Moral Panics

Critical Evaluation
According to Stanley Cohen's audience effect theory, he theorised that the effect of a moral panic was to reassert hegemony by allowing a society to ascertain the values it does not accept.

Swine Flu
It can be argued that one of the media's main reasons for creating such a moral panic about swine flu was due to market share and profit. Tamiflu, a medicine for the treatment and prevention of flu, saw its sales increase considerably in 2009, with just over $3000m worth being sold, compared to that of 2004, when just approximately $200m was sold in the US.
The media demonised the flu as a threat to the world, during a time when most of the world and the UK were in a recession.
This moral panic came in a time when the public were very mistrusting of the government due to the economic situation. However, the media's description of swine flu as a global pandemic connoted an apocalyptic style, which detracted from this mistrust, particularly in the early reports of the influensa. Due to this, apocalyptic stories emerged on how viruses can be "weaponised", hence warning the public that terrorists could potentially attempt to infect the nation with influensa. This was further anchored by the use of the term "bio-terrorism" in the media, which not only invoked more panic, but also managed to create a common public enemy.

Celebrity Rapists
Jimmy Savile was an extremely high profile television and radio presenter who was known for doing "good deeds", particularly fundraising for several charities.
However, after his death, several allegations were made against him, and in January 2013 the Metropolitan Police and NSPCC published a report that stated that 450 complaints had been made against Savile.
Following this, a report was published by Operation Yewtree and entitles "Giving Victims a Voice." This report used elision and hyperbole to present the allegations made as "facts" and the accusations as "offences", leaving no doubt in the reader's mind that they must be true - even though the allegations could not be fully confirmed due to the death of the star.
Through the constant retelling of the Savile story, the public are reminded of the media assumptions and stereotypes of the innocence of children, particularly in regards to the adult world of sex, and also of the submissive roles women play to predatory men.
These all conform to common media representations within the media of men as being dominant and the "villain" and women and children as the "inferior victims" who need to be protected.
The moral panic created by this story, although essential as sexual abuse is a serious topic that needs to be acknowledged and discussed, had the primary focus of invoking fear and anxiety within the social world. Jock Young, who wrote about moral panics, argued that responses to social issues and anxieties "sometimes expressed in terms of demonisation, sometimes with humanitarian undertones" can be "grossly disproportionate to the event." This is a prime example of this, as what the media was suggesting was that a single individual could have "groomed a nation."
Also, moral panics are often used to detract from the structural/social dimensions of problems in society. This moral panic in particular was created during a time when there was a large amount of acute social anxiety in regards to public trust, particularly with attention on the behaviour of politicians, bankers, and the press.

Evaluation
Many films manipulate moral panics that are prominent in society, and so in order for our teaser trailer to be successful we will want to also adopt this technique. This blog post has offered several moral panics which we could use for our own film, such as the use of celebrity rapists.