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Media's Influence On Moral Panics

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Media's Influence On Moral Panics
Most individuals would agree that the media has an influence on us, although they themselves claim to not be influenced by its effects. The representation of crime and criminals has provoked consternation. It has been suggested that such representations inflate our fear of crime far beyond our actual risks of becoming victims. Those who are least at risk of being a victim of crime, old people and females, are those who live in most fear because it is young men that are more likely to be victims of crime (Hough and Mayhew, 1983; cited in Muncie 1996, p.56). Moral panics are also a topic worthy of discussion as some, such as Stan Cohen, suggest that their origins are within the media and are the root of our ‘fear’ of crime.

There is no doubt …show more content…
Others see them as simply reinforcing what we already believe; either way the public find themselves at risk of living in fear and being discriminative towards these groups labelled as ‘folk devils’. The term ‘Folk Devils’, from which moral panics followed, was famously used by ex-prime minister Edward Heath and since then the list has been added to. After the 9/11 attacks terrorists have been the base of a new moral panic that is still prevalent even today. Some say that moral panics are simply media constructions, as is demonstrated in Cohen’s study of the mods and rockers. Cohen found that the groups at the time were not at all polarized, but the media played on the idea of ‘mods and rockers’ and so creating two new gangs which set up public fear of youth subcultures. Muncie (1987, p.43) describes this in terms of labelling, “they had been singled out as society’s ‘folk devils’ and acted out their role accordingly in subsequent years”. However not all agree that these moral panics are the cause of the media’s influence on our fear of crime, but simply as reinforcing what people already know (Crawford et al 1990, cited in Muncie 1996 p.57). However, the mods and rockers behaviour was not new as Pearson’s study on Hooliganism found similar behaviour to Teddy boys being played out here; yet the mods and rockers were the only group up to this point to reach the headlines. The way in which the media presented this story must have had an impact otherwise it would’ve been treated the same as the Teddy boys, and so shows that the way the media portrays criminal acts does influence public fear of
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