Causes Of Moral Panic

In the real world there are problems where businesses lose profit and people lose their reputations because of the hysteria of people. In une 1999, people were claiming that they were getting sick from drinking Coca-Cola. This coca cola incident wasn't a break of food illness, it was an outbreak of mass hysteria. The coca cola caused a case control study. This study concluded that people are not possibly able to because of.

Fear has become part of humanity as humans evolve over time. Since the beginning of time humans have always been feared of the unknown. This fear of the unknown has given humans a drive to progress to be better. In the past there have been societies that take wrongful advantage of this fear by creating mass hysteria by religious, political, and social activities such as the Puritans in Salem. The famous play The Crucible by Arthur Miller demonstrates this mass hysteria which has led people of Salem in wrongful accusations and death of twenty individual citizens of Salem for witchcraft.

Red Scare panic and hysteria began in 1919-1920’s after WWI. Thanks to the Red Scare, the American public became paranoid and suspicious of everyone from Communist Russian. In some cases, neighbors would report neighbors as being Communist spies just because they did not like their neighbor. The modern day terrorism The anti-Muslim panic and hysteria arose after terrorists came to the United States as normal immigrants and used the American education system to train themselves to be aircraft pilots and got support money from those already in the United Sates began with the attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. Both are the reactions of the American public to acts of war.

This makes me personally worry about what if it happened here in my country and it gives me a false sense of insecurity. Another Schneier quote that goes hand in hand with the news is, “If it 's in the news don’t worry about.” This quote makes a lot of sense because news is there to bring us with rare, view getting stories. The news doesn’t show common everyday risks that are more likely to happen then terrorism.

Although some people think mass hysteria is spread by human nature, it is actually spread by media because of the amount of celebrity exposure and the impact movies, video games, and music has on the world. Popular people like celebrities have major influences on the world today and with added social media exposure this is an even bigger problem. This is shown in The Crucible when the girls all follow in Abigail Williams footsteps, she “sees” something, they all do. She “faints, they all “faint”. Another example is the case of the “Fainting Schoolgirls.”

In this modern society, Australian have the culture of drinking alcohol beverages in different special events or occasion for sociability, cultural participation or relaxation (Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council 2015). The pure alcohol consumption of alcohol beverages was 183.7 million litres in Australia in 2013-14 (The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2015). However, the alcohol was involved in drunken violence. There was the example which were two young men, Kelly and Christie who were died because of the ‘one punch’ alcohol-fuelled violence at Sydney King Cross ( 'Daniel Christie dies following king-hit punch ' 2014). Therefore, the New South Wales(NSW) government introduced the new alcohol laws to

As a result, the media that cover these events dictate what and how they are shared. However, it only helps to feed our sense of fear towards terrorism as well as fuel the Muslim stereotype. In fact, according to a study on deconstructing the terrorism- news media relationship, “terrorists use media as a tool to gain increased coverage and communicate their message,” but sometimes the news does it for them (Ross). For example, in the UCLA shooting, where two men were killed in a murder-suicide, the news’ portrayal of the situation led many to believe that there were multiple attackers instead of just the one. While this may not directly convey terrorists’ message, it helps to spread unnecessary fear of terrorism in our communities.

People assume all Muslims have terrorist affiliations, alienating and outcasting them. Many followers of Islam cannot walk in the streets without being subjected to the burning glare of their fellow citizens. Mosques become targets of vandalism and violent anti-Islamic acts. “Muslims in America say they are more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators” (Blank). In an interview with CBS, nursing student Sameya Omarkheil recalls the treatment she received after the tragedy in Paris.

Media Portrayal of School Shootings,” “the researchers analyze 157 articles that mention Columbine and out of these 157 articles, only 33 contain detailed information on the event itself. The remaining 124 only make references to Columbine.” When a new shooting occurs, the media would often recall old case, such as “Columbine”, as their reference. Nevertheless, they would not explain the detail of the incident, they would only mention the name of the incident. Besides, the media’s purpose of doing this is they want to perpetuate the public fear.

We spend hours absorbing the information we are told but nobody takes a second look. The government could print anything they wanted in a textbook and eventually it would become truth because hardly anyone questions the all-powerful textbook. In George Orwell’s 1984, media is manipulated on a daily basis. The Party slogan for this is “‘Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past’” (Orwell 248).

The impact the news has on people’s emotions is very strong and can cause a lot of problems. “He asked the clerk to call a local television station. He wanted cameras there to film his rampage” (Whisenhunt). Michael Brandon Hill wanted people there that can get the information out faster because he knew the effect it would have on the people hearing about it. People commit these acts because it is “a desperate act committed by a deeply troubled individual who wants to die and feel validated in the process” (Whisenhunt).

Media is focused on people marginalized in society due to race, ethnicity and sexuality. It is based on well-known stereotypes and reinforces them. Moral panic sends society into mass hysteria over an issue or an event that occurs. Stanley Cohen believed that media created a moral panic. Stanley had published a book on folk devils and moral panics (1972) which says that moral panic occurs due to people or groups become threats to society and interests.

In the four days since extremists slaughtered 129 people in Paris, millions of witnesses — present only through their computer screens — posted prayers and pictures and promised solidarity. For four hours, then five, then six, they trended Twitter hashtags like #PorteOuverte and #PrayforParis. They laid French flags over their Facebook photos and shared images by artists like Jean Jullien. And just as quickly, their posts reverted: back to quips about sports teams, viral videos, pictures with friends — now posted by little avatars striped in the French blue, white and red.

Ozog suggests that the media we consume is correlated to "what we believe, fear, and love" (2), and the rise in demand for zombies is connected to our cultures fears and anxieties. To support this, I will discuss the characteristics we fear about zombies, starting with Platt 's idea that zombies represent "the anxieties associated with nuclear radiation and the possibility of an apocalyptic future." (552). In today 's society, we live in a world where we are constantly fearing the potential of a terrorist attack, another world war that will cause many deaths, or even the next big pandemic. Like Birch-Bayley states, zombies act as the standard for western culture 's "crisis mentality" (1137) to express these anxieties.

The movie Spotlight, recounts the true events that occurred in Boston and were brought to light back in 2002. The movie talks about the massive cover-up scheme by the catholic church to conceals the fact that several priests were abusing and had abused hundreds of kids without any action from the Archdiocese. In this paper I will summarize the movie, discuss the type of victims shown in the movie, asses the risk level of the victims, and lastly relate the different theories of victimization and how each relates to the movie. The movie follows a group of journalists working at the Boston Globe, who are known as the spotlight team.