Cohen's Moral Panic

A moral panic is the feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order and conventions. Deviant groups were named by Stanley Cohen in 1971 as folk devils (them v.s us), moral panics in the media are divided into three sections; occurrence and signification, wilder social implications and social control.
Occurrence and signification is an event which randomly occurs and the media thinks its worthy to publish, the event is signified as worrying to people, which is how it gets its attention.
Wilder social implications are connections made between events which start as an occurrence and extend to a bigger story, the audience start to focus on the subject, for example 'knife crime is on the up'.

Taylor Momsen, age 7, in The Grinch

Social control is when a moral panic has a resolution, this normally involves in changing the law, this therefore satisfies the audience who feel empowered by the media.
Features of a moral panic are:
Concern- When a certain group or subject causes negativity on society.
Consensus- Acceptance that the group in question of moral panic will pose a threat to society.
Disproportionality- Inconsistent action by the accused group to the moral panic.
Hostility- Division in society, between the accused group (folk devils) and the rest of the population.
Volatility- When a moral panic is unpredictable and disappears due to a decline in the media.

Taylor Momsen now age 17

Taylor Momsen is seen as a social threat to mothers who think Momsen is a negative example for children and teenagers. She stars in the younger audience's programmes and films, such as The Grinch and Gossip girl. Yet only at age 17, Momsen smokes, dresses provocatively and admitted in an interview that she carries a knife around with her. The link for the interview is here. The feature for moral panic in this case in my opinion is consensus as Momsen does state in the interview, "I didn't get into this to be a role model for seven-year-olds. I have no interest in doing that.". Therefore the population has to accept this and face the consequences if young females choose to follow her. Even though she can smoke and dress the way she wants to, it is only natural for young females to want to aspire to be like her, in which she doesn't wish for.