Holiday homework

How do moral panics help or fragment cultural identity?

A moral panic can spread very fast as it is a situation created by the media knowing that the public rely on media coverage to keep up to date with their culture. If the media represents a situation in a bad light, then people are heavily influenced and their opinion of that situation or the people involved is changed and stereotyped.

AIDS, raves and paedophilia are examples of the a situation that the media creates in a bad light to cause the public to panic and look at their culture differently. AIDS was an epidemic first recognised between 1981- 86. During that time the media took the issue of AIDS and created fear and panic of a supposedly 'mass epidemic.' AIDS was first discovered among gay men, drug users and haemopiliacs. There were sections of the press that represented this disease as a 'gay plague.' By blaiming and targeting gay men the moral panic was focused on them, causing the culture to fragment and mentally seperate theirselves from the gay community. This can be compared to the panic of raves that were often related to irresponsible teenagers. Like the issue of AIDS, the media targetted teenagers, leaving them in a negative view, causing the public to believe teenagers are no good. However, there were sections of the press that were aware that AIDS wasn't restricted to the gay community, but that the disease could also be found in drugs users and haemophiliacs. The panic of AIDS was both global in its impact and implications. All countries had a range of policy options which meant there were compulsory blood tests and preventive measures, meaning needle exchange schemes, treatment programmes and research funding. The USA was a strongly affected country. There was no specific direction from the US government on how to handle the disease and it did not have a national AIDS policy or a coordinated strategy for combining the health threat. In 1983, groups who had a high risk of catching or carrying the disease were asked not to donate blood. Gay bathhouses were being closed down in many of cities, for example in San Francisco, 1984. There was national controversy when children with AIDS were being excluded from schools as it was seen as discrimination. This is an example of how extreme the moral panic affected the culture. The coverage of AIDS in the US magazines focused more on the 'deviant character of the victims' rarther than the disease itself. Press coverage was also criticized for crediting conspiricies and emphasizing entertainment value. It was argued that AIDS was not an attractive issue for television because it involved taboos such as blood, sex, semen and death. All of this public debate did not help the moral panic.

Similar to AIDS, raves was also an issue that caused moral panic, although not as strongly as the controversy of AIDS, raves caused fear of a down-hill society that affected culture. Originally founded in New York, Chicago and Detroit, raves was imported into Britain in 1988. A rave is a gathering of people with the newest style of music, drug use, distinctive dress codes and extensive lighting. They were kept secretive to avoid police intervention. They often took place in rural spaces, barns, unused airfields etc. If the police followed up the event of a rave they simply couldnt react as they were powerless and outnumbered. Raves were on the rise and during the end of the eighties they were seen as the 'biggest youth subculture Britian has ever seen.' The media immediatley condemned the rave culture. By emphazising statements such as 'a facade for dealing in drugs and 'a cynical attempt to trap young people into drug dependency' the media created a moral panic. Families feared for the well-being of their sons and daughters. This panic grew after the death of Leah Butts was reported. She died on her 18th birthday due to water intoxication caused by taking ecstasy. This was the biggest emotive shock from the rave culture. Later Leah's parents warned teenagers of the dangers of drug use and the press used this case as an example of 'teenage fun.' There were bold headlines in the paper, for example, The Mirror 'one million ecstacy consumers a week 'want fun' but end of like Leah on a life support machine.' This media coverage of raves caused the panic to focus and blaim the youth, causing the culture to loose faith in the future of teenagers and gave them a negative image.

Moral panic was again created when the issue of paedophilia arose. The media did not cover any stories of the sexual abuse of children until the mid-1980's, when they term paedophile would be first associated with the abusers. Before then the sexual offenders would be known as 'beasts, monsters and fiends.' Between the period of 1983-86 paedophiles were associated with organized abductions and the murders of children. By 1988 the possesion of child pornography became an offence and to enforce this the police created a child pornography squad. By the end of the decade the strong threat of paedophilia was realised and established. New stories that invovled paedophilia between 1990-93 was rarely seen. There were two serious cases involving seriel killers and sexual abuse to a children that were reported, but no media campaign or debate came about. The press showed little attention due to unanswered questions. Ireland and Belguim by 1977 had created a sex offenders act which allowed local newspapers to publish names of paedophiles living in the area. By doing this it caused community protests and panic for peoples safety. This also put a negative affect on the area on which those people lived which could of caused people to avoid. As the year 2000 wore on, paedophilia became less of an issue, until that summer when 8-year-old Sarah Payne was sexually abused and murdered. The coverage of paedophilia was extremely high. Just day after the Sarah's body was found the News of the World published 49 convicted male sex offenders, which included photographs, offences and locations. Later the News of the World published another set of offenders claiming that parents have the right to know if they were living near sex offenders, this act was named 'Sarah's law.' With the media coverage at a high with covering paedophiles it seemed that the culture of Britian was unsafe, making parents more aware of where they were living and how much freedom their child should have in that area.

The media coverage has a large influence on a moral panic and they strongly affect a culture's identity, as once an issue has been broadcasted and realised there is no forgetting and the culture remains changed forever. Most moral panics need to focus or blaim one particular group which causes stereotypes. For example with the issue of AIDS, gay people were targetted. Similar as with raves which was aimed at the youth culture. By doing this the media is seperating society from each other and classing the victims or offenders as 'folk devils.' Paedophiles are people who are dangerous and it seems right that the media should name and shame the offenders so that the public can be aware of the safety of their children, even if it does put the culture in a bad light; whereas by blaiming gay men for the spread of AIDS and teenagers for drug use in the media, it has a powerful affect on how society treats these groups.