Moral Panic Theory Essay

There are different types of media such as radio, newspaper, TV, internet, social networking, advertising etc. The media campaign looks at the problems and focus on the problem. They then look at the causes such as anti-social behaviour moral standards discipline young people’s behaviour which they highlight in their news using emotive language so that they get the most effective reaction from the public and pressurise the government for response. The media get their information from different sources such as public or blog or court reporting on trial or surveys etc. There are lots of different media campaigns for raising awareness as media have control on everything and most people believe what the media tells them. They also use the campaigns for making profits.

Moral panic

The moral panic theory involves the over exaggeration of a social problem by the media. While reporting, the media makes the public hard to resists the news by the choice of their language. They try to outdo each other and exaggerate the news. If a group of people or a certain type of people act as a deviant then the media creates a false image by labelling them in the public’s eyes. Therefore they are out casted and seen as threat. The media use their power to

He argued that it is not the way that the criminal acts but the way that society reacts which makes them deviant. His theory tells us that the poor and the powerless are most likely to be labelled as deviant. Once someone is labelled as deviant they will always be labelled, it will be their identity and they will always be seen as how they have been labelled which is always negative. For example the media symbolised the hoodies to be seen as worn by criminals. So if anyone would wear one then they would be seen as negative and if they committed crime wearing one then they were more likely to get punished harshly even if it was minor