Social Context Study

For our media coursework. we have to produce a film with a primary theme of moral panics - it must be based on a moral panic currently within the media. Therefore, in this blog post, I am researching current fears within society, and choosing two of these to create my own film ideas. 

Current influences/fear in society:
There are a large amount of fears within society today, but the main ones are:
> Gang Culture - the London riots, Saturday 6 August - Thursday 11 August 2011
    - For example, with the London Riots, which took place from Saturday 6th August to Thursday 11th August 2011. These riots were largely filmed and publicised, mediated to create a moral panic.
> Increase in body image awareness
   - For example, an advert was released in a tube station in Australia, depicting a slim woman wearing a bikini, with the caption 'Is your beach body ready?', and this sparked a lot of outrage and controversy within the media.
> Increasing stress levels and how they affect the immune system
   - For example, scientific journals are being published which present new data which suggests that increasing amounts of stress reduces the effectiveness of the immune system, and within the media there are increasing pressures over schools and education.
> Acceptance of the LGBTQ community
   - For example, the legalisation of gay marriage in all 50 states of the USA occurred in 2015, which caused controversy
> Fear of the growing immunity to medication
   - For example, various scientific journals and articles within the news are now discussing the increasing immunity to antibiotics
>Fear of Rape culture
  - Celebrities such as Jimmy Saville are constantly being discovered as rapists and abusers
> Immigration crisis
   - Thousands of people are migrating over from countries such as Syria to countries such as the UK or Germany, and a lot of oil rich countries are refusing to let them in due to fears that terrorists may be among them.
> Fear of corruption of authority figures (links to racism in America)
   - There was recently a shooting in Boston, where a police officer killed an innocent, unarmed black man, which sparked a lot of outrage globally.
> Fear of terrorism
   - For example, there was recently an ISIS shooting in Tunisia which evoked a lot of fear, and also there was the 11/11 bombing of the twin towers in America.

My Film Ideas
1. My first film idea is based on the fear of rising stress levels and rapid advances in technology.
Specifically, my idea is that in the film there is a virus, which is caused by the chemicals released through the body when stress levels are high. As technology advances, increasing amounts of pressure is put on the younger generations to achieve more, hence correlating to high stress levels.
The film would have links to the idea of increasing immunity against medication, as the disease in the film would be untreatable, and would also be fatal. This would lead to mass global debates, in which world leaders discuss the next course of action. Some people suggest that they need to close down the schools, but others argue the importance of education so that the disease can be defeated. Religious and moral dilemmas are sparked as religious groups such as Catholics argue that the disease is clearly God's will, sent to teach us a lesson.
2. My second film idea is based on the immigration crisis, which is currently gaining a large amount of publicity. This film would be a lot simpler than the previous, and it would document a family's journey as they are forced to flee from a war torn country and enter into a country where they do not speak the language, and they are met with hostility.

My Favourite Film Idea
Of the two mentioned above, I am most interested in is film idea #2.
The immigration crisis
On Wednesday 2nd September, 2015, shocking images of a three year old boy being found drowned on the shores of Turkey were released, sparking widespread debates over how to react to the ongoing immigration crisis. Thousands upon thousands of people are travelling from countries such as Syria, illegally entering countries such as Greece and Hungary in the hopes of seeking refuge.
In Greece it is being said that this is the 'biggest migration crisis in living memory'.
On Wednesday, a reported 2,500 migrants landed on Greece's shores, and roughly 15000 refugees are in Lesbos, awaiting to attempt to travel to Germany.

Shortly after this, David Cameron released a statement, stating that the UK would accept thousands more migrants. However, it appeared in the Sun newspaper as a headline that the oil rich countries in Europe were refusing to take in any migrants. Their argument was that they feared that terrorists may be hiding in with the thousands of people.

Examples of Existing Films/Show
Several films and shows with similar themes as my main idea exist, and one such example is the BBC Three show Glasgow Girls.
"What started as a grassroots petition to save their friend from deportation inspired a powerful human rights movement which would eventually change immigration practices in Scotland."
The above quotation is a synopsis of Glasgow Girls, and so we see how it is a TV drama about immigration within Scotland, whereas our piece would be on immigration for a country such as Afghanistan to Britain.

However, there are very few films which follow the theme of decreasing effectiveness of immunity - most that discuss this topic or something similar to it are dystopian/horror films, looking at the immunity to vaccines which causes a zombie apocalypse, such as I Am Legend or World War Z.