Week 4: Wednesday March 27th 2002
(Richard Griffiths)
"Deviance in the Media: The Presentation of Folk Devils, Moral and Synthetic Panics".

Summary of main points; Quotations from lecture; List of suggested readings

Introduction
The perception that a person or group is dangerous to society or a community is by no means a twentieth century phenomenon. Indeed, historical examples exist that demonstrate how certain individuals or groups have been perceived as a threat to the moral fabric that holds "civilized" society together. At the beginning of the 21st century the media still draws our attention to potentially deviant people who are presented as being on the fringes or margins of "normal" society. Today's lecture is an exploration of the notion of "folk devils", "moral" and "synthetic panics" and how we learn of social problems, dangerous individuals and subcultures via different forms of mainstream media such as television, newspapers and the Internet. While a number of overseas examples will be presented, I also discuss several specific case studies taken from a NZ context.

Cohen and Moral Panics

The terms folk devil and moral panic are widely attributed to Stanley Cohen who in the early 1970s produced a detailed sociological investigation of the Mods and Rockers, subcultural groups that appeared during the 1960s. In his opening chapter, Cohen argues that: "Societies appear to be subject... to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests.... The moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible"
(Cohen 1980, 9).

Cohen's Phases of a Moral Panic (Basic Framework / Model)

The actual model that Cohen employs to discuss the Mods and Rockers panic was inspired by the work of disaster researchers relating to the social and psychological impact of disasters such as tornadoes and floods, but also human-manufactured disasters such as bomb attacks. Subsequently, he reworks the series of events that accompany such disasters into the following categories or phases:

Warning: Signs that indicate imminent danger become present
Impact: The disaster strikes, followed by an immediate unorganized response to the death, injury or destruction
Inventory: Those affected by the disaster form a preliminary picture of what has happened and of their own condition.
Reaction: A number of different "formal" responses take place to help those affected by the disaster in order to return the community to its former equilibrium.

(Cohen 1980, 23).
Cohen argues that the exaggeration and distortion of truth by the mass media is a significant characteristic of a moral panic. He locates this type of exaggeration and distortion within the category of "media inventory". To support this argument, he suggests that such "over-reporting" will include sensational and misleading headlines and melodramatic vocabulary.

Another facet of the inventory is that during the reporting stage of a moral panic the mass media becomes responsible for perpetuating stereotypes or symbolization. For example, he contends that: a word (i.e. Mod) becomes symbolic of a certain status (delinquent or deviant); objects (hairstyle, clothing) symbolize the word; the objects themselves become symbolic of the status (and the emotions attached to the status) (Cohen 1980, 40).

He suggests that the word -in this case Mods / Rockers- became a "general term of abuse" and loaded with wholly negative meanings.

References / Suggested Readings

Cohen, Stanley. 1980. Folk Devils and Moral Panics. The Creation of Mods and Rockers. 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Goode, Erich and Nachman Ben-Yehuda. 1994. Moral Panics. The Social Construction of Deviance. Oxford and New York: Blackwell.
Hall, Stuart, Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke, and Brian Roberts. 1978. Policing the Crisis. Mugging, the State, and Law and Order. London: Macmillan.
Hebdige, Dick. 1979. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London and New York: Methuen and Co. Ltd.
Jenkins, Philip. 1999. Rave Drugs and Rape Drugs in Synthetic Panics. The Symbolic Politics of Designer Drugs. New York and London: New York University Press.
Parrinder, G. 1973. The witch as victim in The Witch Figure: Folklore Essays. ed. V. Newall. London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 125-138.
Shuker, Roy. 1994. Understanding Popular Music. London and New York: Routledge.
Shuker, Roy. 2001. Understanding Popular Music. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge.
Springhall, John. 1998. Youth, Popular Culture and Moral Panics. Penny Gaffs to Gangsta-Rap, 1830-1996. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Thornton, Sarah. 1995. Club Cultures. Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Cambridge and Oxford: Polity Press.
Wright, Robert. 2000. I'd sell you suicide: pop music and moral panic in the age of Marilyn Manson in Popular Music, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 365-385.

| Faculty of Arts | University of Auckland | Sociology | Last updated: 15 April 2002


	SOCIOLOGY 318