Editing Moral panic (section)

=== Cohen's stages of moral panic ===
Setting out to test his hypotheses on mods and rockers, Cohen discovered a pattern of construction and reaction with greater foothold than mods and rockers{{snd}}the moral panic.{{sfn|Cohen|2002|p=9}}

According to Cohen, there are five sequential stages in the construction of a moral panic:<ref name="Crossman" />{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}}<ref name="Mannion-2019" />

# An event, condition, episode, person, or group of persons is perceived and defined as a threat to societal values, safety, and interests.
# The nature of these apparent threats are amplified by the mass media, who present the supposed threat through simplistic, symbolic [[rhetoric]]. Such portrayals appeal to public prejudices, creating an [[evil]] in need of social control ([[folk devil]]s) and victims (the moral majority).
# A sense of [[social anxiety]] and concern among the public is aroused through these symbolic representations of the threat.
# The [[gatekeeper]]s of morality{{snd}}[[News editor|editors]], religious leaders, politicians, and other "moral"-thinking people{{snd}}respond to the threat, with socially-accredited experts pronouncing their diagnoses and solutions to the "threat". This includes new laws or policies.
# The condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible.

Cohen observed further:{{sfn|Cohen|2002|p=9}}

<blockquote>Sometimes the object of the panic is quite novel and at other times it is something which has been in existence long enough, but suddenly appears in the limelight. Sometimes the panic passes over and is forgotten, except in folk-lore and collective memory; at other times it has more serious and long-lasting repercussions and might produce such changes as those in legal and social policy or even in the way the society conceives itself.</blockquote>