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

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.

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

Sociological Research Online ◽

10.5153/sro.1840 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

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.

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

Cultural Sociology ◽

10.1177/1749975515626953 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 523-537 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

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.

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Smartphones, youth and moral panics: Exploring print and online media narratives in India

Mobile Media & Communication ◽

10.1177/2050157920922262 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 205015792092226

Author(s):

Neomi Rao ◽

Lakshmi Lingam

Keyword(s):

Media Coverage ◽

Moral Panic ◽

Well Being ◽

Media Analysis ◽

Online Media ◽

Moral Panics ◽

Smartphone Technology ◽

Smartphone Use ◽

Fear And Anxiety ◽

Media Narratives

India is a rapidly growing youth market for smartphone technology. Accompanying the spike in Indian youths’ smartphone use is a proliferation of media coverage on the purported impact of smartphones on youths’ physical, psychological, and social well-being. We use a qualitative media analysis to show that the online and print media narratives around this issue reveal widespread fear and anxiety about youths’ smartphone use. We argue that this stems from a moral panic reaction to youths’, particularly young women’s, potential exercise of agency using their smartphones and accessing forbidden content over the internet. This narrative fails to include the potential affordances of internet access for youth and other marginalized people while also failing to address deeper concerns about digitization.

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The Increase of How Mass Media Coverage Manipulates Our Minds

Research Anthology on Fake News, Political Warfare, and Combatting the Spread of Misinformation ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-7291-7.ch011 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 176-198

Author(s):

David Brian Ross ◽

Richard Louis ◽

Melissa T. Sasso

Keyword(s):

Social Constructionism ◽

News Media ◽

Media Coverage ◽

Historical Context ◽

Future Research ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Mass Society ◽

The Media ◽

Media Reports ◽

The Mind

This chapter explores the insight of how the mind is negatively impacted by the news media. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce readers to how the human brain processes good and adverse effects of the news. The chapter begins with the overview that delves into the various aspects such as our brain and how it processes emotions, the theoretical frameworks of mass society, Marxism, functionalism, social constructionism, the historical context of the media in various countries, journalists and pundits, how the media divides communities, and how the media reports world events causing individuals to suffer from adverse psychological effects. This chapter then ends with a conclusion that consists of suggested future research.

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Mediatization and Doping: Investigating the Interplay in News Framing of Rider/Doping Suspicion During the Tour de France

Communication & Sport ◽

10.1177/21674795211062853 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 216747952110628

Author(s):

Leah Stanley

Keyword(s):

Social Issue ◽

Media Coverage ◽

Historical Context ◽

Framing Theory ◽

News Framing ◽

Sport Media ◽

Tour De France ◽

Do So

Mediatization theory has been used to describe the development of the Tour de France, from its inception as an event created by a newspaper to sell newspapers to the global spectacle it has become. Yet, perhaps the Tour’s most infamous aspect, its historical reputation for doping, is yet to be explored through the lens of mediatization, as both a media and a social issue. Furthermore, that sport media scholars allude to a need for better understanding of media coverage of doping beyond headline-capturing doping scandals, establishes a precedent for the examination and comparison of newspaper framing of Lance Armstrong (2004) and Chris Froome (2017). To do so, this research operationalizes mediatization theory in combination with framing theory to investigate news framing of rider/doping suspicion grounded in the historical context of the event, revealing the interplay between framing of rider/doping suspicion and event mediatization processes.

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“Gipper Sweeps Congress”

Framing Inequality ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190888183.003.0003 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 50-97

Author(s):

Matt Guardino

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Survey Data ◽

Media Coverage ◽

Free Market ◽

Historical Context ◽

Newspaper Coverage ◽

Economic Plan ◽

Media System ◽

Regressive Tax ◽

The Media

This chapter analyzes media content, elite discourse, and public opinion surrounding Ronald Reagan’s 1981 economic plan. It demonstrates that major television and newspaper coverage of this early neoliberal policy significantly favored free-market perspectives that justified economic inequality. It also shows that media outlets marginalized elite and nongovernmental criticism of the Reagan plan. Commercial tendencies of the media system in that historical context are connected to these patterns in the news. Survey data suggest that such media coverage shaped public opinion to support this influential model of regressive tax policy.

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

Media International Australia ◽

10.1177/1329878x0310800107 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 108 (1) ◽

pp. 36-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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.

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

SURG Journal ◽

10.21083/surg.v5i1.1320 ◽

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.

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Pretrial Publicity

10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0290 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Media Coverage ◽

Pretrial Publicity ◽

Media Attention ◽

High Profile ◽

The Past ◽

The Media ◽

To Receive ◽

Trial Evidence ◽

Do So

Pretrial publicity (PTP) refers to media coverage of criminal and civil cases prior to trial. Every era has its high-profile cases involving individuals and businesses—e.g., Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Boston Bomber), Enron, Timothy McVeigh, O. J. Simpson, John Hinckley, Patty Hearst, John Mitchell, Sam Shepperd, Bruno Richard Hauptmann (Lindbergh baby kidnapping), Sacco and Vanzetti. Serious and notorious crimes and cases involving celebrities tend to receive the most media attention. Much media attention will operate to the detriment of criminal and civil defendants—reporting may emphasize the dastardliness of the defendant’s actions, the effects of those acts on victims, the evidence against the defendant, opinions about the defendant’s guilt expressed by law enforcement personnel, and the like. Whenever a case receives substantial PTP—and especially when the PTP is negative—questions arise about the likelihood that a defendant can receive a fair trial. The concern is that the substantial PTP will bias prospective jurors against the defendant and result in a verdict driven by PTP rather than trial evidence. Concerns about the media potentially biasing trials pit First Amendment guarantees of a free press against Sixth Amendment rights of defendants to “a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” Of course, if media coverage has been substantial and negative, a number of questions arise: has the deck been stacked against a defendant? To what extent? How can this be proven? If there is improper bias, what are the solutions—delay the trial? Give the defendant expanded opportunities to find unbiased jurors? Rely on judges to instruct jurors to put aside their biases (and rely on jurors to do so)? Change the trial to another venue—if there is one where the PTP has not been so voluminous or negative? A substantial body of empirical research has developed over the past fifty years that seeks to answer such questions and do so using reliable research methods.

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