FOLK DEVILS, NEWS ICONS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF MORAL PANICS

TLDR

Scholars study media content and effects by examining amplifications of deviance and constructions of moral panics. The article investigates how the 1990s “heroin chic” trend and Kurt Cobain’s death shaped news portrayals of heroin, positing that exemplification theory and news icons sustain moral panics. The authors performed content analyses of 1,770 heroin reports from major U.S. newspapers, finding a rise in popular‑culture references and officials framing heroin as a new scourge and a dangerous comeback.

Abstract

In studying media content and effects, scholars sometimes refer to amplifications of deviance and constructions of moral panics. The present article examines how "heroin chic," a 1990s trend characterized by emaciated, disheveled fashion models and film actors, as well as the symbolic death of music icon Kurt Cobain, interacted with news representations of heroin—namely how the narcotic had reappeared to threaten a new generation of users—thus creating a moral panic. The article posits a role for exemplification theory and news icons in conversations of how moral panics arise and are sustained through mass media. Content analyses of heroin reports in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post (n=1770) revealed increases in references to popular culture during the middle 1990s, with officials citing dramatic exemplars as evidence of a "new scourge" and of "an old enemy making a dangerous comeback." Actual heroin use did not appear to increase during 16 years of analysis.