Historical Case Study Write Up

What is a moral panic?
A moral panic is when something is expressed in such a way that it begins to worry people, i.e. over-exaggeration. For example the way that the media report on certain items makes them seem a lot worse than they actually. Newspapers are a prime example of this as they use headlines that exaggerate the truth, such as 'Horror on the London Underground' to describe a man being knocked unconscious during a fight on the London Underground.

Deviance Amplification

This is where a small social group become more and more prominent, and cause people to panic, due to how over-exaggerated their image has now become. This could be said about the youths of today, as before they would have been a small group, but as the media has reported on them, and blown certain events out of proportion, the group has gained more followers, and has since become more of a problem.

Clockwork Orange

1. The film is well known for it's banning on the grounds of it's violent content, and the fact that it created a moral panic amongst the population. People believed that should youths see this film and the violence it contains, and would then try to replicate it. However when youths were questioned about it, they claimed that they saw a society that they had already lived through.

2. The press focused on the main shock points about the film, such as the violence in the opening of the scenes and many of the other shocking sections of the film. This is part of the reason that a moral panic was created amongst the public, as they were scared by the way the film and it's content was reported, leading them to make assumptions about how this would affect the youths. Christian Bugge talks about how the media was sent into a panic over copycat scenarios in everyday life. He talks about how a 16 year old boy beat a tramp to death, much like the opening scene from "A Clockwork Orange". The media were quick to report on the scenario, and use terms such as "Transformed a quiet boy" and "viciously battered" to make their point seem more dramatic than it actually was.

3. Stanley Cohens theories can be linked in to this as the media used over-exaggeration of the content in the film to probably try to boost their sales. However at the same time it was this over-exaggeration that caused the public to worry about their children, and what influences they could come up against in their everyday life.

Quadrophenia
1. Jimmy - He is seen to be someone who doesn't want to stand out on his own, he wants to be a part of something. As a result of this, he seems to get caught up in unsavoury activities, such as the riot in Brighton, or beating up of two rockers (one of which is his friend Kevin). At times it looks like even he doesn't seem to know why he does what he does, he just seems to go along with everyone else.

Steph -

Kevin -

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4. Stan Cohens theory can be linked in once again because of the media. In this case it is the riot at Brighton, and the newspaper that we are shown with the report of the event. The report shows a picture on the front with a massive group of the mods and rockers fighting, focusing in particular on the violence. This is actually contrast to a similar newspaper clipping that Jimmy is seen holding earlier in the film, depicting a similar group of people. People who saw these articles would be quick to make assumptions about the mods and the rockers.