ASBO kids- media moral panic?

Media Magazine - how to make sense of audience theories

These notes are taken from an article published in Media Magazine, 17/12/03, pages 52-55

The approach you take to audience theory, and therfore your opinions and conclusions, are dependant on who you are, what you are investigating, and why you are researching.

• Audience research tries to find evidence to support and argument, while audience theory simply describes different ways of thinking about audiences.
• When carrying out research, it is important to bear in mind and assumptions you have made as a researcher, for example, you may have assumed the effects theory, when trying to find out the reactions to a particular program by different members of a group. In this example, you would be assuming that the program has a different effect on each person.
• Assuming an audience theory is not a problem, but it is important to acknowledge this and identify the resulting downfalls or implications for your research.

Effects theories.

• Effects theories are not purely about sex, violence and the issues seen during the censorship debate. There are other less publicised theories, below are some examples
• Right wing - Popular culture, programmes such as Big brother, Trisha, have a negative effect on peoples psychological and mental well-being, as they seek to dumb-down television.
• Left wing - The media is controlled by those in power, the texts within it, therfore seek to keep the power difference, by placing importance on people higher up in the class system, eg. the prime minister, the royals, where as normal people are given less emphasis. This theory says that the effect of this is to reinforce the powerful image of these people, and keep the powerless in their place. I thought this was particularly relevant to my work, as i could investigate the idea that coverage of youth crime, and its connections with single parents, and working class families seeks to reinforce their position in the class system, by making them appear deviant and out of controll to the general public. This Theory also links in with my reading on moral panics, as it sees the press, and the media as having the power to affect public perception, and potentially cause panic, or concern about the subject.

I havent completed the article yet, there is more to come later on.

Moral Panics

What is a moral panic?



A moral panic is an unjustified fear of somthing which tends to find expression on a wide scale in the public arena; Blaming an object or activity for wider social evils/ills.



Typically they feature:

• Anxieties about the young and working class 'getting out of hand'


• fear of new technologies


• fear of the modern world and nostalgia for the 'golden age' in the past


• assumption of copycatting


• sex and violence: young people finding out about the adult world

Some well known moral panics from the past

• Childs Play and video nasties


• Mods and Rockers


• Internet porn

Effects on society

These moral panics cause a big reaction in society.