Transcription:
A moral panic refers to a feeling expressed in a populace about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. The process of arousing social concern over an issue is usually the work of moral entrepreneurs and the mass media and can be criminal, medical, sexual, racial, political, or religious in nature.
Moral panics have changed over time, from the Salem witch trials to Communism in the cold war to anti-immigrant hysteria. These panics can result in the exaggeration of real phenomenon, such as the amplification of the Ebola outbreak, or in the perpetuation of scientifically inaccurate beliefs, such as the anti-vaccine movement.
Moral panics often feature a caricatured “folk devil” on which the anxieties of the community are focused. For example, post-9/11 reactions by Western countries led to Islamophobia, in which Muslims and those perceived as being Middle Eastern in origin were stereotyped as violent, extremist, and a threat to social peace and safety in the Western world.
A moral panic refers to a feeling expressed in a populace about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. The process of arousing social concern over an issue is usually the work of moral entrepreneurs and the mass media and can be criminal, medical, sexual, racial, political, or religious in nature.
Moral panics have changed over time, from the Salem witch trials to Communism in the cold war to anti-immigrant hysteria. These panics can result in the exaggeration of real phenomenon, such as the amplification of the Ebola outbreak, or in the perpetuation of scientifically inaccurate beliefs, such as the anti-vaccine movement.
Moral panics often feature a caricatured “folk devil” on which the anxieties of the community are focused. For example, post-9/11 reactions by Western countries led to Islamophobia, in which Muslims and those perceived as being Middle Eastern in origin were stereotyped as violent, extremist, and a threat to social peace and safety in the Western world.