moral panic
nounEtymology
Modern usage appears to originate with Jock Young in 1971 and Stanley Cohen in 1972. Cohen states that "[they] both probably picked it up from Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media".
Definitions
A semi-spontaneous or media-generated mass movement based on the perception that an…
A semi-spontaneous or media-generated mass movement based on the perception that an individual, group, community, or culture is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society; a public outcry.
- The psychotherapist Marty Klein likens the current moral panic around online porn to the epidemics of fear and suspicion that sprung up around satanic cults in the 1980s, and even around comic books in the 1950s.
- Moral panics have existed since well before the Salem witch trials — perhaps the paradigm case. But thanks in part to social media, they are increasing in number and changing in nature.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for moral panic. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA