Abstract
The security guard, who was the pioneer to prevent the suspicious package left in the entertainment area, was primarily declared as ‘hero' after the incident in Atlanta during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and then he was vilified as ‘evil' as a result of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and media representations about the incident. The incident was adapted into the movie Richard Jewell in 2019, directed by Clint Eastwood. The movie, in which Jewell's devastating life is narrated in the screenplay, is regarded as to be worth analyzing because the media reflects the witch hunt that Stanley Cohen defines as a moral panic. Consequently, the moral panic creation of the media is tried to be analyzed through the movie Richard Jewell in this study.
TopThe Concept Of Moral Panic
Moral panic is the name of the process that emerges as a result of the reaction societies sometimes show against the internalized norms, the attitude patterns that keep their lives in order, or the behaviors, identities, styles they regard as a threat to their belief systems. The concept is associated with the work published in 1972, which Stanley Cohen tried to indicated the reasons for the reactions of the media and various control actors after the ‘Mod and Rocker’ incident that emerged as a new youth phenomenon in the UK in the 1960s and defined the whole process as moral panic. Cohen (2002, p. xxxiv), explains the reason for using the term moral panic in that the social reaction given is disproportionate to the actual seriousness (in terms of risk, damage and/or threat) of the event. In other words, according to him, the reaction is always more severe than the situation demands (hence exaggerated, irrational, and unjustified).
Although the concept is generally used in reference to Cohen, Marshall McLuhan first used the concept in his book “Understanding Media” published in 1964, which he explained the problem of the era many people had difficulty in examining the issue that people affected by western values from the media without mentioning moral panic. Stating that he took the concept from McLuhan, Cohen uses the moral panic to explain the media’s attitude to reflect these incidents after the Mod and Rocker incidents in the British coastal town of Clacton and denotes moral panic as follows (2002, p. 1);
A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interest; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or (more often) resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Moral Panic: The reaction process of societies against behaviors, identities, styles or beliefs that they perceive as threats to norms, attitude patterns or belief systems that enable them their lives to keep in order.
Richard Jewell Incident: The incident that a security guard named Richard Jewell, who was in the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park and then alerted and mobilized security forces to a suspicious package that exploded, was declared as a national ‘hero’ after the explosion and vilified as ‘bomber’ due to the information leaked to the media by the FBI.
Witch Hunt: The process initiated by the control actors of the society (such as police, media) against the person, group of people, incident or situation that is thought to violate the order of any society, and often legal mechanisms are put aside, resulting in various physical and psychological victimization.
Media: General name of the organizations such as the press, radio and television which obtain all kinds of information that they regard as newsworthy in order to reach their target audience and create news by filtering this information within the framework of their ideological approaches.
Hero: A person or group of people who admit as their duty to warn and protect the society they live in against all kinds of danger or bad action – by putting aside their own interests.
Evil: Imaginary or tangible person, group of people and incident that is perceived to violate pre-established boundaries to protect social order and interests.
Movie Richard Jewell: The movie Richard Jewell released in 2019 and directed by Clint Eastwood that depicts the real life story of Richard Jewell, whose life was turned upside down under the leadership of the FBI and the media following the explosion of the suspicious package found at the 1996 Atlanta Cennetial Olympic Games.