Cohens Moral Panic

       In 1972, Stanley Cohen proposed a theory of Moral Panic. He explained that the trigger of this was when the “condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests”.

      The mass media hold authority to influence changes in society through publicising threats to the public. This may be threat from other countries, cultures, religion, drug and gang culture or even everyday things such as health risks to smoking and sunbeds.

      Goode and Ben-Yehuda suggested that moral panics can be recognised through several features. They may consist of the following characteristics:

·         Concern – Awareness that the behaviour of the possible defined threat and that it may have a negative impact on society.

·         Hostility – Society showing hostility towards the opposing group or threat. It can be seen as ‘them’ and ‘us’

·         Consensus – Concern does not have to come from a majority or be nationwide. There is moral panic if there is a large group of people opposing the threat and that these accept that the group in question poses a threat to society. The “moral entrepreneurs” which are the people that benefit through raising awareness and gathering support against the threat such as the mass media aim to make the opposing group appear weak, wrong and immoral.

·         Disproportionality – The action taken is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the accused group.  Meaning that the mass media will heavily publicise and raise awareness of the threat to create more support against the opposing group.

·         Volatility – Moral panics are highly volatile and do not tend to ‘sit on the fence’. They completely oppose a threat and do not question other possibly reasonable ideas. Moral panics tend to disappear as quickly as they appeared, this can be due to the mass media continuously proposing other threats and being heavily influential, meaning interest can be consumed by the next moral panic.

   One example of moral panic is violent video games. Jack Thompson, an American attorney, is widely known for his role as an anti video game activist. He is known for creating hysteria in court over the use of sex and violence in video games and how this affects gang culture and the youth in society.
  In history, Nazi Germany created a lot of moral panic against race and religion. Jews were driven out due to moral panic, to quote Hitler in 1938, "If we do not take steps to preserve the purity of blood, the Jew will destroy civilisation by poisoning us all".
  An example of a tabloid newspaper creating moral panic is when the Daily Star published an article on the 2nd December 1988 about the spreading of AIDS. To quote, "Surely if the human race is under threat, it is entirely reasonable to segregate AIDS victims, otherwise the whole of mankind could be engulfed.  
   
     In regards to a music magazine, it is important to understand the audience. Music magazines trade on oppositional culture. Those aimed at youths will not promote the typical things the mass media will promote. Other media texts such as newspapers, particularly tabloids will aim to create support against the opposition and what is ‘wrong’. However music magazines aimed at a younger generation can be aided by moral panics as youth rebel against confinement and what other generations and those more conservative may oppose. For example, Pete Doherty still remained on the front page of NME and other similar magazines and still an idol to many despite being pictured by the paparazzi falling out of clubs, heavily smoking and drinking.