Examples of Moral Panics in the Media

Individually we were asked to find examples of two moral panics which we could find in the news from the last decade.

The 9/11 Terrorist Bombings
On September the 11th 2001, 19 people associated with the Islamic Terrorist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four aircraft and carried out suicide attacks against the united states, two of the planes were flown into the towers of the world trade center in New York, the third plane hit the Pentagon near Washington DC, and the fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in a huge death toll which included people in the targeted buildings, pedestrians walking on the streets and rescue crews made up of police, firefighters and civilians who tried to rescue victims after the attack. 


This is a video collating different first reports of the attack, which gives a sense of the panic in the first few hours of the attack.

• This news created a lot of panic in not only the US, but the world, because it set off a reaction that a terrorist attack was imminent in other countries. 
• When it was first reported on FOX News, the news story cut off their normal headlines as it happened while the programme was on. The fact that the news readers seemed panicked and that it was breaking news, would have created panic in the audience also. 
• During the coverage of the attack by FOX News, live footage was shown of the second plane attacking the tower. This would also create more panic because once the audience were getting to terms that there had been an attack, another one was shown. Using the live footage made it seem more real to the audience in that they couldn't detach from what was going on.
• Also, callers were heard on the news coverage from witnesses of what happened, describing the scene and describing what they had seen. This also makes the audience empathise with them and realize that this has affected real people, which caused panic. 
• The president of the time was also mentioned in the news coverage which again makes the audience panic because they have used the president, someone of the highest importance of america, to convey that this is an important event. 

       Critical view of the report

• After the attack, FOX news in particular, created a constant colour chart that would be present on their reports. This colour chart would signify how a high of a threat America was in at that time from terrorism. This was very detrimental to viewers because it made them be on constant alert and created more of a panic.
• Also, months after the attack, a rumor went across america that developers wanted to build a mosque on the site of where the twin towers used to stand. Because of this rumor, many hate crimes were carried out against Muslims, which of course was very detrimental towards them because the terrorist attack was done by a group of men that used Islam to sustain the attack, this did not mean that all Muslims felt the same way. Mass burnings of the Koran also took place across America. 
• Due to the wide spread of the reports of the 9/11 attacks, it also seemed to have given terrorists 'Celebrity status'. Terrorists perpetrate these acts to inspire fear into people, but the huge media coverage just keeps this idea going for the terrorists, so many would do a big action just to get the media's attention. 
• Another interesting idea which comes from the media keeping up the reports of terrorist acts. The media wants to create more and more fear in the citizens because the major media cooperations are owned by the government. If the citizens are fearful enough, the government can offer the citizens safety and promises like stopping attacks like this ever occur again, however in order to do that, they would explain they need to track everyone's phones and internet histories. Once this privacy is given up by the citizens the government can use this to their advantage in other areas, not just terrorist control.

The 2011 London Riots

• The riots began after a protest on the 4th August 2011, because of the shooting of Mark Duggan by a police officer
• between the 6th august and the 11th august, several London boroughs and many cities and towns across England looted and was involved in arson attacks in retaliation to the death of Duggan.
• Youtube was flooded with videos of first hand accounts of the riots in London.  
• Many took to videoing what was going around them in an effort to document what was happening through the eyes of the people living in that area.
• videos showing buildings set alight and various groups of people looting shops and buildings were also shown
• this creates panic because again, it is real footage so the audience can see for themselves what is going on. It could also bring more panic because this is happening in the capital of the country that they live in.