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.'

 

Moral Panics - Dangerous Games Play, Pleasure and Panics(3)

Dangerous Games Play, Pleasure and Panics

22."The history of the mass media is littered with examples of censorship, banning, moral outrage and controversy."

23."The idea that the media is responsible for violence and antisocial behaviour can be seen as scapegoating - attempting to apportion blame and reduce a complex problem to a simple solution."

24."The 'values' under threat are those based around profit generation."

Moral Panic Research - Moral Panics and the British Media (16)

Moral Panics and the British Media- A Look At Some Contemporary 'Folk Devils' by Ian Marsh and Gayner Melville

6."The term moral panic has been widely adopted both by the mass media and in everyday usage to refer to exaggerated social reaction caused by the activities of particular groups and/or individuals."

7."Such activities are invariably seen as major social concerns and the media led to reaction magnifies and widens the 'panic' surrounding them"

8."Essentially, a moral panic refers to an exaggerated reaction, from the media, the police or wider public, to the activities of particular social groups."

9."A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." (Cohen 1972)

10."...The panics associated with such groups have been transient and soon forgotten."

11."The media have long operated as agents of moral indignation in their own right: even if they are not self-concious engaged in crusading or muck-raking, their very reporting of certain 'facts' can be sufficient to generate concern, anxiety, indignation or panic," (Cohen 1972)

12."Of course social reaction does not solely relay on the media. There is also initial, on-the-spot reaction from people who are part of the system of social control, often the police. Nonetheless, the 'Transmission and diffusion of the reaction in the mass media' is, for Cohen, the crucial element of explaining moral panics."

13."Moral panics occur when the media turn reasonably ordinary event and present it as an extraordinary." (Jewkes, 2004)

14."The media, in particular, set in motion a deviance amplification spiral, through which the subjects of the panic are viewed as a source of moral decline and social disintegration." (Jewkes, 2004)

15."Moral panics clarify the moral boundaries of society in which they occcur." (Jewkes, 2004)

16."Moral panics occur during periods of rapid social change and anxiety." (Jewekes, 2004)

17."There is a lack of clarity over the defining characteristics of moral panics."

18."Moral panics are seen as short-lived episodes which fade away after a few weeks or months, however some areas of concern may  last for considerably longer - concerns of juvenile delinquency, for instance, have been present for hundreds of years," 

19."The major impact of the fear narrative associated with moral panics is to promote a 'sense of disorder' but also to defuse such feelings by identifying the problem or crisis as a 'mere proces'."

20."More moral panics will be generated and other, as yet nameless folk devils will be created... because our society as present structured will continue to generate problems for some of its members - like working class adolescents - and then condemn whatever solutions these groups find." (Cohen 1980)

21."...The moral panics involve the focus of the media and the mobilisation of the police, courts and other agencies of social control." (suggested by Young 2009)

"

Moral Panics Research - Kenneth Thompson (5)

Moral Panics, Kenneth Thompson - book

1.'The first is the increasing rapidity in the succession of moral panics; one barely finishes before another takes its place' (pg 2)

2.'But it is not the rapidity that is different, it is the all - perceived quality of the panics that distinguishes the present era' (pg  2)

'3.The language of moral panic is not never. It is a compliant that has rung out down the ages" (Peter Beaumount) (pg 3)

4.'...frequently used by the other people to describe the increasingly rapid succession of scares in the mass media about risks to social and moral order" (pg 139)

5."Leave people feeling anxious and at risk" (pg 190)

Skinhead Culture - Music

Skinhead Music

The skinhead subculture was originally associated with black music genres such as soul, ska, rocksteady and early reggae.The link between skinheads and Jamaican music led to the uprise of the skinhead reggae genre, performed by artists such as: Desmond Dekker, Derrick Morgan, Laurel Aitken, Symarip and The Pioneers.

The most popular music style for late-1970s skinheads was 2 Tone, which was a mix of ska, rocksteady, reggae, pop and punk rock, The 2 Tone genre was named after 2 Tone Records, an English record label that featured bands such as The Specials, Madness and The Selecter. Some late-1970s skinheads also liked certain punk rock bands, such as Sham 69 and Menace.

Also in the late 1970s, after the first wave of punk rock, many skinheads listened to Oi!, a working class punk genre Musically, Oi! mixes standard punk with elements of football chants, pub rock and British glam rock.The Oi! scene was partly a response to a sense that many individuals in the early punk scene were "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic ... and losing touch"

Although many white skinheads listened to Oi! music, they also developed a separate genre that was more in line with their politics they believed in -  Rock Against Communism.The most notable RAC band was Skrewdriver, which started out as a non-political punk band but changed into a neo-Nazi band after the first lineup broke up and a new lineup was formed.RAC started out musically similar to Oi! and punk, but has since become a mix of many styles. White power music that sounds like hardcore is sometimes called hatecore.

Skinhead Culture

In Britain in the late 1960s there existed a youth sub-culture known as Mods. A lot of the tough Mods began to cut their hair close to the scalp, both as a fashion statement and due to the fact that it kept their hair out of their faces and made it impossible to grab during a fight. The fights often take place in the streets and would involve chains, boots, fists, and anything else they could get their hands on. This was the beginning on skinheads.

It is a stereotype that all skinheads were racist but this is not true. Towards the beginning of the 70’s when skinhead culture was prominent teenagers were becoming skinheads for two vital reasons, the fighting and style. It was very popular to be a skinhead during the 70’s because they had a reputation and if you were a skinhead it automatically meant that people were scared of you. In the mid 70’s the National Front and Britain's National Socialist Party began to infiltrate the skinhead movement. They did this by recruiting the skins from within and having their other foot soldiers dress in the skinhead style. In this way they were able to capitalise on the reputation of the skinheads, mostly in terms of fighting and intimidation. This is when the fascist movement began within the skinheads.

Music was very important to skinheads as the Jamaican music known as ska was very influential in the beginning of the establishment of Skinheads. This was due to the influx of Jamaican immigrants in the UK. In the mid 70’s skinheads began to listen to punk rock, a new wave of music in which they could call their own. These changes in music led to even more diversification among the skinhead groups. Every band seemed to have their own political agenda. Those with political leanings to the right were associated with the racists and fascists, whereas those to the left were generally more concerned with working-class labour type politics. Those that had no political agenda tended to shun both sides.

In the early 80’s, the skinhead movement began to appear throughout the rest of Europe and the United States. Around this same time, many leftist skins began to fight back in an effort to throw out the racist and facist skinheads that had infiltrated the group.

Skinheads have been consistently stereotyped by the press since the late 60s. The racist tag that skinheads have been labeled with has pretty much excluded them from ever being an ‘acceptable’ subculture. Violence and drugs can be forgotten, but not racism. It is pretty clear that skinheads haven’t died out despite the negative representation that the media have tarnished them with. Older skinheads, or those who used to be part of the scene before, have tried to keep the culture alive and ensured it is passed down. Skinhead culture is never going to become ‘cool’ in the way other cultures have and while some are still drawn to it on their own, it’s the old skinheads who have kept the flame burning.

Research - Moral Panics

Moral Panics and the Media

Goes into detail about what a moral panic is, how it' created, act, all in the first sections called the introduction to moral panics

Moral Panics by Kenneth Thompson 

This book lists the different types of moral panics there is and how they represented in the media.

Moral Panics and the British Media 

Just about moral panics concepts and how the British media represents them.

Youth Justice: Critical Readings 

About youth but in chapter 1 and 5 it explains constructions of marl panics and folk devils. 

Moral Panics: Constructions of Social Deviance 

Different theories of moral panics and explanations.


http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-gram.htm#hege     hegemony 


http://www.rethink.org/news-views/2012/11/challenging-and-improving-press-coverage-of-mental-health     mental health charity 

Representations of Events - The Royal Wedding

T- Mobile Royal Wedding



This media text is an advert made by T-Mobile for celebrations of the Royal Wedding in 2011. The video brings in intertextual references of home videos, as we can see the camera is at hand held level and the camera tilts and shakes, to suggest that a family member or friend in the crowd of the wedding is recording this as the happy couple dance down the isle.

Audience Classification - TOWIE

Income/Status Model

In the income/status model you classify audience by there class and the job of the main wage earner. I think that the target audience for TOWIE would be E. This is because TOWIE does not require any education or class so to speak to understand the concept - its a reality TV. People from this model are mainly students and they would be likely to use TOWIE as a way of socialising and it might influence them on their sense of style.

Audience Profiling

The Audience Profile model creates an individual who would represent the mass target audience.
Name: Poppy
Age: 21
Family: Lives with friends/boyfriend
Self-Image: Very important
Education: University
Location: England
Ethnicity: British
Religion: Not important to her
Politics: Not important to her

Young and Rubicam (4 C's)

This model characterises people into recognisable stereotype's that reject the operation of each of a set of well known human motives. I think the Aspirer would be the target audience for TOWIE as the Apsirer is a materialistic person who is driven by the opinions of others rather than their own values. They are superficial and want to be in fashion, as well as popular. Aspires would use TOWIE as a source of conversation and a source of fashion ideas that other Aspiriers agree to be acceptable and in-style.

Lifestyle Categories

This model is classifying the audience by their goals in life, because of this I think the audience of TOWIE would be a Trendie and a Groupie. A Trendie craves admiration from their peers and a Groupie wants to be accepted. I think that TOWIE has the Trendie and the Groupie as the target audience because both these categories want to be accepted by society and by watching TOWIE it gives them the opportunity to make social interactions with peers as they talk about the events in the show, and it can also help them become accepted and admired by their peers if they wear similar clothing to a cast member.   

Media Diary 2 - Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars is an American teen drama series, based loosely around a series of novels by Sarah Shepard. The show first aired in 2010in June on ABC, each episode lasting 45 minutes, and has become very popular in both the US and UK. It was produced by Lisa Cochran-Nailan. The series is based in a fictional town named Rosewood and revolves mainly around the lives of the four main characters - Aria, Hanna, Spencer and Emily. The four characters were once part of a clique at school but since the disappearance of their Queen B, Alison, the four have drifted apart. One year later, the girls start to receive mysterious messages from an unknown character named "A", threatening that if the girls do not do what there told their darkest secrets will be exposed to everyone. At first, the girls think its Alison herself but once her body is found, and the messages become more thrilling, they realise somebody else knows there deepest secrets - and the four are willing to risk there lives to keep them from being revealed.

 The main characters in Pretty Little Liars are all very different and I feel that a lot of teenage girls can relate to at least one of the characters. Each character has a different outlook on life, they each have their own sense of individuality that I feel alot of teenagers these days lack in. I wouldn't say the four characters are good role models - one repeatedlty sleeps with her sisters boyfriend, another has an ongoing affair with her teacher, lies are told constantly and are the reason of all the trouble in the first place - but I definitely feel that the characters are reliable. There is a little stereotypical view on Hanna - shes all-American, blue eyes blonde hair with a low IQ level who's had more of her fair share of boys in the series - but I think the target audience would relate to her the most as shes a character struggling to fit in with the pressure of peers. All of the actors are brilliant and very believable, I couldn't fault them.

 Pretty Little Liars was definitely the beginning of a a new teen-drama craze, as it started a lot of new series, such as Teen Wolf. I think a series like Pretty Little Liars was needed to fill the huge gap left by the ever so popular Gossip Girl, as most of Gossip Girl fans you will find to be Pretty Little Liar lovers as well. The series has previously been described as "The Desperate Housewives for teens".

The photographic composition of the series is well used to create the perfect tone and shades in thrilling scenes of Pretty Little Liars. The stunt work is a little over exaggerated but the 13-18 age group that mainly watch the show are not likely to notice. The music used in all the episodes are well know, recent hits that alot of the audience will of heard before. I feel the music matches the show perfectly as it makes the audience feel like its reality as the song they were listing too just this morning is playing in background. It all creates a very life like viewing.

I would give Pretty Little Liars a five star rating.

Media Diary 1 - We're The Millers

We're The Millers is a hysterical family film from Warner Brothers, written by Steve Faber and Dan Fyber, and directed by Rawson Marshal Thuber. This laugh out loud comedy is about a small town drug dealer, David Burke (Jason Sudeikis), who gets on his suppliers bad side, so to wipe his slate clean he has to smuggler drugs across the Mexican boarder. To do this the comical David rounds up his neighbors to pose as an All-American family, to help with the smuggling. His 'wife' Rose (Jennifer Aniston) is a stripper, his son Kenny (Will Poulter), a high school outcast, and his daughter Casey (Emma Roberts), a rough and homeless teen, all travel in a RV to Mexico.

 With allot of witty jokes and side-splitting gags, this movie really boils down to the fact that everybody wants what they cant have, but you should just seize the opportunities life throws at you.

 The funny cast is what really makes this film so good. I was surprised at how humorous Poulters' character was, he has some really priceless scenes that had the whole audience laughing, and I can proudly say I will never be able to listen to Waterfalls by Stooshie without thinking of this character. I was expecting more from Roberts though, as I feel as if her performance wasn’t as strong as the other cast members and her character is easily forgettable. I think Aniston will be critiqued on her performance in this film allot, as I had doubts she was the wrong Actress to play Rose, as the character is so different to characters she plays in allot of her other movies, but she done a good job.

I also think that We're The Millers is another great film by Thuber, of course it doesn’t beat the comical genies that is Dodge Ball, but I have high expectations that this film will be another great hit. Robert's character, Casey, is allot similar to Emma Stone's character, Olive, in Tuber's film Easy A, as the two characters share the similar cheeky teenage characteristics. Easy A is another comedy, just like We're The Millers, that has a heart-warming theme underneath all of the hysterical gags, directed by Thuber and I think he has a brilliantly witty mind at directing hit comedies, like these movies.

 I do feel that this movie dragged out some of the jokes and that it would have been better if the screenplay was shorter, but I did thoroughly enjoy this film. The music and sound was spot on, as was the cinematography, and the stunt work was brilliant and believable.

In conclusion, I think that We're The Millers is a fabulous laugh out loud comedy that will capture the heart of all ages. I would highly recommend this film.

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