Abstract
During a ‘moral panic’, the suspect category is either created or, more often, argue Goode and Ben-Yehuda, relocated, dusted off and attacked with a renewed vigour. New charges may be made, old ones dredged up and reformulated. In many cases a deviant category or stereotype already exists, but is latent and only activated at times of crisis or panic because secondary targets are needed to deflect attention away from some of society’s most pressing or insoluble problems. Since the reasons for scapegoating them vary according to historical circumstances, deviant categories are often refurbished over time. Violent crime or action movies reproduced on video are a case in point.1
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Notes
Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda,Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (Oxford, 1994) pp. 74–5.
Robert Potts, ‘Why Censors can’t Save Us’, Guardian [Friday Review], 22 Mar. 1996, pp. 2–3; ‘Is Oliver Stone Responsible for the Consequences of this film?’, Guardian, 19 June 1996, p. 12; ‘Dustin Hoffman blames Hollywood over Dunblane’, The Independent, 11 May 1996, p. 1; ‘Dunblane Parents see Gun Battle Lost’, Daily Mail, 19 Nov. 1996, p. 2.
Alexander Walker, ‘Suffer the Little Children’, in Karl French (ed.), Screen Violence (London, 1996) p. 95;
Annette Hill, Shocking Entertainment: Viewer Response to Violent Movies (London, 1997).
John Martin, The Seduction of the Gullible: The Curious History of the British ‘Video Nasty’ Phenomenon (Nottingham, 1993), supplies plot summaries of ‘nasties’ and little else.
Brian Brown, ‘Exactly What We Wanted’, in Martin Barker (ed.), The Video Nasties: Freedom and Censorship in theMedia (London, 1984) pp. 68–87;
Geoffrey Barlow and Alison Hill (eds), Video Violence and Children (London, 1985).
Patrick Rogers, ‘Gunning for Gangstas’, People, 26 June 1995, pp. 105–6;
Bernard Weinraub, ‘Violent Movies and Records Undercut Nation, Dole Says’, The New York Times, l June 1995, pp. Al, 10;
David Bennun, ‘The Dogg Done Good’, Guardian, 6 Dec. 1996, pp. 14–15.
Dave Marsh, ‘Cops ’n’ Gangstas’, The Nation, 26 June 1995, pp. 908–9;
Paul Delaney, ‘Gangsta Rappers vs. The Mainstream Black Community’, USA Today, Jan. 1995, pp. 68–9.
Michael E. Dyson, ‘Dole’s Bad Rap’, The Nation, 26 June 1995, pp. 909–10;
Ian Katz, ‘Death Wish’, Guardian [Friday Review], 20 Sept. 1996, pp. 2–3, 19; ‘Gangsta Rap’, The New York Times, 19 Feb. 1996, p. 6. On 9 March 1997, 23-year-old rapper Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace), Shakur’s arch-rival who recorded on the East Coast Bad Boy label, was shot down and killed on leaving a Los Angeles party.
Michael Eric Dyson, Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture(New York,1996)pp. 176–86;
Armand White,Rebel for the Hell of It:The Life of Tupac Shakur (London, 1997).
R. McGregor, ‘Television Violence: Corresponding Claims’, The Listener, 26 June 1986, pp. 26–7;
Stephen Armstrong, ‘ ’ Ello,’ello: Where did all those Bodies go?’ The Sunday Times, Culture Section, 19 Jan. 1997, pp. 4–5;
Barrie Gunter and Adrian Furnham, ‘Perceptions of Television Violence: Effects of Programme Genre and Type of Violence on Viewers’ Judgements of Violent Portrayals’, British Journal of Social Psychology, XXIII (1984) pp. 155–64;
Guy Cumberbatch with Dennis Howitt, A Measure of Uncertainty: The Effects of the Mass Media (London, 1989) pp. 48–50;
ed. George Birbeck Hill, Boswell’s Life of Johnson, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1934) p. 367.
David Buckingham, Moving Images: Understanding Children’s Emotional Responses to Television (Manchester, 1996) pp. 303–9.
Ibid.;
David Kidd-Hewitt and Richard Osborne (eds), Crime and the Media: The Post-modern Spectacle(London, 1995) pp. 8–9.
Paul Myers, ‘Computer Games Come of Age with Monitor Man’, Guardian, 10 Feb. 1994, p. 3.
Neville Hodgkinson, ‘Videos Inspire Violent Urge for Nasty Side of Life’, The Sunday Times, 3 May 1987, p. 6;
Ray Surette, Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Images and Realities(Pacific Grove, CA, 1992) p. 140;
Geoff Andrew, ‘A History of Western Philosophy’, Time Out, 19–26 August 1992, p. 30.
For the causal link argument see: Frank Brady (ed.), Violence in the Media: Prospects for Change (London, 1996) ;
Frederic M. Thrasher, ‘The Comics and Delinquency: Cause or Scapegoat?’, Journal of Educational Sociology, XXV (1949) p. 205.
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© 1998 John Springhall
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Springhall, J. (1998). Mass Media Panic: The 1980s and 1990s. In: Youth, Popular Culture and Moral Panics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27458-1_7
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