April 23, 2018 / C H Thompson

False reporting and the creation of moral panics

Stanley Cohen coined the term moral panics and deviancy amplification
False reporting is best understood as exaggerated reports out of all proportions
Such incidents are common with what are termed ‘red-top’ newspapers who have high or mass circulation figures or ‘clicks’ on their websites.
Tabloid newspapers are The Sun, The Mirror etc. While high traffic news websites are the Daily Mail
These newspapers often over dramatise events creating moral panics over certain issues
Mc Robbie and Thornton argue media-generated moral panics are less common due to new media (social networks) posts often challenging moral panics with alternative views (pluralism)
However many Facebook feeds are criticised for publishing ‘false-news’ or what is now more commonly known as ‘fake-news’.

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