School Shootings, Media Coverage, and Moral Panic

Introduction: The Problem of Misinformation and Fear

There is an old fairy tale known by various names — "Chicken Little" or "The Sky Is Falling" — but whatever it is called, the moral of the story remains the same: mistaken beliefs, no matter how often repeated, do not become true. Throughout the ages, society has had to contend with scams, rumors, and mistaken beliefs and manage them in appropriate ways. The examples in which society has failed to do so are numerous. The Salem witch trials, Hitler's persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, and Orson Welles's infamous radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds all illustrate how society can react irrationally and inappropriately to reports and misinformation. In each of these incidents, the media — in various forms — played a significant role, and as society has become more media-savvy and media-dependent, that role and influence has only grown.

One of the most glaring examples of this dynamic is the coverage of school shootings that have occurred in the United States over the past several decades. The media has provided extensive, almost exhausting, coverage of such events to the point that a perception has been created among parents and the general public that school shootings represent a profound and widespread problem. This perception has generated an exaggerated fear that the nation's schools and schoolchildren are unsafe in the public school environment.

The situation described above has been identified by sociologist Stanley Cohen as moral panic. According to Cohen, moral panic occurs when "a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests" (Cohen, 1980, p. 9). In the case of school shootings, the media's failure to provide information within proper context — explaining what happened and how — instead created such a high level of fear that the result was the development of misdirected and erroneous public policy that failed to view the problem accurately.

The heightened fear generated by school shooting coverage caused schools and communities to pursue solutions such as increasing police presence in schools, placing public pressure on state legislatures to lower the minimum age for trying children as adults, and even proposing that juveniles be made eligible for the death penalty. These reactionary responses, fueled by media coverage, may or may not have addressed the real underlying problems. A moral panic had been created.

Moral Panic Defined: Cohen's Framework

According to Cohen, the key elements or stages of a moral panic are:

1. Someone or something is defined as a threat to values or interests;
2. This threat is depicted in an easily recognizable form by the media;
3. There is a rapid build-up of public concern;
4. There is a response from authorities or opinion makers;
5. The panic recedes or results in social changes.

Applying Cohen's elements to the school shooting situation, it is important to understand what is meant by the term "moral." Implied in the term is that the perceived threat must not be trivial. It cannot be a passing fad, and it must be seen as a threat to the very moral fiber of society. The panic occurs when the reaction to this perceived threat produces an inordinate demand for greater social regulation or control. Society develops a feeling that adopting such measures will restore traditional values and make communities safer.

Volatility and Disproportionality: Goode and Ben-Yehuda

The reaction caused by moral panic was further studied by sociologists Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda and published in a book entitled Moral Panics (Goode, 1994). In it, they further explained how moral panics develop, describing how society reacts strongly and quickly to a perceived threat, but noting that two additional factors — volatility and disproportionality — also appear.

According to Goode and Ben-Yehuda, volatility means that moral panics arise suddenly but that the high level of concern generated immediately after an event is unlikely to last, even in cases where the underlying perceived threat has been long-standing. Disproportionality, meanwhile, refers to the fact that the perceived threat is treated as far more substantial than a realistic appraisal would indicate.

The importance of these two characteristics is that they reveal how profoundly media coverage of an event can distort the public's perception of what is actually occurring and how serious the situation truly is. The importance of moral panic and its associated characteristics ultimately lies in the effect it has on public policy (Burns, 1999).

Conclusion: Toward Reasoned Policy

The school shootings that have occurred in the United States, and the press coverage that followed, certainly qualify as moral panic as defined and explained by Cohen. The public reaction that followed such events typifies the predictable behaviors and actions that Cohen and other sociologists identify as common in moral panic scenarios. Cohen attributes this to the dramatic method by which the media presents events and the simplistic approach it adopts to create interest and concern. In doing so, the media does society a disservice that results in poor public policy and inappropriate responses.

The seriousness of school shootings cannot be ignored; however, it is essential that decisions regarding such events be made through reasoned assessment rather than emotionally charged reactions. The nation's schools are actually among the safest places for children, and the actions of a few misguided individuals should not determine broad public policy. Caution should be taken before radically changing anything on the basis of isolated incidents. Doing otherwise is simply reacting to moral panic.

References

Burns, R., and Charles Crawford. (1999). School shootings, the media, and public fear: Ingredients for a moral panic. Crime, Law and Social Change, 147–168.

Cohen, S. (1980). Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers (New Edition). Oxford, UK: Martin Robertson.

Goode, E., and Nachman Ben-Yehuda. (1994). Moral panics: Culture, politics, and social construction. In E. Goode, Moral Panics (pp. 149–171). Oxford, UK: Blackwells.

Goode, E. (2009). Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.