Moral panics and the mediaA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWmessages directly to the online public by using
the various avenues of expression off ered by the
internet, such as blogging and tweeting.
▶Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (Rout-
ledge, 2002); Chas Critcher, ed., Critical Readings:
Moral Panics and the Media (Open University Press/
McGraw-Hill Education, 2006); Erich Goode and
Nachman Ben-Yehuda’s note in Moral Panics: Th e
Social Construction of Deviance (Wiley-Blackwell,
2009).
Moral panics and the media Individuals and
social groups can by their activities emerge
as a focus for outrage expressed by infl uential
members of society who perceive these activities
as seriously subverting the mores and interests
of the dominant culture. Such reactions are,
says Stanley Cohen in Folk Devils and Moral
Panics (MacGibbon & Kee, 1972, edited by
Cohen and Jock Young; 3rd edition, Routledge,
2002), disseminated by the mass media usually in
an hysterical, stylized, and stereotypical manner,
thus engendering a sense of moral panic.
Generally such panics have occurred in relation
to other, for example when immigrants or
asylum-seekers are perceived, via media cover-
age, and the repetition of that coverage over time
and by agencies with political motivation, as a
threat; a problem about which those in authority
seem to be doing nothing, or too little.
In the 2002 edition of his book, Cohen argues
that over the years, ‘the objects of moral panic
belong to seven familiar clusters of social iden-
tity’. Th e clusters and related fears are catego-
rized as follows: Young, Working-class, Violent
Males; School Violence: Bullying and Shootouts;
Wrong Drugs: Used by Wrong People at Wrong
Places; Child Abuse, Satanic Rituals and Paedo-
phile Registers; Sex, Violence and Blaming the
Media; Welfare Cheats and Single Mothers; and
Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Flooding our
Country, Swamping our Services. Th e individual
or group exemplars of these are the folk devils in
an (otherwise) ordered society and perceived as
a threat to that ordered society.
Just as the focus for a moral panic may be
predictable, so too, argues Cohen, are the
essential features of the way in which panics are
constructed. Specifi c panics may be seen as new
but also as ‘camoufl aged versions of traditional
and well-known evils’. Panics are of concern in
their own right, but are also seen as ‘... warning
signs of the real, much deeper and more preva-
lent condition’. Panics are ‘transparent ... but also
opaque’ and ‘accredited experts’ are engaged to
explain the hidden dangers to the public.
Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda inThe first, operated by the keyboard, punches
coded holes into a paper tape; the second has the
tape fed into it and the code controls the casting
operation. In monotype casting, unlike linotype
printing, every letter and space is cast separately.
Monroe motivated sequence Five-step
sequence advocated by American Professor Alan
Monroe in Principles of Speech Communication
by Douglas Ehninger, Bruce E. Cronbach and
Monroe (Scott Foresman, 1984) for use in orga-
nizing speeches, especially those with an intent
to persuade. Th e fi rst step is to command, and
maintain, audience attention by some eye- or
ear-catching device (such as a lively story, anec-
dote or dramatic set of statistics). Th e second
step is to fulfil an audience need, achieved
through making the speech relevant. What
follows is satisfaction, where possible solutions
are proposed and examined. Th e speaker then
proceeds to visualization, where the audience is
persuaded to see more clearly how the speaker’s
information or ideas will help them. Step fi ve is
action, a plea for response, for the taking-up of
the speaker’s points.
Montage From the French, ‘monter’, to assemble;
the process of cutting up film and arranging
- editing – it into the screened sequence. Th e
Russian fi lm director Sergei Eisenstein (1898–
- explained montage as putting together
camera shots which, in combination, made a
greater impact than did the sum of the parts
- a creative juxtaposition. Separate elements
combine to produce a new meaning. Montage is
the synthesis that gives fi lm its unique character.
Montage is used as a narrative device and
an expressive device, the one concerned with
sequencing, ensuring the smooth continuity of
action, the other with the intention of producing
a particular eff ect by the clash, comparison or
contrast of two or more images, often symbolic
or metaphoric in meaning. Th is use of montage
is often compared with collage in art, in that
it draws attention to itself as an exercise in
construction: it says, ‘Look at me as fi lm, not
reality.’ See alienation effect; kuleshov
effect; shot.
Moral economy See hict project.
Moral entrepreneurs Howard Becker fi rst used
this term in Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology
of Deviance (Free Press, 1963) to describe those
members of the community who take upon
themselves the role of guard dog, vigilant
against alleged attempts to subvert public
morals. Such individuals often try, sometimes
with success, to use the media to gain public
support for their views; or latterly to aim their