Radical Resistance&Moral Panics

A condition, episode, person or group of persons comes to be defined as a threat to societal values and interests. Its “dangers” come to be naturalized as they are presented repetitively in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media.

Moral Panic

Horror Comics (1950s)

Role Playing Games (1980s)

Internet Addiction(2000s)

Examples

{ {PANICSpiraling upsurge in public concern, which draws responses and “solutions” from authorities

{

A moral panic is typically expressed as outrage (rather than fear) over a potential disruption of the social order.

“Panic”

{ {MORALOrganized around the notion that the threat is to something held sacred or fundamental to society

{“Moral” need not be tied to a religious framework.

“Moral”

{“Waste”

“Corruption”

“Poor Education”

“Moral” can invoke a purely secular moral framework centered on common social values.

“Moral”

{

Moral Panics are often constructed around the notion of children whose innocence is threatened

Children

Moral Entrepreneurs

Those who start the panic when they fear a threat to prevailing social or cultural values

Moral Entrepreneurs

People who start the panic by articulating general concerns as a specific threat to prevailing social or cultural values

Folk Devils

People who supposedly threaten the social order

{The media operate as agents of moral indignation, either by actively crusading, or simply by framing news stories in dramatic ways that will appeal to consumers.

Media

1.Exaggeration & Distortion: “Over-reporting” numbers, effects, damage. Emotive language. Repetition of false stories

Media

1.Exaggeration & Distortion: “Over-reporting” numbers, effects, damage. Emotive language. Repetition of false stories

2.Prediction: What happened before will happen again. Reporting of non-events.

Media

1.Exaggeration & Distortion: “Over-reporting” numbers, effects, damage. Emotive language. Repetition of false stories

2.Prediction: What happened before will happen again. Reporting of non-events.

3.Symbolization: Individual signs represent the moral panic. “Dramatized and ritualistic interviews” (p.29)

Media

{WORD

OBJECTSSTATUS

Three Processes of Symbolization: 1. A word or phrase

(Pokemon) becomes symbolic of a certain status (irreverent children);

2. Particular objects (Pikachu et al) symbolize the word;

3. The objects in turn become symbolic of the status (and the emotions attached to the status).

Media

{OF A MORAL PANICCharacteristics

5

concern

1 There must be awareness that the behaviour of the group or category in question is likely to have a negative impact on society

hostility

2Hostility towards the group in question increases, and they become "folk devils".Clear distinctions are drawn between them" and "us".

consensus

3Widespread acceptance emerges that the group in question poses a very real threat to society.

disproportion

4The action taken is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the accused group.

volatility

5Moral panics are highly volatile; they tend to disappear as quickly as they appeared, due to a wane in public interest or news reports changing to another topic

{Most classic models of moral panics involved threats from within.

Globalization

{Most classic models of moral panics involved threats from within.

Many contemporary forms of moral panic involve threats from without.Globalization

{Moral panics are often produced by the introduction of new practices, representations, and artifacts.

Globalization

Moral panics are clusters of discourses that seek to:1. explain global

interconnections2. morally evaluate them; and3. pursue changes that will

a. break these connections; orb. bring them into conformity

with the local moral order

Globalization

{PANIC IN THE GULF

POKEMON´

{Pokemon arrived in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE in 2000 and quickly became the most popular children’s fad in memory.

{Mickey

MouseTom & Jerry

Captain

Majid

1. CONCERNIt was unlike earlier children’s fads.

{Mickey

MouseTom & Jerry

Captain

Majid

1. CONCERNIt was unlike earlier children’s fads.

The Pokemon panic was not anti-Western or anti-Global per se; people contrasted Pokemon with the international media commodities they loved.

{“Imsukuhum Kulhum”

[“Gotta Catch ‘em all”]

{“Imsukuhum Kulhum”

[“Gotta Catch ‘em all”]

Viral pattern of consumption

{“Imsukuhum Kulhum”

[“Gotta Catch ‘em all”]

Viral pattern of consumption

It is Pokemon’s refusal to stay “just a game” or “just a show” that is the first and most common complaint

“If Pokemon were limited to the cartoon serial, the matter would be easy. However, it has turned to games, pictures and various other forms. …The problem is that in school, children chat about Pokemon because he doesn’t disappear from their vision. His picture is on the schoolbags, the pen cases and notebooks. …How then does a mother protect her child from it? I don’t say that it causes a great harm, but it is not useful to our children, and it gets in the way of useful things.”

--Qatari mother quoted in newspaper

{“This is like anything else from the west. They produce and we consume. They have their ways to attract our minds, so it is not difficult for them to steal our childrens’ minds and to turn their products into a profitable trade.”

MORAL ENTREPRENEUR

Mulhaq li Watan wa lil Muwatin newspaper (Qatar 2000)

2. HOSTILITY

{Mulhaq li Watan wa lil Muwatin newspaper (Qatar 2000)

“This is like anything else from the west. They produce and we consume. They have their ways to attract our minds, so it is not difficult for them to steal our childrens’ minds and to turn their products into a profitable trade.”

MORAL ENTREPRENEUR

FOLK DEVILS

2. HOSTILITY

{Mulhaq li Watan wa lil Muwatin newspaper (Qatar 2000)

“This is like anything else from the west. They produce and we consume. They have their ways to attract our minds, so it is not difficult for them to steal our childrens’ minds and to turn their products into a profitable trade.”

MORAL ENTREPRENEUR

FOLK DEVILS

EXPLOITING

CHILDREN

2. HOSTILITY

{Globalization Starts With Children

Pokemon Conquers Childrens’ Minds

A Pokemon in Every Home

Pokemon: Legendary Creatures Sneak Into Arab Childrens’ Bedrooms

Newspaper Headlines

3. CONSENSUS

{Globalization Starts With Children

Pokemon Conquers Childrens’ Minds

A Pokemon in Every Home

Pokemon: Legendary Creatures Sneak Into Arab Childrens’ Bedrooms

Newspaper Headlines

Even sports and investment columnists used their columns express concern over the problem of children’s attachment to Pokemon

3. CONSENSUS

{Pokemon is not just a video of game or toy; it is a virus. It colonizes children’s lives.

14. DISPROPORTION

{Pokemon obstructs children’s educations and interferes with their family lives.

24. DISPROPORTION

{Pokemon teaches foreign norms and values. 34. DISPROPORTION

GLOBAL FOREIGN GLOBAL “ARAB”

“If we must choose between…Pokémon, who comes from Confucian culture, on the one hand, and Aladdin, who is a distortion of the Arab character on the other hand, then the mind will say welcome to the Arab character Aladdin, who at least expresses Arab and Islamic heritage and fame.”--Ali Ben Shewil Al-Qurani, Al-Jazeera

{Pokemon teaches wrongful and harmful foreign norms and values. 44. DISPROPORTION

Gambling is Haram Evolution is anti-Islamic

{Pokemon deliberately seeks to corrupt children by turning them from traditional culture and Islamic values and seducing them into evil.

54. DISPROPORTION

Evil Words Zionist Codes

{In response to public demand, the Prince of Riyadh asks for an investigation into the moral dangers posed by Pokémon

5. Volatility

Salman bin Abdul Aziz

{

The Grand Mufti rules:1. Pokemon

encourages gambling

2. Pokemon teaches evolutionary thought

3. Pokemon supports certain non-Islamic doctines

4. Pokemon may encode Zionist symbolism

5. Volatility

Pokemon “becomes a means by which different societies may describe themselves at risk, as vulnerable to threats both externally and internally. Talk of Pokemon points directly to the vulnerabilities of global consumerist citizenship.”

Christine Yano (2004: 109)

Cohen, Stanley. 1972. Folk Devils and Moral Panics.Cook, Daniel. 2001. Exchange Value as Pedagogy in Children’s Leisure: Moral Panics in Children’s Culture at Century’s End. Leisure Sciences 23: 81-98.Critcher, Charles. 2003. Moral Panics in the Media. Open University Press.Drotner, Kirstin. 1992. Media and Moral Panics. In Media Cultures. Michael Skovmand and Kim Christian Schroder, eds. Pp. 42-62. Routledge.Goode, Erich and Nachman Ben Yehuda. 1994. Moral Panics: The Construction of Deviance. Blackwell.Thompson, Kenneth. 1998. Moral Panics. Routledge.Peterson, Mark Allen. 2011. Pokemon Panics: Class Play in the Private Schools. In Connected in Cairo: Growing Up Cosmopolitan in the Modern Middle East. Indiana University PressYano, Christine. 2004. Panic Attacks: Anti-Pokemon Voices in Global Markets. In Pikachu’s Global Adventure. Joseph Tobin, ed. Duke University Press.

References