Moral Panic

Moral panic examples

60’s

The 1960’s saw a new revolution taking over the people. As society began to change and trends began to evolve people generally changed. For example the 60’s saw the ‘sexual revolution’. People in the 60’s were very big on taking drugs, having sex and listening to music. Groups of people within the 60’s were dressing radically and attracting media attention, these people picked up the name of hippies. Dressing in bright colours and lived the wild party lifestyle.

James Bulger

The murder of James Bulger rocked the UK in February 1993. The murder of the two-year-old boy from Liverpool shocked the UK as it emerged his killers was aged 10. This crime sickened society, poor James Bulger was lured out of a shopping centre and led to a near by railway line only to be tortured and killed. This crime shocked the UK, as it was abnormal for children at such a young age to commit such a horrendous crime.

E.coli

The E.coli outbreak in 1996 saw a huge food scare as the disease hit the shelves in supermarkets causing the public to be at risk. The media coverage surrounding the outbreak lead the public to believe the situation was a lot worse than it actually was. The media portrayed the outbreak as a very dangerous disease in which it was, however what the media failed to tell the public was that the situation wasn’t as bad as they were making it out to be. The media stated how the elderly and young people were in extreme danger causing panic and a huge concern over the food within the country.

Dunblane

 The Dunblane massacre that occurred in Scotland caused a huge public outcry for the restrictions regarding guns to be tightened in order to protect the people of Britain as well as the children within schools. The laws enforced regarding guns is known for the strictest law in place with regards to purchasing handguns. This law lead the innocent people who use guns responsibly to fall victim to the harsh legislations.

AIDS

Within the 1980’s a national scare evolved involving the disease AIDS this disease lead to a national scare portrayed in the media in a very poor way. For example the media reports published were based on assumptions and insubstantial evidence, however the public did not know this so began to take great caution with regards to sex. The gay community come under attack due to this scare as the media publicised the virus was prominent among the gay community. The gay community began to receive a lot of hate and took a lot of the blame for the outbreak of the virus.