Explore and understand Moral Panic and the effect social media has in spreading among audiences

Moral Compass

Your moral compass can/is effected by:

- Upbringing

- Religion + Belief 

- Friends 

- Societal change and events

- Occupation/ Employment

- Experience

Morals - standard of behaviour; principles of right and wrong

Panic - Sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly unthinking behaviour

The idea of Moral Panic is that someone or something evil/negative is threatening the normal way of life. Historically this has led to literal Witch hunts, outing communists, Anti-Semitism and various other groups as being dangerous. 

Social Media & Panic

Whereas in the period before the 1990s Moral Panics were spread by word of mouth, rumour and tabloid journalism. The rise in internet use and access led to information (and misinformation) being spread far and wide more rapidly.

With the advent of Web 2.0 and social media becoming popular, Moral Panics spread more widely and quickly.

How the 9/11 attacks contributed to moral panic around the Muslim faith. The 9/11 contributed to moral panic around the Muslim faith via misinformation and fear mongering from the internet and tabloid newspapers. It gave xenophobic and bigoted people an excuse to target Muslim people. 

Gave rise to 'islamophobia' and the Mayor of London at the time described some Muslim people as 'looking like letterboxes.' 

In the last 20 years the following media subjects have been subject to scrutiny as a source of moral panic:

• Violent Video games (ongoing)
• Slipknot
• Eminem 
• Instagram 'influencers'
• Little Britain
• The Royal British Legion 
• Gender rights
• The COVID-19 Vaccine 

How has Social Media ITSELF been a source of Moral Panic

• Trolls
• Misinformation
• Access to inappropriate content
• "cloning"
• Radicalisation  
• Blackmail and extortion
• Anonymity, lack of consequence and exploitation 
• Body image
• Social isolation
• Likes replacing interaction
• Social media and image rights and distribution
• Employer checks
• Polarising topics

 Identify two ways that the term 'moral panic' relates to the use of social media channels (2)

A first way that the term moral panic relates to the use of social media channels is due to radicalisation, This is because young and impressionable people can be radicalised by negative presences on the internet who they see as an ideal self or partner Andrew Tate is an example of. 

A second way that the term moral panic relates to the use of social media channels is due to body image. This is because children, teenagers and even young adults can all gain a negative body image from seeing posts on social media. An example includes TikTok having huge amounts of dieting and weight loss and holistic health and food influencers on its platform.