Bits of Falling Sky and Global Pandemics: Moral Panic and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

Abstract

Whether it's a story about crime, the weather, politics, Hollywood celebrities, or public health, sensationalistic and exploitative coverage is a media staple. The mass media's coverage of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the spring of 2003 was no exception. The media's construction of the source, virulence, and transmissibility of this disease, a previously unknown cousin of the common cold, diverged considerably from its medical realities and contributed to a widespread though short-lived moral panic. Drawing on work in the areas of the sociology of health and critical criminology, this article explores the claims-making activities behind the SARS “epidemic.” Specifically, it addresses how threats to the public well-being are manufactured by the media and how these threats draw upon past and present cultural myths of dangerous “others” and contribute to unwarranted public fear, intolerance, and distrust.