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MORAL PANICS - Coggle Diagram
MORAL PANICS
MODS AND ROCKERS
- Cohen examines the medias response to disturbances between 2 groups of largely working class teenagers, the mods & rockers and the way this caused a moral panic
- mods wore smart dress and rode scooters
- rockers wore leather jackets and rode moterbikes
- though in the early stages he distinctions weren't so clear endnote many people identifyd themselves as belonging to any of the groups
- the confrontations started in 1964, with a few scruples, stone throwing, broken windows and beach huts wrecked
- although this disorder was relitevly minor, the media over-reacted
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- EXAGGERATION & DISTORTION:
- The media exaggerated the numbers involved and the extent of violence and damadge
- this was through dramatic reporitmh and sensational headlines
- PREDICTION:
- the media regularly assumes and predicted further conflict and violence would occur
- SYMBOLISATOTION:
- The symbols of the mods and rockers- clothes, bikes, scooters, hairstyles were all labelled and associated with deviance
- An important element in this process is the creation of moral panic
- this is an exaggerated over-reaction by society to a perceived problem, usually driven by the media
- the media identify a group as folk devil/threat to society's values
- the media presence the group in a negative, stereotypical fashion and exaggerate the scale of the problem
- moral entrepreners, editors, politicians & other respectable authorities condemn the group and its behaviours
- this usually leads to a crackdown on the group
- howver this may create a self-fulfilling prophecy that amplifies the very problem that caused the panic in the fist place
- e.g in the case of drugs, setting up special drug squads led the police to discover more drug taking
-as the crackdown identifies more deviants, there are calls for even tougher action creating a deviance amplification spiral
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WIDER CONTEXT
- Cohen puts the moral panic about mods and rockers into wider context of post war British society
- this was time when newfound affluence, consumerism and hedonism of the young appeared to challenge the views of the older generation
- Cohen argues moral panics occur at times of change reflecting the anxieties people may feel when accepted values seem to be undermined
- he argues moral panics was result of boundary crisis where there was uncertainty between boundary of acceptable and not acceptable behaviour
- One further way the media has caused crime and deviance is through labelling
- moral entrepreneurs who disapprove of partciular behaviour may use media to put pressure on authorities to 'do something' about the alleged problem
- if successful, their campaigning will result in the negative labelling of the behaviour and perhaps change in the law
- e.g introduction of marijuana Tax Act in USa