Part IV

AwarenessMoral Conversion

Moral Panic

Part 4

Those who construct moral meanings & associate them with particular acts or conditions by drawing on power & resources of:InstitutionsAgenciesSymbols or ideasCommunication to audiences

Part 4

Rule-creating: politicians, public crusaders, teachers, parents, school administrators, business leaders

Rule-enforcing: police, prosecutors, judges, and other informal agents of control such as dormitory RAs

Part 4

By individualsFirst Lady Nancy Reagan “Just Say No”; John Walsh for founding Missing and

Exploited Children’s Network and the TV show America’s Most Wanted;

Michael Moore for documentaries about big business and violence

By Groups – Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)Group Against Smoking Pollution (GASP)

Part 4

Moral entrepreneurs manufacture public morality through a multi-stage process, beginning first with the generation of awareness of a problem

Claims-making: danger-messages are generated about specific issues such as drunken-driving, hate crimes, second-hand smoke, outsourcing, school violenceIn this stage will draw upon experts and

employ several rhetorical methods including statistics and particular case examples

Part 4

Claimsmakers must draw on elements of drama, novelty, politics and cultural myths to gain visibility for their issue

They seek to attract media attention through hunger strikes, demonstrations, civil disobedience, marches, and picketing

They seek support of sponsors and opinion leaders – celebrities for public endorsements

Part 4

Temporary but widespread concern about an issue, promoted by much media attention and sometimes legislative attention, takes center stage

Triggered by specific event at right moment, draw attention to a specific group as a target, have provocative content revealed, and supported by formal and informal communication outlets

Part 4

MoneyRace and ethnicity

GenderAge

Part 4

Money: can be used for campaign contributions to sway politicians to favor and disfavor new laws, to fund favorable research, and to fight restrictive lawsuits

Race and ethnicity: dominant white group behaviors less likely to be defined and enforced as deviant

Gender: women have less social power than males are more subject to labeling

Age: Younger and older people hold less respect in our society

Part 4

Part 4

Same powerful groups have greater resources to avoid being labeled

They may hire media and legal experts to foster positive collective images: gun owners are “upstanding” citizens,

drug or alcohol companies promote favorable images

Differential Social Power

Part 4

How do powerful groups avoid being labeled?

How are rules created and implemented?

Part 4

Part IVChapter 15

Part 4: Ch. 15

The cultural origins and nature of anti-drug appeals must be understood

Drug wars & anti-drug crusades involving marked public concern about a specific drug or drugs are not simply reflections of problems people are experiencing: Such drug scares are a recurring social

phenomena in their own right

Part 4: Ch. 15

Alcohol: Temperance Movement to Prohibition; primarily led by middle-class, Protestant, white (WASP) Americans reacting to drinking behaviors of Catholic immigrants from Europe

Part 4: Ch. 15

Anti-opium den laws of San Francisco in 1875 directed against Chinese immigrants

Anti-marijuana laws of Great Depression directed at Mexican Americans and later connected to drop-out, hippie counterculture that was corrupting morality of the youth

More recently in 1980s the crack cocaine scare, directed against urban, poor African- Americans

Part 4: Ch. 15

A kernel of truth Media magnification Politico-moral entrepreneurs Professional interest groups Historical context of conflict Link a form of drug-use to a

“dangerous class” Scapegoating a drug for a variety of

social problems

Part 4: Ch. 15

Part 4: Ch. 15

First, claims about evil of drugs provide a welcome vocabulary of attribution and something to blame for social problems

Second, American society, predicated on Protestantism and capitalism emphasize self-control; As a result loss of such control is to be

avoided at all cost! Third, we live today in a new consumer

culture that exacerbates the issue of self-control; It is this on-going dynamic between self-

control and self-indulgence that empowers our drug scares

Part 4: Ch. 15

Of the drugs that are classified as illegal, which ones are thought to be the most serious or dangerous?

What are drug scares and in what ways are they correlated with minority groups?

Part 4: Ch. 15

Part IVChapter 16

Deviance is socially constructed The ability to define and construct reality is

closely connected to the power structure of society

Status conflicts, and resultant status degradation ceremonies of behavior characteristic of a lower status, enhance the status of those who condemn and abstain from such behavior

Deviance creates political competition in which moral entrepreneurs originate moral crusades aimed at generating reform

Such moral crusades are dominated by members of upper social strata of society

Status Politics & the Creation of Deviance

Part 4: Ch. 16

Moral crusades may be either assimilative or coercive reforms Assimilative: sympathy for deviant

engenders integrative efforts aimed at lifting the repentant to higher moral plane of the upper status group (education)

Coercive: deviants viewed as denying moral and status superiority of reformers (law and force)

Moral entrepreneur cannot succeed alone: must enlist broader public support

Status Politics & the Creation of Deviance

Part 4: Ch. 16

Political dynamics involved in construction of deviance may be seen in the efforts to end smoking in public facilities

Cigarette smoking universally accepted in 1940s, 1950s and 1960s until surgeon general’s report on health risks of smoking in 1964

More people today see smoking as socially deviant, unclean and intrusive to others

The Status Politics of Cigarette Smoking

Part 4: Ch. 16

Abstinence and bodily purity are key to nonsmoker’s claim of moral superiority

Antismoking movement has targeted a lifestyle typical of the working classes; Moral entrepreneurs crusading against

smoking are of higher social status, the “knowledge” class of educators, therapeutic and counseling professions

Early remedial efforts focused on publicizing the perils of smoking, reflecting a strategy of assimilative reform through education:Resulted in decline in smoking

The Status Politics of Cigarette Smoking

Part 4: Ch. 16

Remaining smokers have become redefined as enemy

Focus of social control efforts to ban smoking in public places as evidence mounted on adverse effects of smoking on nonusers

Success of antismoking crusade rooted in moral crusaders ability to mobilize power, aided by government campaigns, and widely publicized health risks of smoking

Success of this moral crusade also related to deviance being connected with lower social status groups, whose stigmatization reinforce existing power structure

The Status Politics of Cigarette Smoking

Part 4: Ch. 16

Study hypothesis: supporters of smoking ban would be of higher social status than those opposing it

Site of research: Shasta County, California

Referendum to ban smoking in public places passed by 56% majority; special election by those opposing it lost again by 58% majority;Ordinance went into effect July,1993

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Interviews with five leading moral entrepreneurs and five status quo defenders

Primary concern of moral entrepreneurs was health but three also made negative comments about smoking, thereby degrading the status of smokers

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“Smoking is no longer an acceptable action”

“Smoke stinks”“It is just a dirty and annoying habit”

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Status quo defenders also had two arguments: a person’s right (freedom) and business profits

Smoking viewed as a constitutionally protected right of free individuals

Worries about loss of smoking customers with a ban

Part 4: Ch. 16

Debate between proponents of ban to prohibit smoking in public places versus those defenders of individuals’ right to decide where to smoke reflect a difference in social power

Winners in moral and stigma contests generally represent higher social classes, involve symbolic dimension, and this was reflected in current study

Part 4: Ch. 16

Is the association of tobacco with lower-status persons a factor in the crusade against smoking in public facilities?

Compare anti-smoking campaigns to those of the tobacco company and its glorification in the movies. How “mixed” are the messages?

Part 4: Ch. 16