Panic Now!

Panic Now!
Barry Glassner’s (1999)
The Culture of Fear
• Formerly a professor of
Sociology at University
of Southern California
• Author of a number of
articles and books on
the culture of fear
phenomenon
Frank Furedi’s (2006)
Culture of Fear Revisited
• Professor of Sociology
at the University of
Kent, UK
• Author of author of
Politics of Fear, Where
Have All the
Intellectuals Gone?,
Therapy Culture,
Paranoid Parenting and
Culture of Fear.
The Social Construction of Reality
• Peter Berger and Thomas
Luckman, 1966
• Knowledge is derived
from and maintained by
social interaction
• The meanings of anything
are the product of human
interpretations and are
not in nature
• Our understandings of
the world are produced
by us, are socially
constructed
Moral Panics
• Stanley Cohen (1972)
Folk Devils and Moral
Panics: The Creation of
the Mods and the
Rockers
• A study of subculture
and the media’s role in
defining social problems
for the public
Cohen’s Case Study
• conflict between Mods
and Rockers, in Clacton
on Easter Sunday, 1964
• two groups fought
resulting in some
vandalism and property
damange
• In the end, 97 arrested
Conclusions
• the media's coverage of
the episode was subject
to exaggeration and
distortion of the facts,
giving the impression
the event was more
violent than it actually
was
The Media’s Role
• An 'amplification' takes
place through the
media
• It appeals to the public
so that they concur with
ready-made opinions
about the course of
action to be taken
Moral Panics
• Moral Panic, defined:
“A condition, episode,
person or group of
persons emerges to
become defined as a
threat to societal values
and interests”
Social Control
Moral panics function to
support and legitimize
particular kinds of social
control through:
1) Identifying a “social
problem”;
2) Simplifying its cause;
3) Stigmatizing those
involved;
4) Stirring up public
indignation or concern.
Goode and Ben Yehuda (1994)
Moral Panics:
The Social Construction of Deviance
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1. Concern
2. Hostility
3. Consensus
4. Disproportionality
5. Volatility
Glassner’s (1999)
“Social Construction of Fear”
• “Fear is constructed
through efforts to
protect against it.”
• “Neither the things that
people do to protect
themselves individually
or collectively, nor what
they are protecting
themselves from,
necessarily reveal their
true fears.”
Misdirection
• Like a magician’s sleight
of hand to execute a
magic trick, media work
to focus our attention
away from real risks and
struggles
• We are afraid of the
wrong things because
these are the things on
the media agenda
Erving Goffman (1974) Framing Theory
• The ways that stories are
framed influences the
meaning they will have
• Definitions of a situation
are constructed in
accordance with
principles of organization
which govern events and
our subjective
involvement in them
Frames Defined
• Frames are cognitive
structures which guide
perception and
representations of reality
• They structure which
parts of reality get
noticed
• They are not necessarily
consciously manufactured
and are often
unconsciously adopted
Todd Gitlin’s (1980) definition
• “Frames are principles
of selection, emphasis
and presentation
composed of little tacit
theories about what
exists, what happens,
and what matters.”
• In sort, frames structure
our attention
Media Effects
• What effects does our
consumption of media
have on our
understandings of the
world?
Cultivation Theory – George Gerbner
• TV viewing has
quantitatively
observable effects on
the perceptual worlds
of audiences
• Watching violence on
TV creates an
exaggerated belief that
the world is violent or,
in his words, “mean and
scary”
The Hypodermic Model
• Also known as the
“Magic Bullet theory”
• The passive audience is
injected with ideas
about the world by
media
Agenda Setting Theory
McComb and Shaw
• The agenda of the media
and the public agenda are
closely matched
• The media’s agenda setting
function means that there is
a high correlation between
media and the public
ordering of priorities
• People are more likely to
attribute importance to and
event, issue, or idea
because of media exposure
Risk Society – Ulrich Beck
• Risk is a product of
knowledges produced by
people, generally experts
in a variety of scientific
disciplines and actuaries
• Risk as what has not-yet
happened but is probable
or predicted
• The perception of risk has
changed as a result of
science and the
unboundedness of time
and space
Moral Panics Vs ....
• Risk found in people
• Risks are time limited and
infinitely substitutable
• Risks lead to scapegoating
• Risks are created by
media
• Moral outrage is the
outcome
• Moral panics can create a
culture of fear
...Vs Risk Society
• Risk found in our
environments
• Risks are not bound to space
and time
• Risks are defined not for
purposes of blame but for
purposes of increased control
• Risks are created by science
and knowledge
• Moral imperatives to risk
aversion are the outcome
• Risk knowledges can create a
culture of fear
Glassner
“Why Americans are Afraid of the
Wrong Things”
Glassner’s examples:
• Health scares
• Killer kids
• Crime
• Others?
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=cYApo2d8o
_A
Why we are afraid:
• Premillennial tensions
• The news media
• Alarmism
• Psychological projection
of personal, moral, etc.
insecurities
Why do we panic?
• The dominance of an
ethos of risk-aversion
• Overreaction
• Disproportionality
• Others?
• What gets defined as a
panic and what not
depends on who is
doing the defining.
• Political agendas and
selectivity
• Pedagogies of fear
Technical explanations:
• Media amplification or
attenuation of risk
• Most people get
information by way of
media
• Fear sells
Social explanations:
• Change is experienced as
risk
• Concern about the future
• Impossibility of knowing
• Diminished humanity
• Reconciling limits
• All collect under the
umbrella of the last
theme: Diminished sense
of control
Workshop: Critical Reading
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Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
• Where did it come from? Who wrote it?
When?
• Who is it written for?
• What does it say? What is its topic? Thesis?
What evidence does it provide to support its
argument? What examples does it use?
• How is the argument organized?
• Is there a bias? Of what it is trying to persuade
you?