Sunday, 28 October 2012

Discussion.

Why Media?


Moral panic comes down to one thing and one thing only-people. However we cannot deny that the media seem to play a vital role in why moral panics become so wide spread. We cannot say the media is the only reason people panic because it seems that it also largely come down to politics. If the politicians or the people with the power do nothing about social issues then people panic regardless of whether it directly affects them. The media more often than not create fuel for the fires of panic. In saying this the media may not create or discover the issue but they defiantly spread the word and don’t necessarily give all the facts.an example of this is tabloids or celebrity papers. The main point of these papers is to entertain so only the relevant information is given to the reader. The same could be said about the news. Each form of media has its own way of twisting a story so that is becomes useful and relevant to their target audience.
The media is seen as the cause for the panic and the law is seen as the answer. History dictates that when people panic they want something to be done about it. In the war on drug people wanted more convictions given out to drug dealers. It is human nature to fell that a problem is being resolved if the is a new law or something of the like that shows that the people at the top are doing something.

As for the argument that media is the only reason that moral panics exist in today’s world because of the media this is not true. Regardless of whether or not the world had developed the way it has humans are still going to panic on mass about the new and intrusive thing that continue to find their way in to society. The issues moves from worrying about an issue to figuring out a way to make it better or change the way people are thinking about it. This is the politics behind it. Only people of power have the ability to calm mass panic down.

So in saying this it is not the media or forms of media that are causing the panic but they are rather bring attacted.it is said that letting your children watch TV is going to rot there brain. This has been proven false and so now most people no longer worry about it. However they moral panic movement has moved on. Now days it is the effects of social media that worries the world.
History and human nature dictates that there is always going to be big or small crises that people are going to blow out of proportion. It seems to stem from the parenting instinct that humans have. The protective element of life that means everything must be safe and sounds all the time. This will never be reality.
All in all we cannot blame media for creating panic but we can blame then for spreading rumours and with holding the truth. The other side of the argument is that different forms of media are the only things that are creating panic. There has always been a certain amount of scepticism that comes with new technology. When computers were first released to the public it was believed that they would take over the world. Since the panic has progressed and changed so that the general belief is that social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter are causing illiterate and stunted brains in teenage. There are many arguments for and against this claim and many for it as well. It may not be the actually medium that is creating the panic but it is the people and the scepticism around it that is the problem.
In conclusion moral panic can be found everywhere and it is part of human nature. There is no denying that the media is seen as a catalyst for the panic but there is no solid evidence that this is the outright creation of it. It seems that people will always panic and will find someone or something to blame.in this day and age it is the media as well as the different technological mediums in the world.

Con Article #3


The irritating whine of another moral panic
Guthrie, Jonathan

 This article covers the controversy that comes with the development of a new piece of technology called the mosquito. This machine produces a sound at a frequency that only young sensitive ears can hear and is used to repel them from outside shops. The controversy and the so-called panic behind this is that the older generation are become to set in treating teenagers differently to adults and this is creating havoc. The mosquito is said to be a crime against civil right and that it is not viewed this way because it is aimed at teenagers. The other argument is that it is essential a form of sonar war fear and that nothing like this should be used on members of the public for something as simple as loitering. The mosquito is popular in Britten and is being compared to other safety measures that people take for example shop keeps in America having handguns behind the counter for safety measures. The final issue is who has the last say or the right in this situation. Is it the teenagers or the people speaking on their behalf saying that it is an act of social indecency or the shop owners who are saying that it is a precaution and a inhibitor to crime?

Con Article #2


Whose side were we on? The undeclared politics of moral panic theory by Stanley Cohen Crime Media Culture 2011

This Article follows the issues of the politics or the hidden politics of moral panics. With ever so called moral panic there is a hidden political agenda. An idea is also brought up that every moral panic is either good or bad and the politics and the follows of the so called panic is what makes it one or the other. An example is the so called crimes that have no victims witch was a very loosely used term in the 1970’s this could be anything from homosexuality to drug taking. This is supposedly what causes the blurring between crime and politics. Politics decided that too much was being criminalised and so things had to change. People suddenly felt unsafe with not only the people making the decision but also the environment they were in. This creates a response in a population also known as a moral panic.  The Crimes that have no victims were changed because of the people come forward that said they were affected by the crime and there for justifying the reasoning behind it. This brings us to the idea that people or groups only use what is relevant to their case and not what affects the topic as a whole. A question is asked to water every moral panic has the same social standing as another or weather things like gender and race effect how they are viewed. Finally there is a small discussion on the differences in moral panics and moral crises and how difficult it is to find the line between them. Again this comes down to the politics behind moral panics and the idea that even without the media of today people would still panic when something knew of different happens.



Con Article #1


Moral Panic and Social Theory : Beyond the Heuristic by Amanda Rohloff and Sarah Wright

This article coves the basis that the term moral panic is overused and that the idea of moral panic has been lost overtime because of different aspects of life. The issues that the term is facing are normativity, temporality and unintentionally vs. intentionality. These problems are cause moral panics to be accepted into everyday life and often overlooked or misused. The term is now more often than not used as a term of social critiques more that outright panic. The other issues cover the problem of the time and the how of the panic that is happening. Weather a long or short panic time all panics can be seen as timeless because a logical transition can be seen between each new panic. The last point is who is fuelling the panic and this seem sot come down to a political statement where  a small or large group of people who see a problem and want something done about it and are only satisfied when a law or something of the like is passed. Finally the debate on whether the things people are classing as moral panics is simply society coming to terms with the new developments in life also known as moral regulations. This final statement is that there is a difference in the theory of moral panics and the reality of the way the world sees its self. The media only acts as a catalyst in the process and not in the production of the panic its self


Pro Article #3


THE GREAT MORAL PANIC: CHILDREN AND TV by Catharine Lumby
Sydney Papers, the, Vol. 19, No. 1, summer 2007: 78-86. 

In this volume of the Sydney paper the discussion of the effect of TV on young children is discussed. The discussion begins with the point of view of parents and how the media has effected there decision making in the raising of their children. However one of the things that is constantly pointed out is the flaw in the panic that surrounds young children watching television programs such as the Teletubbies or the Wiggles. The idea is that the research papers are writer and published by doctors who are talking to doctors. As stated in the article it is the job of pediatric doctors to find what is wrong in children and fix it. This is where the ideas that letting children watch TV is over stimulating their brains and creating or fueling the development of disorders such as ADHD. The counter argument is that television is a form of media and literacy that is in a long line of panics that are poorly supported. The other arguments that many of the mediums that are spreading this idea are unreliable but people are taking all the information as cold hard facts. The example given is the Australian Women’s Weekly who in 1997 said that a quarter of a million people in NSW cannot write as well as a ten year old. Finally the discussion on the fact that television is actually a for a literacy and can be as useful to the culture and family values of the world today as any book could be. TV can bring families together by making the interests of the youngest and the older members of the family or community easily accessible. TV can also be seen as a way for children to learn and understand the different points of view in life. It is not the action of watching TV that is detrimental to the child but what they are watching on television that is affecting them.


http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.waikato.ac.nz/fullText;dn=451308604058027;res=IELHSS#notice

Pro Article #2


Moral panic

Platt, Steve New Statesman & Societyhttp://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.waikato.ac.nz/assets/r10.0.1-0/core/spacer.gif8. 380http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.waikato.ac.nz/assets/r10.0.1-0/core/spacer.gif (Nov 24, 1995)


This article covers the tragic story of the death of a teenage girl after she was taking ecstasy in a night club. The claim of this article is that the media interference and the posting of images of this girl in a coma were going to increases the usage of ecstasy and the harm that it does and not prevent it. The idea is that with the images being released  in various mediums that the parents would want more done about criminalisation of the ecstasy pushers and dealers. The issue that is brought up is that the more the law do about it the more underground the problem goes and the riskier it gets. The idea in this is that the media not only created the panic about ecstasy but fueled the ecstasy economy by doing ‘research’ by buying the drug. In this example of moral panic the media is definitely the ‘bad guy’ and in the wrong.

Pro Article #1


Media audiences and the game of controversy On reality TV, moral panic and controversial media stories by Daniel Biltereyst

Journal of Media Practice Volume 5 Number 1 2004 Intellect Ltd


This article focuses on the moral panic that surrounded reality television in the early 2000s. it firstly covers the basis of what reality TV shows were causing the controversy and why. Shows like big brother were frowned upon because they were seen as defiling the face of television and showing bad morals in the western world. However it is important to note that other reality shows like crime reality shows were looked at as a way of scaring people out of doing illegal things. With reality TV shows such as big brother the media were being accused of corrupting what are to be good or solid morals. However it is argued that the media who produce these programs are acting a kind of moral compass in a way that they are showing human relations to the world that may not get to see the differences in people. The article continues to discuss the reason for the moral panic and how it is just another section of a continuing time line of smaller panics. Finally there is a discussion on the difference between media and moral panics and how they are more often than not confused or viewed as the same thing. From this we can gather that the root of the moral panic was in the media itself and was the reaction of the people who were fighting for moral standards.