Monday, 23 January 2012

Moral Panic

A moral panic refers to the reaction of a group of people based on the false belief that another sub-culture or a group poses danger to the society. They perceive that group as being a major threat to their social values and culture. Since these panics often cause social tensions, they are not open for discussion in public.

The major impetus for these panics is provided by the media. Moral panic is often expressed as anger than fear. These panics generally have a variety of outcomes. Moral panics are only semi-spontaneous. The term moral panic is coined by Stanley Cohen in 1972 for describing media coverage of Mods and Rockers in UK in 1960s.

The most common themes in moral panics are the influences and behaviors of young people. The term moral panic is of recent one. But many social scientists are of view that the in-depth study of this phenomenon is conducted in 1925 itself.
http://www.iampanicked.com/glossary/moral-panic.htm

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