User:Mmora243/sandbox

In the social panic article I am going to include:

• How terrorist attacks and other events cause social panic
• How it relates to moral panic
• Causes of moral panics
• The media

Sections within the article:

• The media:

I am going to include on how they make people aware of what is happening, how exaggeration causes people to become more anxious, and the relationship between the media and moral panic

• Causes:

I will talk about three theoretical models: The Grass Roots Model, The Elite-Engineered Model, and The Interest Group Model

• Terrorism

I will talk about the 9/11 events and how we respond in those type of situations

References

Lead

According to Folk Devils and Moral Panic by Stanley Cohen, the definition can be broken down to many different sections. The sections, which were identified by Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda in 1994, include concern, hostility, consensus, disproportionality, and volatility. Concern, which is not to be mistaken with fear, is about the possible or potential threat. Hostility occurs when there is moral outrage toward the people who were apart of the problem and agencies who are accountable. These people are seen as the enemy since their behavior is viewed as a danger to society. Consensus includes a distributed agreement that an actual threat is going to take place. This is where the media and other sources come in to aid in spreading of the panic. Disproportionality compares how people react and the actual seriousness of the condition. Volatility is when there is no longer any more panic.

Woman in public experiencing concern.

Causes

• Grass Root Model describes that moral panic commonly occurs first through the people in society. This alarming feeling is dispersed throughout everyone in society when they feel that something meaningful is threatened. This sense of panic not only displays itself through the people but also through areas such as the media and political groups. The media serves as a way to present the public opinion about the reality of the situation. This theory states that the media can’t report concern where none originally exists. The media and politicians are merely an outlet for displaying what people are expressing. Furthermore, the media can affect the way the public sees situations. An example of this theory is how people cause moral panics due to nuclear power. There was an incident called the Three Mile Island accident where there was a nuclear meltdown. The only reason people knew about it was because people were evacuated out of their homes. This panic was caused by the general public, not by elites or interest group as in the model's explained below.
• The Elite-Engineered Model explains that moral panics are exaggerated or invented problems created by elites or people who are considered higher among others in society. It is evident that they have a great amount of power. They produce fear among the other classes over an issue that is not considered dangerous to the society. The reason for these actions is to redirect the attention away from the problems that impact the elite or those in power. These people who are considered elite can be seen as someone who runs a company and is very rich. It is these types of people who have connections with the media and are familiar with politicians that can make proposals that are in their favor. An example that illustrates this theory can be seen the Russians, specifically the Czars, who turned the focus away from the anger of poverty by spreading a Jewish conspiracy. This caused mobs to form and kill Jewish communities. This capacity of the elites to control direct allows them to accomplish their own goals. They want to continue to benefit from the economic and political inequality.
• The Interest-Group Model are made by people in interest groups who direct the publics focus on actions that are intended to be morally negative and be a danger to society. They want them to recognize a problem that affects them directly. Unlike in the Elite-Engineered model, the interest group are the ones who create moral panic. Interest groups believe they are providing a public service because they will benefit from what they are doing. They do this by using the media to influence public opinion. If they are successful in doing this it will call attention to their particular interest group and will gain the trust of society, wealth, and be more advanced than opposing interest groups. An example that demonstrates this theory is when politicians, in order to get reelected, used the issue of drug abuse in the United States to cause moral panic. However, even though they wanted to remain in office they still believed that drug use was a problem they wanted to address to the public.

The Media

The media plays a crucial part in delivering social reaction. According to Stanley Cohen, there are three processes that the media expresses. Exaggeration and distortion describe what the individual said or did. The second is prediction which include the result of failure to act. The third is symbolism.

Exaggeration and Distortion

In this process the media can “over-report” by their choice of words. Journalists aren’t careful when they use words to describe different types of situations. For example, how the word disturbance can be used in the same way as having a noise complaint due to loud music next door and having a group of people acting violently by throwing rocks and setting vehicles on fire. This can make people overreact when viewing problems that are not as serious as others. Wording stories can make a minor problem seem more dangerous than it really is. This guides them in the wrong direction and lead people to believe that disturbances, acts of terrorism, riots, and instances have the same meaning.

Furthermore, the headlines used by the media might cause society to act irrationally to a story with minor issues. They can be reported as misleading and can add information that has nothing to do with the actual story. Negative words such as violence can be used when there was no violence involved. The media can also point to specific characteristics that are the reason for the crime that was committed. For example, a story can discuss a murder but the headline focusses on the hoodie the culprit was wearing. Emphasizing the hoodie will draw attention to what the person was wearing instead of the murder that took place. This causes people to become paranoid and overreact when they see someone wearing clothing that looks suspicious.

Prediction

This is where the media portrays that the incident that occurred is going to happen again. The media can describe that the situation will eventually happen again, which is not always the case. People involved describe what should be done the next time it happens and what precautions should be taken. Predicting the future can cause people to constantly be thinking about what could go wrong and lead to catastrophe. This can cause major stress on the individual and cause them to have social panics more often. There are certain situations where making predictions is necessary for the security of society such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. Without making these crucial preparations it will lead to disaster.

Symbolization

This involves stereotypes and those words and images possess symbolic powers that can cause different emotions. Symbolization can be described in three processes. It includes the word such as deviant and "it becomes symbolic of a certain status." Then the object, which can include clothing, represents the word. Therefore, the object can also symbolize the status. Neutral words can symbolize an event or emotion such as the word Hiroshima. Even though it is just a city in Japan, people have specific feelings connected to that word that reminds them of the bombing that occurred there. Furthermore, the use of labels given to a person or word puts them in a certain group in society. Those individuals that are in that group are viewed and interpreted based on their label. Symbolization and exaggeration and distortion are similar in the sense that they both use misleading headlines that creates negative symbols. For example, images can be posed to seem more dramatic or intense then they really are. There is no reason to come to any conclusions that the television news or photographs display reality.

Reaction

After the tragic events of 9/11 people are left in fear of crisis occurring again. According to Robert Wuthnow in his book, Be Very Afraid, people have responded aggressively. Our actions are to spend large amounts of money in fighting terrorism. The United States has spent that billions and trillions on defense and homeland security respectively. However, the problem lies on how we react.

Since people have become more defensive the focus need to be directed in the correct way of acting instead of responding improperly. As mentioned earlier, predicting about the endless possibilities about what can happen can be just dangerous as the threat itself. People don’t believe they can defend themselves from future terrorist’s attacks they think will happen again. Individuals were constantly reminded of the concern and fear they should be experiencing by the tremendous amount of media coverage and books being published long periods after the September 11 attacks. The event caused “personal engagement” around the world. In Boston people questioned others about ties they had with Osama bin Laden and in New Jersey and Florida residents learned that the attackers where their neighbors. These attacks were unlike any other attacks since people experienced it firsthand whether on the news or in person. However, the natural response of Americans during this time was to take action. Facing the fear of terrorism was a characteristics people shared that either wanted revenge or those who argued for caution.

Criticism

Angela McRobbie and Sarah Thornton claim that Stanley Cohen's work on moral panic is outdated and argue that more modern information is required. McRobbie suggests that idea of moral panic has become so common that the media are knowingly and mindfully using it. Thornton argues that originally the media caused moral panics inadvertently, however now the media manipulates it on its own. Yvonne Jewkes recognizes problems and formed concepts about moral panic. To begin with, she describes the term as vague and the failure to clarify the position of the public "as media audiences or a body of opinion." (Critcher) She goes on to explain that the social panics are not gladly received by the government. There is also no proof that society has an extensive social anxiety surrounding them. Jewkew as also mentioned by McRobbie believes that moral panic is widely used by the media. She concludes that in order for this to become a "sound conceptual basis" it needs to be revised and careful improvements. (Critcher)