What Does the Phrase Moral Panic Mean - Essay Example

Blaine (2008) extensively talks about the concept of moral panic. He explains that the term moral panic, is an intense feelings usually expressed in a group of people or a population specifically about issues posing threat to social cohesion and order (Blaine, 2008). A moral panic is majorly controversy or deep issue fueling arguments that could possibly create social tension. To perfectly understand a moral panic, it is essential to have efficient knowledge on what morals are and what panic is, with this, it shall be clear as to how and why the term moral panic came to being, therefore, the topics of discussion in this essay will be morals, panics, moral panic, and how the media is said to be responsible for creating moral panic (Blaine, 2008). Through clear definitions and history, this essay will show how the term came to use, additionally, using past as well as contemporary examples, show how the media contributes to moral panic in different societies (Blaine, 2008). And with a brief summary of the contents of the essay, as well as a clear stand that indeed the media contributes to moral panic, the essay will be concluded. Butts (2006) explain that the concept of morality is borrowed from the Latin word, denoted as “moralis”. He further goes on to denote that it means a message or lesson that is learnt, through an outcome of a given event, or a narration (Butts, 2006). It majorly concerns or relates to what is considered right or wrong in society. Morals are passed from one individual to another is society through socialization which is one of the key functions of the various institutions that exists in society namely the family, religion, the school and many more (Blaine, 2008). These institutions majorly use literature among the very many medium that exist to pass down morals from one generation to another. This is normally done through the use of literature that explains fictional stories such as Goosebumps (Blaine, 2008). These stories served as an avenue of entertainment but also as a source of morals because they informed, improved, and instructed their readership or audience (Butts, 2006), for example, the novels by Dickens Charles, over the years have been a great source of morality. This is because Charles Dickens has extensively written on the various social and economic ills that face the society. Charles Dickens, in his book, David Copperfield talks extensively on the economic and social ills of the society (Dickens, 1899). Panic on the other hand is the sudden feeling of fear that is usually very great at particular instances that it replaces reasonable thinking with overwhelming agitation as well as anxiety (clarke, 2002). Panic might be experienced by an individual or get experienced by a group of people all at once at times referred to as panic of the mass or mass panic (Kenneth, 2006). Panic dates back, way back, and man over the years has deduced means of using panic to his advantage. It is believed that men used panic during the pre-historic period to hunt animals for food (Clarke, 2006).For example, pre-historic man would make weird sounds by blowing horns and would use this to direct herds to cliff edges and the animals would jump to their deaths or cripple themselves making it easy for man to get hold of them(Louse, 1986). However, humans are also victims to panic. Research has proved that panic can be infectious, in the sense that one person’s panic can easily be spread to others in a group and suddenly the whole group would be in panic (Kenneth, 2006). For example, A student in class expecting to seat for examination receives a rumor that the lecturer gave particular notes that he and a group of other students never got, hence, never read (Clarke, 2002).As soon as this student tells the others they also start to panic. It’s important to note that people have the ability to control their own panic as well as other peoples panic by using a series of disaster control skills as well as disciplined thinking (Blaine, 2008). As defined earlier, moral panic or moral panics are intense feelings usually expressed in a group of people or a population specifically about issues posing threat to social cohesion and order (Kenneth, 2006).They are majorly controversies or deep issues fueling arguments that could possibly create social tension. Furthermore, most of the time reaching agreement at such arguments is usually very difficult because the issue is normally a taboo (Blaine, 2008). The media, this includes print media, mass media, and radio, are usually the main players in the dissemination of strong displeasures also referred to as moral indignation (Kenneth, 2006).Even when not doing consciously, the media does (Blaine, 2008). The simple act of reporting an act and facts about the act is enough to generate panic, concerns, and anxiety. The term moral panic first appeared in the English language in the 1880s.Moral panics have a set of features, which include hostility (Kenneth, 2006). There is a harsh environment created between the moral entrepreneurs and the folk devils, people on either side become rigid or draw a line between them and us. Concern; this is a belief that is created that folk devils behavior will create a negative effect to society, Consensus; This is where the moral entrepreneurs become vocal in support against the folk devils and the folk devils appear weak but still standing their ground (Kenneth, 2006). Dis-proportionality; this is usually the action taken in to counter the behavior of the folk devils that is considered as a threat, Volatility; It’s important to note that moral panics are usually very volatile. They tend to disappear as fast as they appeared, majorly due the influence of the media changing to other articles of news (Kenneth, 2006). Moral panics promoted by the media in different societies include the following: The notion that Hip Hop music promotes and turns the American youth to violence, thug life and sex addiction. In the United Kingdom, there was moral panic created by the media that the Harry Potter books as well as movies promoted witchcraft in society (Kenneth, 2006). Additionally, in the United States of America (USA), there was moral panic that Heavy metal music promoted Satanism, drug addiction and sexual violence, and was also promoted by the media. Sometime back in the United Kingdom, there was moral panic caused by the media; it was referred to as “video nasties” (Holmes, 2012), it is immediately after that, a series of movies were banned for reasons of promoting immorality. The Pokémon game also in the United States of America received its fair share of moral panic promoted by the media, the moral advocates championed that the game was bad influence to children by promoting psychic abilities, a thing that is un-realistic (Kenneth, 2006). In this particular essay, the Ebola moral panic is of more concern. In the United States of America, a fierce debate cropped up after the media showcased a case in which a Liberian citizen was allowed to go out to the community by the Dallas hospital, only to die of Ebola, after returning to the Hospital a few weeks later (Spark, 2014). With this debate, arose many ideas on how to prevent such an outbreak from happening in the United States. From most of the suggestions, every element of moral panic could be traced in the above Ebola scare (Spark, 2014). This included: The fear, that the folk devils i.e. the infected Africans would come to the United States, hence, pressure to ban entry into the United States by nationals from the affected countries, and the fear was far disproportionate i.e. thinking that the disease is as contagious as particular diseases, for example, Influenza that claims thousands of innocents lives every year (Spark, 2014). In conclusion, panic is the sudden feeling of fear that is usually very great at particular instances that it replaces reasonable thinking with overwhelming agitation as well as anxiety. Morals are simply rules set by society that dictate or put the boundary between right and wrong. Moral panic is an intense feelings usually expressed in a group of people or a population specifically about issues posing threat to social cohesion and order. A moral panic is majorly controversy or deep issue fueling arguments that could possibly create social tension. It is true that the media influences moral panic, when the media gives publicity to various incidences that would cause intense feelings of fear, the public panics like in the above Ebola scare. Bibliography BLAINE, F. (2008). From continuence to virtue: RecoveringGoodness, Character unityand character types for positive psychology and thinking. Theory and Psychology, 629-653. BUTTS, D. (2006). Childrens literature. Newyork: oxford university press. CLARKE, L. (2002). Panic, myth or reality. Contexts magazine. DICKENS, C. (1899). David Copperfield. London: T. Nelson GOODE, E., & BEN YEHUDA, N. (2009). Moral panics, the social construction of deviance. oxford: London. HOLMES, M. (2012). Video nasties KENNETH, T. (2006). The history and the meaning of the concept:in critcher chas. critical readings, moral panics and the media. Newyork: open university press. LOUSE, B. (1986). Human ancestors: Changing views of their behaviour. Journal of Anthropological Archeology, 235-257. Top of Form SPARK, J. (2014). Facts You Need to Know about the Ebola Crisis. Createspace. Bottom of Form Read More