Moral Panics - Research log

Source: 'Moral Panics' by Kenneth Thompson, published by Routledge in 1998

'the age of moral panics' 
Good opener for the introduction, maybe discuss why the word 'moral panic' is suitable or not. It pinpoints the panic to the decline in morality, ethical awareness. However, 'moral' prevents links to other kinds of issues, such as bad health scares. 'Panic' implies irrationality, that those involved react emotionally to largely mythical fears.

'for a century and more there have been panics over crime, and the activities of 'youth' in particular have often been presented in immoral and a threat to the established way of life' 
Tie into how young people are seen as the perpetrators in these school shootings and how videogames are having a negative effect on these young people

'the more recent moral panics mentioned include [...] the Dunblane school massacre'

There was a pre-existing moral panic around school massacres, this moral panic was revisited of late with the recent school shooting in America, however this time, the blame has been aimed towards violent video games.

'It is part of a perspective that looks backwards to a golden age of moral certainties from which there has been only a moral decline, in which people - especially the young - can no longer tell the difference between right and wrong. Beaumont (The Observer, 27 October 1996) calls this 'the baggage that morality and family values have dragged through two centuries of social change'.
The popularity of video games among children has spiked recently, this can be associated with this quote. Childrens lack of morals can perhaps be linked to the popularity of violent videogames?

'In America and other modern societies where there is an increasing consciousness of risks, amplified through the mass media' 
This quote can be related to the widespread news coverage of each of the school shooting event, and also to blame that was shifted to video games, which spread like a virus.