Moral PanicsThis concise guide presents and compares the various different approaches that have been adopted in studies of moral panics and integrates concepts such as 'risk' which have been developed in related fields. With the increasing number of moral panics in recent years triggered by incidents such as the Bulger child murder by other children and the spread of AIDS, this book examines their wider significance, particularly in terms of the functioning of the mass media. In this book, Kenneth Thompson traces the developments in moral panic studies and also reintroduces some of the initial broader relevance of this field by treating moral panics not simply as separate episodes but in relation to systems of representation and regulation, and as symptoms of wider social and cultural tensions. |
Contents
Why the Panic? The Topicality of the Concept of Moral Panics | 1 |
The History and Meaning of the Concept | 7 |
Risk Society | 22 |
Discourses and Discursive Practices | 24 |
Mass Media and the Public Sphere | 27 |
The Classic Moral Panic Mods and Rockers | 31 |
The Role of the Media | 32 |
Social Control Agents and Moral Entrepreneurs | 36 |
Moral Panics About Sex and AIDS | 72 |
AIDS | 73 |
Family Children and Violence | 87 |
Children at Risk | 94 |
Video Nasties Panic | 102 |
Female Violence and Girl Gangs | 111 |
Moral Panics About Sex on the Screen | 121 |
Conclusion | 139 |
Social Context | 39 |
Summary of Cohens Approach | 42 |
Moral Panics About Youth | 43 |
Club Cultures and Raves | 50 |
Moral Panic About Mugging | 57 |
143 | |
Name Index | 149 |
152 | |
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Common terms and phrases
26 November AIDS American analysis anxiety Ben-Yehuda Birmingham Britain British broadcasting Bulger murder CCCS changes child abuse Clacton claimed claims-makers Cohen collective behaviour columnist concern coverage crime Daily Mail Daily Mirror developed deviance discourse discursive formation EastEnders episodes example fear feature female violence film focus folk devils Foucault girl gangs Guardian headline homosexuality ibid ideology images increase involved issue James Bulger Jenkins Leah Betts linked Mary Whitehouse mass media modern society Mods and Rockers moral campaign moral crusaders moral entrepreneurs moral panics mugging newspaper November NVALA particularly police political politicians popular pornography programmes quoted Rave culture representations risk society role sense sexual signification spiral social movements sociologists sociology Stanley Cohen story Stuart Hall study of moral suggested Sunday symbolic tabloid television theory threat tion traditional underclass victims video nasties Watney whilst women young youth culture youth subcultures