden agenda, a bias nature which ultimately prevents the public from understanding the essence of the truth of the situation
• ·      The choice of vocabulary they incorporate and the types of photographs they show have a certain bias to them because they want society to perceive these events in a certain way. Although they claim to reinforce public opinion it is worth asking whether they are a voice for the people or a propaganda tool for the rich and powerful.