Moral Panic And Social Control

During 1960s and 1970s, moral panic appeared in western society, as the social influence of media continuously broadened and the control of the modern state gradually matured. More and more social problems and social groups were labeled'the deviant, and became to threaten the whole society and strongly requited strict policing of the state after the publication and exaggeration of media.In 1970s, the earliest moral panic study initiated in the field of British sociology and gradually became an independent branch of it. At the same time, Birmingham Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (short for CCCS) also started moral panic study. Their work followed their own thread of cultural studies and presented the deep influence of Gramci's'hegemony'theory.This paper intends to generalize and clarify the engendering, development and influence of moral panic study in CCCS, seeking to point out its main feature and historical status. This paper basically outlines four parts. The first part represents the foundation and achievement of early moral panic studies, trying to find out the theoretical relativity of moral panic and cultural studies and the reason why moral panic study could appear in the field of cultural studies and become one of the most important topics in this period.The second part focuses on the position and effect of media in the process of moral panic, generalizing CCCS'analysis of the character of media and the way of news construction, representing the relation between media and the public, media and social control culture, and also depicting the special way how media construct news, label the event'deviant'in mugging panic.The third part unveils the real intent of making moral panics. It presents the discussion and analysis of why the different social groups could get agreement in moral panic, and generalizes the situation of British society and its crisis control, representing the development and transformation of moral panic. It finally discusses the invisible and immanent relation between the moral panic and social control. So that we can see moral panic is an especial way of concealing the class contradiction and policing the social crisis.The last part makes a conclusion of the rethinking and evaluation of CCCS'moral panic study to see the status and effect of CCCS'moral panic study. It also particularizes some other important works, in the purpose of representing the development of moral panic studies and the profound influence of CCCS as a whole.