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Moral Panics: Part one

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The problem of communication

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Two Models of Communication.

1. Representative.

Based on the following idea:

Event occurs. E.g. Battle in a War.

Reporter goes to the scene, reports thefacts

News reports & representswhat has happened.

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2. Mediated Communication Model.

Event occurs. E.g. Battle in a War.

Reporter goes to the scene, not reports thefacts, but interpretswhat she sees. REMEMBER EVENTS ARE COMPLEX

News reports & representswhat has been constructed.

Viewers compare what they see in news with their ownpre-existing knowledge of the world

Reporter sends copy back to organisation. Story is filtered according tocriteria of newsworthiness. E.g. how important is it, does it effect the

country etcClick Here

http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp064.htmhttp://www.cybercollege.com/tvp064.htm

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The idea of the moral panic.

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If we do not take steps to preserve the purity ofblood, the Jew will destroy civilisation by poisoningus all. (Hitler, 1938)

Surely if the human race is

under threat, it is reasonable

to segregate AIDS victims,otherwise the whole of man-

- kind could be engulfed.

(Daily Star, 1988)

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The more comfortable the language of moralpanics is to us, the more entrenched in ourimagination.

E.g.

The relationship

between Islamand terrorism

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Lw86RK8-chttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Lw86RK8-chttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Lw86RK8-chttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Lw86RK8-c

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFWnaAQjbK4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFWnaAQjbK4

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Cohen said the media had createda moral panic;

a condition, episode, person or group of persons

emerges to become defined as a threat to societalvalues and interests.

These folk devils are constituted as a threat to theprevailing social order.

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The amount of violence had been minimal. Most young people who had gone to the seaside did

not identify with either Mods or Rockers.

In short, the mass media had painted a distorted

picture of events. This set in process a deviancy amplification spiral.

As public concern was ratcheted up, the policebecame sensitised to the phenomena

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URYfLan-510http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URYfLan-510http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URYfLan-510http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URYfLan-510

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65OP7w1NlHohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65OP7w1NlHo

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The number of reported moral panics in pressgrows from the 1980s.

Why?

2 aspects:

The rise of a new political agenda premised on the creationof folk devils to justify its policy changes.

Intensification of media competition increases use of

sensationalism in reporting.

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1980s saw massive expansion in visual media.

Birth of Satellite and cable television.

1970 3 television channels in UK

1984 4 terrestrial channels + 2 satellite

2013 All combined freeview, freesat, sky etc...=

approx 1000 channels.

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New technology means quicker reporting.

Newspapers front page could change within

hours.

Also new newspapers appear.

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News reporting used to be limited.

Morning and evening newspapers

Midday and evening TV news

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With so much competition in market pressneeds to push the meaning ofnewsworthyness

Increasingly value of news is less about what issignificant rather about what sells.

News is commodified

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News increasingly is about spectacle.

Representation of events is about display,

sensation, morally loaded.

This is what fights the competition, gives you

edge.

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Society of the Spectacle (1967)

Guy Debord

In societies dominated by modern conditions ofproduction, life is presented as an immenseaccumulation of spectacles. Everything that

was directly lived has receded into arepresentation.

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