Monday, May 5, 2008

MORAL PANIC: FLAG BURNING & BEYOND

MORAL PANIC:
FLAG BURNING & BEYOND



According to Stanley Cohen, moral panic is anything that becomes a threat to societal values or interest. Moral panic has much commonality with civil religion in that they share the mutual interest of constructing the difference between right and wrong for society.

Moral panic can be recognized by five indicators:
1. Concern- heightened concern over the behavior of others and the estimated results of such behavior
2. Hostility- increased hostility towards an identifiable group of people who, as a result, become social outcasts
3. Consensus- when there is an agreement that something is a threat to society, and action needs to be taken
4. Disproportionality- the perceived danger is greater than the actual harm
5. Volatility- the ability for an issue to explode into a larger situation

Players in the “drama” of moral panic
1. The media- popular news media is an institution that tries to balance providing information while simultaneously providing entertainment. Stories about incidents such as flag burning become “good versus evil” tales, with the desecrators depicted as the villain
2. The public- when people notice any of the indicators of a threat to societal morals, they tend to participate in the escalation and prolonging of the issue
3. Law enforcers- these are the authorities who are called in to directly deal with problem situations. They interestingly thrive during times of moral panic, because they are rewarded with greater funding during these times
4. Lawmakers & politicians- often when groups attempt to stifle actions by banning them, it causes more problems. When attempts were made to pass flag protections laws, cases of flag burning skyrocketed

Congress engaged in one of the most expensive legal disputes of all time over the issue of flag protection laws!

Often issues when moral panic sets in can be very complicated because people look through a lens of morality. In the case of flag burning, because of the symbolic nature of the flag, those who fought to protect it were seen as heroes, while desecrators were considered to be immoral.


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Constructivism argues that social problems are the products of collective definitions. When collectively defined, often society looks for a scapegoat. In most moral panic issues there is some entity that the finger gets pointed at.

Grassroots perspective- moral panic comes from anxieties from the masses. The media plays a role in hyping the panic, but they do not created it

Theory of elitism- proposes that a group at the highest step of the social ladder initiates moral panic. The theory states that elites are motivated to do this to protect their own interests


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EXAMPLES OF MORAL PANIC ISSUES:
• Flag desecration
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RedYYfDKGMU
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysHYyflqS6k
• Sex on college campuses
o http://www.alternet.org/rights/26131/
• Drug influence on culture & youth
o http://www.slate.com/id/2124160/
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfI5lCoA3b8&feature=related
• Obesity in society
o http://www.reason.com/news/show/33259.html
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6DDWTWVxvk
• Pornography
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Q6kIaL7lM
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crANCYTQ2sI
• Children & sex education
o http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E4DD153CF930A25757C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
• Violence in video games
o http://www.gamebits.net/other/mqp/
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCT7-ZMpxKE
o http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4438385028535987830&q=moral+panic&total=80&start=10&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=6
• Social-networking sites
o http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/17266/
• Migrant Workers
o http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/07/22/EDGHGDRSV41.DTL

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