Folk Devils and Moral Panics in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Morena Tartari, Cosimo Marco Scarcelli, Cirus Rinaldi, Morena Tartari, Cosimo Marco Scarcelli, Cirus Rinaldi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781032591490
• eBook ISBN: 9781040091340
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Global Development Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Folk Devils and Moral Panics in the COVID-19 Pandemic analyses the phenomena of moral panics surrounding so-called folk devils in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this volume, internationally recognised moral panic scholars from disciplines including sociology, media studies, criminology, and cultural studies examine case studies of moral panics related to the COVID-19 pandemic. These analyses consider the different social, political, economic, organisational, and cultural contexts within which such moral panics emerged and assess how the concept of moral panic can be deployed to offer novel insights into sociocultural responses to the outbreak. By utilising both classical approaches to moral panic analysis and more recent trends, chapters discuss the utility of the concept of moral panic that is, for the first time, applied to a global-scale event like the COVID-19 pandemic.

This volume will be of interest to students and scholars in the social sciences with an interest in moral panics, responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the media and popular culture.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figure and tables
• List of contributors
• Series editor's foreword
• Foreword: Moral panic studies and the COVID-19 moment
• Folk devils and moral panics in the COVID-19 pandemic: An introduction
• 1 Ten dimensions of dispute over moral panic theory in an age of COVID-19
• 2 COVID-19 in social problems marketplaces
• 3 The ‘crazies’ are panicking: High-vis folk devils and the co-opting of moral panic in Australia
• 4 Understanding the protest movements against the COVID-19 public policy in France as a moral panic
• 5 Moral panics and health-related misinformation: When the audience becomes co-producer
• 6 Framing social drama: Panic, protest, and the Canadian trucker convoy
• 7 Mutuality vs freedom: Competing moral panics in the UK debate over the wearing of masks during the pandemic
• 8 Voices of reason, voices of moralization: Analyzing moralizing discourse in scientific claims in news media in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, 2020–2022
• 9 Neo-liberal background of pandemic-related moral panic in Polish press discourse
• 10 “Infected migrants”: The Italian political discourse about immigration during the pandemic: a renewed moral panic?
• Folk devils and moral panics in the COVID-19 pandemic: Final remarks
• Index