Moral Panics Essay

Compare and Contrast three Case Studies. How do Moral Panics help Form or Fragment Cultural Identity ?

Moral Panic is defined as an 'Abstract concept used to make sense of Irrational Public Hysteria'. The three key words I want to focus on are irrational, public and hysteric. Moral Panics effect the whole public, which is a mass audience. When a mass audience wants to hear more about certain topics, the media will put massive amounts of effort, money and time into making sure they do hear about it, to sell more news and to charge higher rates to advertisers. They form and fragment cultural identity for the simple reason, 'Moral Panics change what is socially acceptable and what is socially feared'. For example, Paedophilia in the twenty first century is now incredibly feared and publicised. It never used to be such a big deal until one or a few very serious cases got publicised by the media turning it into a Moral Panic. It was/is irrational with news corporations giving names and pictures of sex offenders, it is feared by a mass public audience, of which the majority are hysteric about.

Within the Processual Model, stage five, six and seven describe what happens at the end of the Moral Panic. Stage five (coping and resolution) talks about leading to 'Legal Reform', this is a key part of how a Moral Panic helps form Cultural Identity. The last three stages could almost be called the 'conclusion' stage, as the panic is evaluated, action is taken to try and reduce the panic and make sure it doesn't happen again and then the legacy of it comes in. Ultimately though, it is often the government or law that governs what is acceptable. For instance, the UK has a large under age binge drinking culture, the average age to start drinking is now only twelve years old. The legal age to start drinking in the UK is eighteen, however in the USA, it is now in all states aged twenty-one and people often do not start drinking there until they are at least that age or close to it. This is partly historical but arguably down to the law, which sets what is socially acceptable and not. Not only this, but the punishments in the USA are much harsher than in the UK, acting as a much bigger deterrent . This is in many ways similar to the raves and ecstasy Moral Panic that started around 1988. At the time, there was a huge culture for very fast and upbeat music and also going out to clubs at the weekends etc ... Ecstasy and drugs for lots was a usual thing, but at the time there had been no scientific research into the effects of Ecstasy. It is very difficult to make things illegal unless there is any evidence to prove it is actually dangerous. The media at first condemned rave culture turning many youths in the eye of the British public into 'Folk Devils', not only this but they used headlines such as 'Fascade for dealing in drugs' which caused large panics. The papers really got there win when a girl called Bett's died on her eighteenth birthday because of water intoxication when she had taken ecstasy. This led to 'Legal Reform' and ecstasy becoming illegal. The legacy of this moral panic lead to massive social reform, ecstasy and raves are now seen as very socially un-accepted and a big minority of society actually do either anymore.

The Moral Panics involving Child Abuse and Paedophilia both lead to massive social reform and are both cases of Moral Panics that are still 'worried' areas of society. Unlike the HIV/AIDS Moral Panic where people have calmed down and accepted people with HIV/AIDS quite happily into society, also not being incredibly ignorant and blaming homosexuals and drug addicts for every problem, seeing homosexual as 'folk devils', the Paedophilia and Child abuse still get a moderate amount of attention. Although legal reform has been put in place, although there are incredible measures to stop the abuse of children and also intense pressure on child care services because of the 'baby P' tragedy, they still get a lot of media coverage. These are both cases of moral panics where the legacy lives on, I think this is also because parents are naturally incredibly protective over they're children and can get very easily sucked in to bad things that 'could' happen to there children. Parents will naturally ignore that the chances of this happening to they're children are actually very low as long as they're generally sensible about bringing up children, rather than being hugely over protective and condemning people left right and centre.

However, these Moral Panics are horribly blown up by the media, partly because of 'Media Entrepreneurs' (stage three in the Processual Model) which of course will start irrational panics among the public. This leads to intense pressure on politicians and governments which they really must take hard lines against these 'folk devils' as if they do not, they will be seen as useless in the eyes of the public and loose valuable votes.