Playing with Moral Panics

Playing with Moral Panics:
The framing of young people in the
reporting of crime and video games
Jason Rutter
Jason.Rutter@soc.kuleuven.be
Friday, 26 November 2010

Moral

Jock Young, 1971, The Drugtakers: The Social
Meaning of Drug Use
Stanley Cohen, 1972, Folk Devils and Moral Panics
Goode & Ben Yehuda, 1994, Moral Panics: The
Social Construction of Deviance

What makes a moral
panic?

Reporting of events not
unbiased - tends to
stylise and
sensationalise

Specific types of
activity singled out for
large amounts of media
attention

Framed as a
consequence of larger
social problems

Segments of a society
are singled out a
deviant, dangerous or
demanding regulation
(‘folk devils’)

“Right and proper way for a
person of this gender, age and
nation to behave and to be.”
Critcher, 2009, p.18
Critcher, C., (2009) 'Widening the Focus: Moral Panics
as Moral Regulation', British Journal of Criminology.
49 (1), pp.17-34.
Moral Panics reinforce

Moral EntrepreneurFolk Devil

Jack Thomson
Moral Entrepreneur

1. Concern - some reported conduct or event sparks
anxiety
2. Hostility - the perpetrators are portrayed as folk
devils)
3. Consensus - the negative social reaction is broad
and unified
4. Disproportionality - the extent of the conduct or
the threat is exaggerated
5. Volatility - reporting and panic emerge suddenly,
but can dissipate quickly too

Experts

Moral barricades are manned by
editors, bishops, politicians
and other right-thinking
people; socially accredited
experts pronounce their
diagnoses and solutions.
Cohen, Moral Panics (1972)

Jack Thomson
Expert

GENDER
RACE
VIOLENCE
SEXUAL CONTENT
ADDICTION

Young People

Children can be both the focus
of moral panics and the
victims of the panic’s subject

Victims

Obesity

The camp’s clinical director, Susan
Borgman, agrees about the causes of the
obesity epidemic and says: ‘We can
trace it back to the early Eighties.
‘Kids began buying video and computer
games and this also coincided with a
time when the rising cost of living
meant more parents were going out to
work and less supervision meant more
convenience meals.
Wellspring UK
Britain’s first fat camp for teenagers
The Sun, 28th Jul 2008

8th Jan 2009

DESPERATE Billy Robbins holds the unenviable
title of the World's Heaviest Teenager - after
topping 60 STONE.
His life-threatening weight - half a ton -
follows years of overfeeding by his misguided
mother, Barbara.
Billy, 19, was housebound for three years before
doctors told Barbara she was literally killing
him with love.
He spent his days watching TV and playing video
games as Barbara waited on him hand and foot.
8th Jan 2009

The Sun, 13th Nov 2010

CRIPPLING bone disease rickets has made a shock
comeback - because kids are staying indoors with
video games instead of playing in the sunshine.
The condition - rife in gloomy 19th-century
slums but wiped out in Britain in the 1930s -
has been found in more than A FIFTH of children
in a Southampton study.
And unlike the olden days, when it was linked
with poverty, medics say it is now just as rife
in middle-class youngsters.
[...]
Stunned study leader Professor Nicholas Clarke
said: "It is quite astonishing. This is a
completely new occurrence that has evolved over
the last 12 to 24 months.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3225824/Game-addict-kids-hit-by-extinct-bone-disease.html

Raoul Moat

FURY erupted last night over plans for a Raoul
Moat book, movie and game ... before the man he
killed has even been laid to rest.
[...]
And last night gaming websites showed the cover
of Grand Theft Auto Rothbury - a version of the
Xbox hit Grand Theft Auto.
It is named after the Northumberland town where
Moat, 37, hid then shot himself after his gun
rampage in which he shot ex-lover Samantha
Stobbart, 22, killer her lover Chris Brown, 29,
and shot and blinded Pc David Rathband, 42 in
both eyes.
[...]
Samantha’s grandmother, Ann Hornsby, 69, said
[...] “It is sick - it’s blood money. The game
is beyond belief.”
Daily Star, 21st July 2010: http://www.mcvuk.com/static/images/assets/565/1055_DailyStar_GTARothbury.jpg

Grand Theft Auto: Rothbury

• Story had no truth
• Did not contact Rockstar games
• Box cover was a photoshop creation
• ‘Substantial’ damages donated to charity of
Rockstars choosing
• Daily Star apologised
• Removed story from web site
Take 2 sue Express Newspapers

ON 21 July we published an article claiming that
the video games company Rockstar Games were
planning to release a version of their popular
Grand Theft Auto video games series titled
“Grand Theft Auto Rothbury”.
We also published what we claimed would be the
cover of this game, solicited comments from a
family member impacted by the recent tragedy and
criticised Rockstar Games for their alleged
plans.
We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the
story before publication and did not contact
Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We
also did not question why a best selling and
critically acclaimed fictional games series
would choose to base one of their most popular
games on this horrifying real crime event.
Daily Star, 26th July 2010: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/145880/Rockstar-Games-Grand-Theft-Auto-An-apology

Perpetrators

Game
Violence

Death Race (1976)
• 1 & 2 player
• Run over ‘Gremlins’ to
convert them to
‘tombstones’
• Gremlins would scream
• ‘Sick and morbid’:
National Safety Council
• Featured on 60 Minutes
• 500 made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikKHhiCpTgI

School Shootings

LOCATION DATE No DEAD
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA April 2007 33
Dunblane Primary School, Dunblane, UK March 1996 18
Gutenberg-Gymnasium, Erfurt, Germany April 2002 17
Albertville Secondary School, Winnenden, Germany March 2009 16
University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA August 1966 16
École Polytechnique Montreal, Quebec, Canada December 1989 14
Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, USA April 1999 13
Azerbaijan State Oil Academy,Baku, Azerbaijan April 2009 13
Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences Kauhajoki, Finland September 2008 11
Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva, Jerusalem, Israel March 2008 9
Jokela High School Tuusula, Finland November 2007 9
Red Lake Senior High School, Red Lake, Minnesota, USA March 2005 8
California State University, Fullerton, California, USA July 1976 7
Al-Tallai private high school, Sana’a, Yemen March 1997 6
Cleveland Elementary School, Stockton, California, USA January 1989 6
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, USA February 2008 6
Freiherr-vom-Stein Gesamtschule, Eppstein, Germany June 1983 6
West Nickel Mines School, Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, USA October 2006 6
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA November 1991 6
Westside Middle School, Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA March 1998 5
St.-Marien-Schule, Bremen, Germany June 1913 5

April 16th 2007
Seung-Hui Cho - 2nd year BIS student
Two attacks separated by two hours
Killed 32: Wounded 17
Committed suicide.
Virginia Tech Massacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbbwyF6o1hw

Pictures of himself holding
weapons, an 1,800-word
rambling diatribe, and video
clips in which he expresses
rage, resentment, and a desire
to get even with oppressors.
Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2009, p.29)
A Media Friendly Massacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KElyLrrTLB0

Seung-Hui Cho

Park Chan-wook’s ‘Oldboy’

Diagnosis of ‘selective
mutism’ & ‘major
depression’ in childhood

Hide mental health history in high
School
Counselling sessions withdrawn
given slight improvement in
communication
Suicidal and homicidal thoughts

‘Pathological shyness’ worsened in
college
Increasingly ‘dark’ contributions to
creative writing course
Reports of stalking
Involuntary hospitalisation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWJm5cZ3SNM

So is there a moral
panic about games?

Is there a
MORAL PANIC
concern?

Is there
MORAL PANIC
hostility?

Is the
MORAL PANIC
disproportional?

Female
40%
Male
60%
ESA, 2009
Gender of Game
Players

34The average age of USA gamer
ESA, 2009

<18 yrs
25%
18-49 yrs
49%
50> yrs
26%
ESA, 2009
Age of Game
Players

40The average age of the most
frequent game purchaser
ESA, 2009

67%USA households who play
video games
ESA, 2009

3+
50%
7+
10%
12+
24%
16+
12%
18+
4%
T=9847
PEGI Age Ratings
for Games
PEGI, 2008

Is there
MORAL PANIC
volatility?

Health
Family
Friends
Control
Innocence
‘Protecting
Childhood’

‘To seek for evidence of the ‘the
effects of media violence’ is to
persist in asking simplistic
questions about complicated
social issues’
Buckingham (1997: 67)
Buckingham, D. (1997) ‘Electronic child abuse? Rethinking the media’s effects
on children’, in M. Barker & J. Petley (Eds.), Ill Effects:The Media /Violence
Debate (pp. 63–77). Routledge, London: Sage.

Moral Panics on Games hide discussions
about young people and:
Sexuality
Access to guns
Parenting
Mental health
Care by schools
Food industry

Who Benefits?
• Media?
Attracts audiences; Drive sales; Develops a voice
• Moral Entrepreneurs?
Publicise agenda; Strengthen importance; influence policy
• Experts?
Develop profile; User engagement; REF...
• Games Industry?
Publicise games; Develop mainstream; Show responsibility

But...
Do Young
People?

Jason Rutter
Web:

www.madebyjase.com
Slides:

www.slideshare.net/Jasieboy
Twitter: @JaseRutter
@StevoProject
@DigiplayProject
Jason.Rutter@soc.kuleuven.be

Playing with Moral Panics

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