For most people, the mass media is the primary source of information on events outside of ones’ personal experiences. It therefore wields an immense amount of influence over the public’s perceptions and opinions, and accordingly, it is reasonably assumed that it will generally present the public with balanced and unprejudiced news coverage. So how and why are moral panics generated? Kelsey and Young’s study “The Gangs: moral panic as social control” (1982) details the processes of news reporting which lead to moral panics. They divide their explanation into three distinct sections: the collection, selection and presentation of news.
The collection of news is the first stage. At this point the media is required to make decisions about what constitutes news. It is generally noteworthy and recent information that arouses the interest of its target audience. News most often relates events that are out of the ordinary and especially unusual, and unsurprisingly, this regularly includes matters of deviance. Crime is perhaps the most obvious example of regularly reported deviant behaviour. Criminal offending stimulates concern and is perceived as a threat because it challenges societal values and order. When the media use crime as news then, it draws a distinction between what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour: “media coverage of crime becomes, in effect, a form of moral instruction” (Kelsey and Young, 1982, p.7).
The sources of information for news on criminal offending are also significant in the collection process. The courts and the police are most often used as the primary sources for such reporting. Not only are they accessible agencies for journalists, but they are widely considered to be extremely reliable and credible references. In contrast, the perpetrators of crimes are rarely given the opportunity to share their perspective as they are stigmatised by society for their deviant behaviour. Thus, official agencies have a near-monopoly on the public knowledge of crime and are given a platform in the media to voice and promote their own policies and values (Kelsey and Young, 1982, pp.8-9).
The second stage of news production is the selection of material. At this point a number of judgements must be made regarding the prioritisation of collected news. John Galtung and Mari Ruge’s ‘news values’ established a number of criteria by which ‘newsworthiness’ can be assessed (Cohen and Young, 1974, p.62). For example, frequency, amplitude and continuity are three integral factors that influence news selection. Frequency refers to how easily the news can be understood, amplitude refers to the size and significance of the event, and finally continuity relates to how long a piece of news can be fuelled for over time. Unfortunately, important news is often structured around such criteria, sometimes at the expense of comprehensive and balanced reporting. If, for example, an article was to be written about a recent claim lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal, the historical context of the claim might be neglected to ensure the piece could be easily understood by readers and published expediently.
Public reaction to previously published news items is also an influencing factor in the selection of news. For example, if a news item on crime rates generates a public outcry, similar news items are more likely to be selected due to the heightened interest. The particular subject of crime incidence may receive prolonged and intensive coverage and as more such events are selected, the more frequent and threatening they will appear to be. “The fear that a major problem is emerging is consequently reinforced and perpetuated; and the total picture of crime may thereby be gravely distorted” (Kelsey and Young, 1982, pp.9-10). In such a case, the beginnings of a moral panic about crime rates can be seen.
The third and final stage of Kelsey and Young’s news production analysis details the presentation of the selected news. As news (the press, in particular) is also an economic venture, the producer of a paper must ensure it publishes what its potential consumers want to read. “News is therefore framed according to a set of assumptions about the particular views and attitudes held by the public, even although the reporter may not share those attitudes” (Kelsey and Young, 1982, p.11).
In the case of a moral panic then, the public mobilisation against a particular deviance encourages publishers to select more related material and present it in a manner that accords with what appears to be a social consensus of values. If a moral panic happens to revolve around crime for example, the press may seem to adopt a more conservative attitudes towards crime, and a tougher approach on sentencing. So in an ironic way, the public’s macabre fascination with what they fear fuels what might appear to be a terrifying increase of that very behaviour or event. Also, the news items that refer to the subject of the ‘moral panic’ may be sensationalised and exaggerated for the sake of publication sales.
An iconic early study of moral panic is Stanley Cohen’s examination of the 1964 ‘riot’ between Mods and Rockers in Clacton, England. Clacton, a small holiday resort on the East Coast was a “traditional gathering place over Bank Holiday weekends for kids from [suburban] London” (Cohen and Young, 1974, p.263). Easter 1964 was a particularly cold weekend, and the amusement facilities were even poorer than usual. Shopkeepers were disgruntled by a lack of business, and some of the local business operators refused to serve the young people. The general sense of boredom and irritability, combined with the dismal weather probably had much to do with the ensuing fracas. A few groups of youths began to assemble on the footpaths and threw stones at each other and the Mods and Rockers began to form distinct factions. “Those on bikes and scooters roared up and down, windows were broken, some beach huts were wrecked and one boy fired a starting pistol in the air” (Cohen and Young, 1974, p.263). Subsequently, people flowed into the streets, many as spectators, and noise levels grew. The police force was both unprepared and undermanned, and failed to control the situation adequately.
The following Monday, all but one of the national newspapers published leading reports on the subject and a media frenzy soon took hold. Editorials, interviews, photographs and interest pieces about Mods, Rockers and the supposed riot in Clacton were in abundance. Cohen makes reference to the ‘inventory phase’ which occurs after a physical disaster, and which seemed to manifest itself in this particular scenario. During this period, “those exposed to the disaster take stock of what has happened and rumours and ambiguous perceptions become the basis for interpreting the situation” (Cohen and Young, 1974, p.263). Subsequently, reports on the Clacton incident became exaggerated, distorted and sensationalised, inviting what Cohen first coined a ‘moral panic’.
On traditional holidays following the incident at Clacton, the mass media would effectively rehash the Clacton reports and relate it to another situation. Even the most isolated incidents of youth disturbances would be related to Clacton and the Mods and Rockers clash, effectively consolidating the public’s fear and concern about the nations new generation of young people who were “hell-bent for destruction” (Cohen and Young, 1974, p.263). In a fashion characterised by crime reporting, new events would ritualistically be over-reported and would receive saturation coverage. The seriousness of the events would be exaggerated and key facts such as the number of people involved in the occurrence, the number of people involved in the violence, and the amount and effects of the violence would be greatly overstated. The articles would be followed by the accounts of local police and court activity, and local reaction to the event. It was difficult to assess the accuracy of many of these reports as most were based on subjective interviews with those involved or present.
So, the media in this instance did generate a moral panic through the news reports of deviant behaviour. It “provided the content for deviant role playing by transmitting the stereotypical expectations of how persons in a particular deviant group should act” (Cohen and Young, 1974, p.457). The Mods and Rockers, and youths in general were subjected to stereotyping and scapegoating, subsequently solidifying the polarisation of these groups from society and concentrating the deeper social discords which may have caused the events to occur in the first place. The consistent over-reporting and re-reporting at each new holiday period “reinforced and magnified a predisposition to expect trouble” (Cohen and Young, 1974, p.457). And instead of functioning as a source of factual information, the media became an instrument through which rumours and subjective accounts of the events could reach a wider audience, thus consolidating the sense of social unease.
So, as seen in Cohen’s study of the Mods and Rockers moral panic, the media selects issues of deviance for news reports, largely because the public interest is aroused by the abnormal or unusual. However, in a number of these cases, where the news reports generate a public condemnation of that deviance, the media may (consciously or not) generate a moral panic. As Kelsey and Young’s (1982) study noted though, the media is not independently responsible or accountable for the generation of a moral panic as the selection and presentation of news is heavily influenced by public demand. Thus, the responsibility for the generation of moral panics should be shared. While the media should in such cases strive to maintain a sense of journalistic honesty and integrity, rather than being completely motivated by financial incentives and the public demand for scandal, the public should also appreciate a range of value systems exist and that opinion regarding deviance is not universal. The public should also be aware that the media supplies them with the material they seemingly want and accommodates for what it believes is a social consensus of values.
References
Cohen, Stan and Jock Young (1974). The manufacture of news. London: Constable.
Kelsey, Jane and Warren Young (1982). The gangs: moral panic as social control. Wellington: Institute of Criminology, Victoria University.
Shuker, Roy and Roger Openshaw (1990). Youth, media and moral panic in New Zealand. Palmerston North: Delta Research Monograph, Massey University.
Lecture Handout (07-10-02) Media coverage of deviance: moral panics.