Cohen's Moral Panic

Cohen's Moral Panic

'Moral Panic' is when a condition which is a group of people, or a single person is portrayed as a threat within the media. This can be done do promote some change within that person or industry in which they are within.


There are five features of Moral Panic:

• Concern – There must be awareness that the behaviour of the group or category in question is likely to have a negative impact on society.
• Hostility – Hostility towards the group in question increases, and they become "folk devils". A clear division forms between "them" and "us".
• Consensus – Though concern does not have to be nationwide, there must be widespread acceptance that the group in question poses a very real threat to society. It is important at this stage that the "moral entrepreneurs" are vocal and the "folk devils" appear weak and disorganised.
• Disproportionality – The action taken is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the accused group.
• Volatility – Moral panics are highly volatile and tend to disappear as quickly as they appeared due to a wane in public interest or news reports changing to another topic.

Examples of Moral Panic

These are two examples of games which caused moral panic throughout the media with their launch.The media made these games look worse than they are.

Music Magazines

Moral Panic can be used within music magazines. Since we are creating magazines for a Teenage audience moral panic can be used as they will be drawn to a magazine with a bit an edge to the content.