Moral Panics - Past, Present and Future(2)

'Moral Panic Analysis: Past Present and Future' by Chas Critcher, 2008.

25. 'The media are particularly important in the early (‘inventory’) stage of social reaction, producing ‘processed or coded images’ of deviance and the deviants. Three processes are involved. First is exaggeration and distortion, of who did or said what; second is prediction, the dire consequences of failure to act; and the third symbolisation'

26. 'Moral panics exhibit ‘an increased level of hostility’ towards the deviants, who are ‘collectively designated as the enemy, or an enemy, of respectable society’. Their behaviour is seen as ‘harmful or threatening’ to the values and interests of society, ‘or at least a sizeable segment’ of it (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 1994, 34, original emphasis). Constructing such folk devils is integral to moral panics.'