Deviancy Amplification Spiral

FireIce SG

food for thought....

In 1972, Stanley Cohen wrote a book entitled, Folk Devils and Moral Panics. The thesis of the books is that moral panics usually include what Cohen called the deviancy amplification spiral.

The spiral starts with some "deviant act". Usually the deviance is criminal but it can also involve legal acts considered (rightly or wrongly) morally repugnant.

The mass media report what is newsworthy. Bad or frightening situations are reported. What is not frightening and would help the public keep a rational perspective tends to be ignored.

Minor problems are made to look serious. Rare events are described as if they were the norm. Gullible and frightened members of the public buy newspapers; they listen to radio or television programmes and believe what they are told. This is profitable for those who run the media. Irresponsible publicity can increase deviant behaviour.

In the next stage, typically public concern about crime forces the police and the whole law enforcement system to focus more resources on dealing with the specific deviancy than would otherwise be necessary. Police under public pressure make more arrests. Judges and magistrates under public pressure pass stiffer sentences. All this tends to convince the public that any fear was justified while the media continue to profit by reporting police and other law enforcement activity.

Moral panics do not always include the deviancy amplification spiral. The witchhunts that occurred in medieval times did not have significant media involvement. In modern times media involvement is usual in any moral panic.

familiar?

extracted from wiki

crazy monkey SG

so chim ........ Rolling Eyes

lotus999 SG

such thing won't happen in Singapore as the mass media is all controlled by the govt.

anyway, good that u've been reading and sharing your thoughts.

FireIce SG

Rolling Eyes

i think u are not getting the point

miong SG

Lotus

On the contrary such thing has been happening in here! Shocked

commonsense SG

get it right leh!! that is just what's happening in sg BECAUSE the mass media is controlled hor!

chunyong SG

u are told and shown what they want you to hear and see, not what you wish to hear and see and then as time goes by, you will shift what u actually want to see/her as what they want you to see and hear. just like an iron nail being magnetized….at 1st it has no polarity, then a magnetic source comes or use the coil running current, then there is N and S, when dat happens, u can never remove the polarity. even when u break the nail into 2, there will still be polarity.

pearlie27 SG

The anti-littering laws, chewing gum ban, petrol-tax cheating, defamation suits against politicians, so-called quitters versus stayers and all the minor social misdemeanours have been amplified to serve the press media and their advertisement revenue purposes but the citizens were played suckers ...with more laws and enforcements put up against them. Governing elites were seen doing a lot but the real works are the job creations, actions to lower costs of living ...sadly not receiving similar publicity or such degree of accountability.

How did all those laws, issues like quitters vs stayers, etc, serve and generate revenue for the press media? All those laws, etc are part and parcel of the govt propaganda and the press media is serving those propaganda and not the other way round!

Govt usually uses propaganda to achieve a desired behaviour from the people so as to control them and not to cause panic. Governmenttal control is rarely an eg of deviancy amplification spiral.

mistyblue SG

Laughing

av98m SG

X 2 Smile

LazerLordz SG

Our mass media is used similarly in spirit to Nazi Germany.Only thing is that we don’t kick Jews about and burn them.Unethical too, but they don’t seem to care.

the Bear SG

happens here as some have pointed out..

but i would say that the most glaring and recent one is the rioting in PRC right now against the japanese..

well, i wonder what it would take to stop the spiral?

Lord Kang SG

ya..i totally agree..We are being told what we are suppose to know and not we want to know..Everything in Singapore is control by our dear gov..

DriftingGuy SG

x100000

Yes I totally agree with this. The media is not entirely trustworthy since they tend to report things that are newsworthy, rare events tend to be exaggerated or even twisted to suit the agendas the media hope to achieve... and of course not to mention the media control the government exerts... just another version of propaganda in the domestic sense

lotus999 SG

Didn't our local public media played up the anti-Japanese demo in China and Korea? Our media are controlled by the govt and it wouldn't allow them to play up such issue.

Except for some discussions in internet forums, did anything happen here, any local demo, any riot, any panic reaction from Singaporeans?

FireIce,
May I know what is the point that I missed?

Miong,
can pls give eg?

commonsense, mistyblue, av98m,
you all are the ones who didn't get it right.

Deviancy Amplification Spiral(DAS) is a phenomenon whereby the public become panicky after some, usually irresponsible, newspapers started to report wildlyand sensationally on some incidents. The panic reaction will cause the press to sensationalise the issues further and the spiral goes on. A recent eg here would be Huang Nan incident, where the numerous newspaper reports on the little girl fanned the public concern for her which became overwhelming.

The anti-Japanese demo could be an eg of DAS in China and Korea but it didn't happen here.

DAS rarely happens in Singapore because besides being govt controlled there are too few newspapers here. When there are too many papers, these papers will usually resort to sensational news reporting to gain readership.

dragg SG

armed policemen in MRT stations one of them?

foxwalk SG

totally. sensational news=big money.
there's no responsiblity or morality involved in news reporting.

kheldorin SG

Oops..after reading the article, I thought it was about the US after 9/11. You know, the increase in patriotism, arrests without evidence, increased airport security, harsher interrogations (torture), spreading of fears of more terrorist attacks. Allowed greater support for the Iraq war and the myth that there is a weapons of mass destruction. Silence protestors of the war as they are deemed 'unAmerican'. It justified the increase in military spending and the missile shield project. Increased the ability to recruit more soldiers. More tolerant about the discrimination of Muslims. Encouraged belief that certain countries are "evil" and thus wants the US to give them the 'freedom'. That they are unreasonable and the only solution is war. Defy UN's orders because UN is anti-American. Made fun or discriminate against countries who are against the war like France. Creating a more 'police' state to increase 'security'. And this is a country with supposedly freedom of the press.

So, I don't know. Compared to this, Singapore's situation seems mild.

oxford mushroom SG

Yes, we see them in Singapore. In fact, I suspect at times they are orchestrated by the government. With a compliant media, it is easy to initiate a fear or concern that can be easily disseminated and amplified to achieve a particular political or social objective.

Of course it can be used for good as well as evil. I only dread the day our benign dictatorship turns malignant....