Day 25 : Stanley Cohen "Moral Panics" - Audience Theory

Stanley Cohen explores the concept, of the media being responsible for a range of social problems.

In this post I will be relating this concept to Horror but also contemporary examples. 

Below is Cohen's explanation of the concept "Moral Panics"

In some ways this interlinks with Horror, as the villains are often outcasts because of their 

physical appearance. Their difference is often considered a motive for their crimes, so to a certain extent it does emphasize his theory. For example in terms of "The Self Fulfilling Prophecy", they're labeled as ugly, odd and monstrous which is why they end up doing negative things. Carrie and Frankenstein are clear examples of a self fulfilling prophecy, as they both experienced being "othered" from society therefore when marginalized they acted with revenge. This does proves that even in Horror the medias definition of what is beauty, effects those who are outside the accepted box which is they result in deviance.

Here's a collage I made which highlights contemporary moral panics. It highlights the horse meat scandal, immigration, online bullying, terrorism and video games.

Stanley Cohen identified a classic structure of which Moral Panic occurs.

The different stages of moral panics reflects Horror's impact on the audience, as the directors often reflect societies fears in the themes of the movie. E.g Psycho (1960) created moral panic as people were disturbed at the thought, that someone that appeared so normal could be a killer. Alfred Hitchcock was inspired by Ed Ghine a psychotic killer, who appeared like a normal guy but was actually a psychotic killer. Cohen's concept is interesting as in my Horror trailer I could use a contemporary moral panic, as the main theme through the my narrative.