"What Are Moral Panics" Hayley Burn

•  "The media, wittingly or unwittingly, reproduce the definitions of the powerful." [Eldridge 1997: 65]
• The 'amplification' which takes place through the media's work serves to appeal to the public so that they concur with ready-made opinions about the course of action to be taken, and these opinions have been found from the members of what Cohen refers to as the 'moral barricade', i.e. bishops, politicians and editors. 
•  Cohen defined the concept as a sporadic episode which, as it occurs, subjects society to bouts of moral panic, or in other terms, worry about the values and principles which society upholds which may be in jeopardy. He describes its characteristics as "a condition, episode, person or group of persons [who] become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." [Cohen, 1987: 9] 
• Cohen's study originated from his interest in the youth culture they all become associated with certain types of violence, which in turn also provoke public reaction and emotion, as topics in their own right. Such issues as football hooliganism, drug abuse, vandalism and political demonstrations, all struck a chord in public opinion, but the impact might not have been on such a large scale, were it not for the part the mass media play in the exposition of the facts.
• "In the process and as part of the dramatic element, scapegoats and folk devils are located and are woven into the narrative." [Eldridge 1997: 61] In other terms society cannot accept responsibility for its own failures and so they look to find someone who can be incriminated.
• Cohen's main criticism about the media's coverage of the episode is that it was subject to exaggeration and distortion of the facts. Such phrases as 'orgy', 'riot', 'siege', and 'screaming mob' were incorporated into the text, and exaggeration of the numbers involved all resulted in the perception of the event as a much more violent affair than the facts support.
• Cohen's 'control culture' failed to deal with the problem presented to them, which is why the topic of youth culture has continued to reappear at various points in our society.
• Jock Young's theory centres around a 'consensualist society', building on the idea that the majority of people in society share common values of reality and what is acceptable and not acceptable. Generally topics outside of their shared ideas are deemed wrong or detrimental. In the same way Young believes that the mass media shares this opinion. So it follows that its function is to reinforce the popular consciousness, although this can be regarded as a "sophisticated form of propaganda" [Eldridge 1997: 63] which plays on such emotions as discontent and insecurity without actually manipulating in the true sense of the word.
• "Rather than manipulating in the sense of trying to get people to change their views or politics, by reinforcing what is already present in society it gives the public what it wants." [Eldridge 1997: 63]
• More moral panics will be generated and other, as yet nameless, folk devils will be created. This is not because such developments have an inexorable inner logic, but because our society as present structured will continue to generate problems for some of its members...and then condemn whatever solution these groups find. [Cohen 1987:204]