There are many ways that the marketing can incite moral panics and produce folk devils and one way in which this can be done is through labelling. Moral entrepreneurs, who dislike some particular behaviour such as medication takings, might use the media to put strain on the authorities to do something. That is an important aspect in the process in creating moral worry. This refers to an exaggerated over-reaction by world to a perceived problem- usually fuelled or inspired by the press. The media also help to make the problem bigger and blow it out of proportion. There are lots of ways in which the mass media can energize this.
In a moral stress, the mass media identify an organization as a folk devil. Folk devil can be discovered as a hazard to society's beliefs. The multimedia also present the group in a negative stereotypical fashion and again exaggerate the scale of the trouble. Also the 'respectable' folks of the population such as, bishops, politicians and law enforcement chiefs condemn the group and its behaviour. Usually this would lead to a 'crackdown' on the threatening groups.
In spite of the, it may result in making a self-fulfilling prophecy that amplifies the problem that brought on the panic to begin with. This may be seen in the case with instances of drugs. Because of this police setup drugs squads and in turn find out more drugs and the crackdown identifies more deviants, which then calls for even tougher action building a deviance amplification spiral.
The most important study was by Stanley Cohen, which was featured in his publication Folk Devils and Moral Panics. He analyzed the role of the media and the media's reaction to disturbances between 2 sets of teenagers. The Mods and the Rockers were two groups of largely working class teenagers, at British seaside resorts from 1964-1966, and Cohen reviewed the way in which this created a moral worry. The mods were distinguished as wearing smart clothes and rode scooters and listened to pop and heart and soul, whilst rockers used leather jackets and rode motorbikes and listened to rock and roll. Although in the early stages, distinctions were not clear.
On the Easter weekend 1964 there were a few scuffles and shattered windows and some beach huts were destroyed. Although disorder was little, the advertising over reacted. In Cohen's analysis, he uses the analogy of a disaster, where the advertising produce an inventory or stocktaking of what happened. This inventory covered three things. Exaggeration and distortion are one of them. This is where the media exaggerate the quantities engaged and the magnitude of the violence and destruction, and distort the picture through the dramatic reporting and sensational headlines. Second, is prediction and this were the advertising regularly anticipate and expect further issue and violence will take place. Lastly, symbolisation, which is where the mods and rockers icons such as- their clothes, bicycles, scooters and hairstyles- are negatively labelled and associated with deviance.
Cohen moves further and argues that the media's portrayal of events produces a deviance amplification spiral by rendering it seem as though the condition was growing and getting out of side. This then resulted in an elevated control response from the police and also courts. This then subsequently produced further marginalisation and stigmatisation of the Mods and Rockers as deviants and less tolerance.
The marketing further amplified the deviance by defining the two categories and their sub cultural styles. By emphasising their intended differences, the multimedia made clear both specific identities and transformed loose-knit grouping into two limited knit gangs. This encouraged polarisation and helped produce a self applied- fulfilling prophecy of escalating discord as youths acted out functions the media experienced assigned them.
Cohen also noticed that the medias description of the situation are necessary in building a moral panic, because in large-scale modern societies, most people have no direct experience of the occurrences themselves and therefore have to count on the press for information about them. In the case of the Mods and Rockers, this allowed the mass media to portray them as folk devil.
However maybe it's said that the notion referred to by Cohen are outdated. Fashion and music have grown to be more diverse, and young people almost never identify themselves with a definite style. Subsequently, society has become more complex, fragmented and liberal and it's really less clear what constitutes deviant behaviour. Finally, politicians are mindful when trying to create a moral anxiety over, for example, teenage mums, in case they have emerged as old-fashioned bullies. McRobbie and Thornton claim that contemporary society and the mass media have moved on and new principles and ideas. They also point out that early types of the moral stress model saw contemporary society as one affected by postmodernism, would have a more differentiated strategy.
It has been generally accepted that this is the age of moral panics. From Bulger circumstance to mad cow disease, newspapers headlines continually warn of some new danger and television programs echo the theme with sensational documentaries. Although today's media audiences are used to 'impact' stories. So it could be said that they don't react to manic to press exaggerations. Finally it has been said that the advertising create moral panic to protect ruling course hegemony. This was seen in the 1970s mugging, which were sensationalised by the elite to divert the attention from the problems of the Britain capitalism.
In conclusion lots of the dramatized stories illustrate many areas of moral panic and highlight the way such issues are portrayed and orchestrated by the marketing. As it is the truth numerous moral panics become 'deviants' such as the Mods and Rockers, and are considered threatening to your society therefore of the media's reporting of their views and activities.
