Simple Steps to Moral Panic and Other Fun Games

10 SIMPLE STEPS

1. something upsetting or disturbing or frightening happens. The media focus on the event in the course of their usual news cycle. There is significant reader or viewer response and interest; the cycle ramps up.
2. hostility and negativity are expressed openly. the media coverage intensifies focus and discourse on the offending person or thing
3. a person or group standing at the epicenter of a growing moral panic is demonized and its defenders or representatives become folk devils
4. individuals or institutions step forward to serve as moral entrepreneurs; evidence to the contrary are ignored or buried
5. the media coverage intensifies and the press looks aggressively for any stories which may be tied into the triggering event
6. the message moves beyond its original sphere at an ever increasing speed, abetted by the media, politicians, and sometimes those with commercial interest in the outcome
7. definers are identified. these are people who are identified primarily by their credentials and claim to authority
8. criticism accelerates to mockery
9. consensus is reached. On a regional or national level, there is a widespread acceptance and acknowledgement that the group or event in question poses a very real threat to society
10. reactions and suggested remedies are disproportionate, with long term, widespread and in extreme cases, destructive results. Actual resolutions sometimes result. in a change in the law, one designed to further penalize the deviants and put more stringent controls in place