What is a moral panic?

When the media exaggerates a threat, creating disproportionate public concern that may lead to demands for action against a perceived deviant group.

What did Stanley Cohen's study of Mods and Rockers demonstrate about media influence?

It showed how media amplification and labelling created folk devils and generated a moral panic disproportionate to actual events.

What happens after initial deviance in the amplification spiral?

The media reports on and exaggerates the deviance.

How does public concern develop in the deviancy amplification spiral?

Media reporting leads to increased public concern about the deviant behaviour.

AQA A-Level Sociology 7192

Education

Topic overview The role and functions of education Class differences in educational achievement Labelling, subcultures and processes within schools Gender and educational achievement Ethnicity and educational achievement Selection and marketisation Privatisation and vocational education Educational policy, equality and globalisation

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Topic overview Research design and choosing a method Sources of data and types of data Positivism, interpretivism and research ethics Consensus, conflict, structural and social action theories Modernity and post-modernity Is sociology a science?Objectivity, value freedom and social policy

Culture and IdentityOptional topic

Topic overview Conceptions of culture Socialisation and the agencies of socialisation The self, identity and difference Identity, age, disability, ethnicity, gender and class Identity, production, consumption and globalisation

Families and HouseholdsOptional topic

Topic overview Functionalist views of the family Marxist and feminist views of the family The New Right, postmodernism and family policy Marriage, cohabitation and divorce Family diversity and the personal life perspective Conjugal roles and domestic labour Power relationships and domestic violence The social construction of childhood Birth rates and death rates Family size and the ageing population Migration and globalisation

HealthOptional topic

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Topic overview Poverty: definitions, explanations and distribution The welfare state and welfare provision The division of labour and the control of work Work, worklessness and life chances Globalisation and the global division of labour

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The MediaOptional topic

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Stratification and DifferentiationOptional topic

Topic overview Theories of stratification Life chances and dimensions of inequality Defining and measuring social class Changing structures of inequality and globalisation Social mobility

Crime and Deviance

Moral panics and the deviancy amplification spiral

2 things to know
Paper 3

Overview

Cohen on the Mods and Rockers, folk devils, the stages of the spiral, and the left realist caution.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Process

What is the deviancy amplification spiral, and how does it begin?

Process

What are folk devils, and why do left realists say moral panics should not be dismissed?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What is a moral panic?
Model answer
When the media exaggerates a threat, creating disproportionate public concern that may lead to demands for action against a perceived deviant group.
2
What did Stanley Cohen's study of Mods and Rockers demonstrate about media influence?
Model answer
It showed how media amplification and labelling created folk devils and generated a moral panic disproportionate to actual events.
3
What is the deviancy amplification spiral?
Model answer
A process where media coverage of deviance can increase the behaviour it condemns by attracting attention, creating labels, and provoking societal reaction.
4
What is the first stage in the deviancy amplification spiral?
Model answer
Initial deviance occurs.
5
What happens after initial deviance in the amplification spiral?
Model answer
The media reports on and exaggerates the deviance.
6
How does public concern develop in the deviancy amplification spiral?
Model answer
Media reporting leads to increased public concern about the deviant behaviour.

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