The Tabloid, the Dance Party and the Premier: The Policy Legacy of Anna Wood

2003 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Homan
Keyword(s):  
Moral Panic ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Daily Telegraph ◽  
Dance Clubs ◽  
The Media ◽  
Key Terms

This paper reviews one of the nation's most intense recent contemporary moral panics, the media and public concern about ecstasy use at dance parties that raged immediately after the death of Sydney schoolgirl Anna Wood in 1995. The reportage of one Sydney tabloid, The Daily Telegraph Mirror, is assessed for the roles it played in producing this panic: first, its visible and self-proclaimed task in setting the key terms of debate about ecstasy consumption and dance parties; and second, in influencing the policy responses of the stale government at the time. The ongoing legacy of the moral panic engendered by Anna Wood's death is evident in the ways that media and government articulate discourses of ‘risk’ in relation to young people's ecstasy consumption when compared with the contexts and uses of alcohol. Further, the paper reveals how these different discourses have produced clearly iniquitous policing strategies in relation to Sydney dance clubs and hotels.

scholarly journals ‘Do We Look like Boy Racers?’ The Role of the Folk Devil in Contemporary Moral Panics

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Lumsden
Keyword(s):  
Moral Panic ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Young Drivers ◽  
The Media ◽  
Collective Process ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Societal Reaction

This article addresses the failure of studies concerning moral panics to take into account the reaction of those individuals who are the subject of social anxiety. It responds to the suggestion by McRobbie and Thornton (1995) that studies of moral panic need to account for the role played by the ‘folk devils’ themselves, for a moral panic is a collective process (Young, 2007). The paper presents findings from ethnographic fieldwork with the ‘boy racer’ culture in Aberdeen, qualitative interviews with members of outside groups, and content analysis of media articles. The societal reaction to the ‘boy racer’ subculture in Aberdeen is evidence of a contemporary moral panic. The media's representation of the subculture contributed to the stigmatization of young drivers and the labelling of the subculture's activities as deviant and antisocial. The drivers were aware of their negative portrayal in the media; however their attempts to change the myth of the ‘boy racer’ were unsuccessful. Although subcultural media can provide an outlet of self-expression for youths, these forms of media can also become caught-up in the moral panic. Ironically the youths’ own niche and micro media reified the (ir)rationality for the moral panic.

scholarly journals Cannabis, Moral Entrepreneurship, and Stigma: Conflicting Narratives on the 26 May 2016 Toronto Police Raid on Cannabis Shops

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-171
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Müller
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Social World ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
The Media ◽  
Police Raid ◽  
Do So

On May 26, 2016, the police raided 43 cannabis dispensaries in Toronto, Canada, making 90 arrests. This article aims to describe the narrative of the responsible state agencies concerning the police raid and compare it to the narrative of those who opposed it, such as activists, as well as consumers and sellers of cannabis. While such concepts as moral entrepreneur, moral panic, and moral crusade have traditionally been used to study those in power, I will employ them to explore both the state narrative and ways in which counterclaims-makers resisted it. In order to do so, I will further develop the concept of moral entrepreneurship and its characteristics by relating it to studies of moral panics and social problems. This article will be guided by the following question: How did each party socially construct its cannabis narrative, and in what way can we use the concept of moral entrepreneurship to describe and analyze these narratives as social constructions? I have investigated the media coverage of the raid and ethnographically studied shops in Toronto in order to study the narratives. My findings show that both parties used a factual neutral style, as well as a dramatizing style. The later includes such typical crusading strategies as constructing victims and villains and presenting the image of a dystopian social world. In order to explain the use of these strategies, we will relate them to the shifting wider social and historical context and to the symbolic connotation of cannabis shops in Toronto in particular and in Canada as a whole.

Moral Panic and Reading: Early Elite Anxieties About the Media Effect

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Furedi
Keyword(s):  
Moral Panic ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Media Effect ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
The Public ◽  
Printed Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Potential Impact

From its inception the medium of writing has been a source of moral concern. The growth of the printed media reinforced these apprehensions. Fears about the media effect on the behaviour of readers became recurring phenomena – in some cases provoking reactions characterised as a moral panic. These periodic outbursts of disquiet can be best understood as panics about the potential impact of the media on public morality. Such reactions were not simply media panics but panics about the effects of the media. The focus of anxiety was not on any particular issue but on the threat to moral authority posed by the media on the outlook and behaviour of the public. By its very existence the media appeared to represent a potential threat to the moral order. Exploring the moral dimension of this reaction is essential for the study of moral panics.

scholarly journals Redd Alert! (De)Coding the Media's Production of Aboriginal Gang Violence on a Western Canadian First Nation

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Koch ◽  
Jay Scherer
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Western Canada ◽  
Gang Violence ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Commercial Media ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
The Media

This article examines the articulation of a racialized moral panic surrounding Aboriginal gang violence and the community of Maskwacis, a collection of four First Nations in central Alberta, Canada formerly known as Hobbema. Our analysis is situated within the distinctive settler-colonial context through which Aboriginal gangs were mediated (Ginsburg 1991) by the mainstream commercial media as an issue of public concern in this particular Cree community and, indeed, throughout Western Canada. Drawing upon interviews with journalists, First Nation residents, and other community members in the region, our analysis focuses on two interrelated issues: 1) the “behind-the-scenes” production processes through which non-Aboriginal journalists condensed themes of race, crime, and youth to reproduce and amplify a powerful and punitive discourse that articulated Aboriginal gang violence with the broader community itself; and 2) the ways in which First Nations residents and community members—themselves the subjects of the media gaze—interpreted, internalized, and, at times actively manipulated this racialized discourse of crisis. 

scholarly journals Media Frames of the Ontario Safe Streets Act: assessing the moral panic model

SURG Journal ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Michael Bates
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Media Frames ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media

This paper assesses the “moral panic” framework of Stanley Cohen with reference to panhandling and squeegeeing in Ontario. There are four general tenets of the moral panic model, three of which can be said to have been documented in the case of panhandling in Ontario: a recognized threat (panhandling), a rise in public concern, and punitive control mechanisms established to eliminate the threat. This paper argues that the fourth tenet, a stereotypical presentation of the moral threat to the social order, has not been systematically analyzed, and therefore that is the task of this paper. Specifically, this paper examines the framing used by the mainstream print media in Ontario to construct the panhandling/squeegeeing problem. Articles and letters­ to the­ editor were sampled from two mainstream Ontario newspapers, the Toronto Star and the Ottawa Citizen, to examine the mainstream media’s framing of panhandling and squeegee cleaning. This sample was taken between 1995 and 2005, a timeframe which revolves around the implementation of the Ontario Safe Streets Act 2000, which is recognized as the punitive control mechanism designed to eliminate the threat of panhandling. The findings of this paper lead to the conclusion that panhandling in Ontario during the implementation of the Ontario Safe Streets Act does not constitute a classic moral panic by virtue of the role the media played. However, the evidence that punitive control mechanisms were established absent the support of the mainstream media suggests that a deeper understanding of the role of mainstream media as well as political interests is required with respect to framing moral panics.

scholarly journals The social function of moral panic

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Ilić
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Professional Attitude ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Creation

In this paper, the author discusses the social context of moral panic, ie the role of various social factors in the creation of moral panic. Starting from the known mechanisms of moral panic (traditional and newer), the author considers the roles of the subjects of informal and formal social control in this process. In that sense, it stands out the activity of various moral activists as representatives of the informal social structure who, by propagating the importance of moral protection, often participate in the process of creating of many moral panics. On the other hand, the activities of formal social control bodies are regulated by an appropriate legal frame-work whose task is to solve the problem of crime in society. This implies a professional attitude of the police, the prosecution and the courts in terms of combating crime. The author points out the problem of the participation of the representatives of these bodies in the creation and development of moral panic, considering it in the context of the culture of control, ie its elements, emphasizing especially the role of the police. The author connects all the mentioned segments of the social function of moral panic with the role of the media as an unavoidable factor in the process of moral panic. At the end of the paper, the author emphasizes the importance of the role of the media in raising awareness of the importance of individual actions of all social actors in order to avoid their participation in the creation of moral panic that unfavorable affects on solving the problem of crime.

scholarly journals Analysis of (un)official discourses on drug use in Serbia

Crimen ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-22
Author(s):  
Milana Ljubičić
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
The Social ◽  
Drug Policies ◽  
The Media ◽  
Definition Of

In the article, we analyse discourse on drug abuse in contemporary Serbia. The ruling official discourse on drugs can be subsumed under the definition of moral panic, in creation of which, as well in dissemination, the media play an important role. Media uses specific vocabulary to send message warning of an impending social catastrophe. This tactic is effective: recipients of media content become anxious and frightened by the downfall of the society that awaits them in the near future. So logically they are converting into supporters of official discourses on the topic. In the end, this process has the power to briefly connect a shredded tissue of social cohesion, but also to produce a lack of freedom of citizens. In order to investigate whether drug-related moral panics in our country can have such implications, in this paper we analyzed the official discourse embodied in anti-drug policies, and the public discourse offered by media. Findings suggest that policymakers are calling on war against drugs, and name prevention and criminalization as the most successful strategies to fight it. The recipients of media content are agreeing with them. Furthermore, there is no doubt that such o discourse encourages the spread of moral panic about drugs, as well as social cohesion. Although abstractly defined, the enemy - drug, has the power to unite. However, it also causes a lack of freedom. Because of the narrative of the impending catastrophe, the citizens feel powerless and therefore demand from the higher state authorities to act in the name of the social future.

Killer Portraits: An Urban Legend and Moral Panic of the 1990s

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (51) ◽  
pp. 11-38
Author(s):  
Olga Boitsova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Foreign Objects ◽  
The Media ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Regions Of Russia ◽  
Urban Legend

In the 1990s in Russia—as well as in other countries—there were rumors about the existence of Satanists; these sometimes lead to the so-called “Satanic Panics” described by researchers. The paper is devoted to the urban legend about Satanists that circulated in 1996–1997 in the Sverdlovsk and Moscow Regions of Russia. According to the rumors, some portraits of children taken by professional photographers included photographs of other people’s body parts, funerals, paraphernalia, and other foreign objects between the picture and its frame, which caused harm to the child depicted in the portrait. The paper is based on an analysis of the media (newspapers and a television program) and an interview taken in 2006 with a witness and participant of the events. Versions of the same urban legend published on the Internet in the 2000s–2010s are invoked for comparison. As a theoretical approach, the concept of moral panics is applied. The paper raises questions about the reasons for the explosive spread of the urban legend and the particular form of the moral panic. The paper shows that the idea of a portrait as a means of influence over the depicted person and of the possibility of damage through the image—which, in the 19th century, led to panics over the so-called “hell-depicting icons”—still exists in Russia and played its role in the moral panic of the 1990s.

scholarly journals US Moral Panics, Mexican Politics, and the Borderlands Origins of the War on Drugs, 1950–62

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 364-387
Author(s):  
Benjamin T. Smith ◽  
Wil G. Pansters
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Drug Policy ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Temporary Closure ◽  
Mexican Politics

During the 1950s Californian civil society advocates and politicians developed a moral panic over youth narcotic use. One of the key elements of this moral panic was the assertion that most drugs came over the border and that the only solution to this problem was blackmailing Mexico through temporary closure of the border. The idea not only became a tenet of later drug policy, but also, in conjunction with pressure from Mexico’s own moral reformers, forced regional politicians in Mexico to enact periodic clean up campaigns.

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