Between 1971 and 1999, ParticipACTION, Canada’s Health Promotion agency, reached into Canadian homes, schools, and places of work to “educate, motivate, and mobilize” the public about the perceived need to become physically fit. This dissertation discusses how the agency employed a variety of professional marketing approaches to create compelling prescriptive literature concerning physical fitness to advance a nation-building agenda based in the state directive of individual accountability for the Canadian body. As a result of ParticipACTION's sustained and pervasive influence, Canadians not only remember this prolific brand, but its underlying messaging has become a part of how Canadians view physical fitness and citizenship. ParticipACTION was a project of healthism fostered in an environment of anxiety. The threat of the Cold War, the constructed menace of the Obesity Crisis, and the fear of Quebec Separatism were all used to bolster the message at this semi-public agency over its thirty years of national social marketing. How individual Canadians experienced ParticipACTION varied significantly based on their body type, socio-economic status, gender, language, ethnicity, and region. Through the use of Historical GIS mapping, oral interviews, and archival records, this dissertation offers a history from creation to closure of this national agency and its place in Canada’s social history.

Student Number : 9208006A - PhD thesis - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities / The term ‘ducktail’ was originally used to denote a hairstyle. In the Post World War Two period, ‘Ducktail’ became associated with a rebellious white youth gang subculture, which rose to prominence in the major urban centres throughout South Africa. Societal responses to the subculture’s identity resulted in the generation of a moral panic which demonised the movement branding it as – amongst other things – the ‘eendstert euwel’ [ducktail evil]. The major aim of this thesis is to account for the way in which members of the subculture constructed and practised their class, racial, ethnic, gendered and generational identities whilst highlighting how society responded to them. The relationship of conformity, conflict and control that emerged between the ducktails and more conventional members of society such as the authorities and academics is plotted. This relationship sets the context for the final part of the dissertation, which explores the moral guardians and rule creators that became involved in the designing of youth policies. Particular attention will be given to how the ‘problem of youth’ brought religion, working mothers, morality, the state of the nation and the preservation of white supremacy under question. In this process, the National Party government formulated policies to monitor, shape and construct an appropriate form of South African whiteness.

<p>Syftet med den här studien har varit att belysa hur fångars situation, med avseende på deras anpassning i samhället, uttrycks i massmedia samt hur de uttryckta föreställningarna om anpassning kan relateras till lagtexten. Studien är kvalitativ och den empiri som använts är debattartiklar i Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet. Till dessa artiklar har följande frågeställningar ställts:</p><p>-Vilka förhållanden anses som problem i massmediala diskussioner beträffande fångarnas situation? Hur beskrivs dessa och vilka förslag till lösningar diskuteras? </p><p>-Hur kan sådana förhållanden relateras till fångarnas anpassning i samhället och hur kan den i sin tur kopplas till lagens intentioner? </p><p>Resultatet av den första frågeställningen har analyserats utifrån ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv och med hjälp av begreppen ”claims- maker”, ”socialt problem” och ”moralisk panik”. Den andra frågeställningen har analyserats med lagtext som utgångspunkt. Resultatet har även jämförts med tidigare forskning på området. Viktiga slutsatser har varit att de fångar som är mest isolerade från samhället också löper den största risken att inte bli föremål för återanpassningsinriktade åtgärder. Hög säkerhet och fångars anpassning i samhället kan även sägas stå i ett motsatsförhållande till varandra. </p>

Syftet med den här studien har varit att belysa hur fångars situation, med avseende på deras anpassning i samhället, uttrycks i massmedia samt hur de uttryckta föreställningarna om anpassning kan relateras till lagtexten. Studien är kvalitativ och den empiri som använts är debattartiklar i Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet. Till dessa artiklar har följande frågeställningar ställts: -Vilka förhållanden anses som problem i massmediala diskussioner beträffande fångarnas situation? Hur beskrivs dessa och vilka förslag till lösningar diskuteras? -Hur kan sådana förhållanden relateras till fångarnas anpassning i samhället och hur kan den i sin tur kopplas till lagens intentioner? Resultatet av den första frågeställningen har analyserats utifrån ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv och med hjälp av begreppen ”claims- maker”, ”socialt problem” och ”moralisk panik”. Den andra frågeställningen har analyserats med lagtext som utgångspunkt. Resultatet har även jämförts med tidigare forskning på området. Viktiga slutsatser har varit att de fångar som är mest isolerade från samhället också löper den största risken att inte bli föremål för återanpassningsinriktade åtgärder. Hög säkerhet och fångars anpassning i samhället kan även sägas stå i ett motsatsförhållande till varandra.

The aim of the study was to investigate whether the phenomenon of internet drugs should be considered as a moral panic or as a real danger. We have mainly focused on how society perceives young people's use of these drugs. The study is based on a qualitative approach and we have used structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with three different categories of professionals who in different ways have contact with parts of our study in their professional capacity. These are: officials, commentators, and researchers. We chose these respondents to get a chance to see the phenomenon from different perspectives. The study's starting point is moral panic and youth culture. The results and analysis section showed that the professionals had differing opinions on how to consider the phenomenon. The majority of respondents felt that there are elements of both moral panic and real danger; however, there were those who felt it was merely a moral panic, while others felt that it was solely a real danger. With this background, our conclusion is that probably internet drugs should be seen as both - a moral panic and a real danger.

Purpose/aim: This study was performed in order to describe how Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is reported in Swedish daily newspapers during a five-year period. MMA is a relative new sport in Sweden and it is important that the description by the Swedish daily newspapers is accurate and balanced. Then this sport will have the same opportunities to grow as already well-established sports in Sweden.  Material/Method: The material consists of 159 articles from six different daily newspapers gathered from 2006-12-07 to 2011-12-07. Quantitative content analysis is used to investigate how the newspapers describe MMA. The result from this quantitative analysis are then compiled, analysed and discussed by applying theories of agenda setting, framing and moral panic.  Main results: The result shows that the Swedish daily newspapers give a relative neutral and balanced picture in their coverage of MMA but they are affected to a certain degree of moral panic. A neutral framing of MMA was common in the majority of the newspapers. Swedish newspapers have fulfilled the requirements that you should have on balanced journalism. A majority of the articles described MMA with more or less deviancy and therefore made MMA “Folk Devils”. Further there was a consensus among politicians and other right-thinking people that MMA is a threat to and is dangerous to society. The negative reporting of MMA in the daily newspapers is volatile with one-year cycles with start in late 2009. With one quarter of the articles describing MMA as a problem, there is preconception that MMA is likely to have a negative impact on society. There is a disproportion in the reporting of MMA as a threat as “Swedish Sports” have approved MMA as a sport, but still report it as a problem. Therefore there is some kind of moral panic about MMA in Swedish daily newspaper.

Social media has come to play an increasingly important role in today's society. It’s hard in today’s world not to talk about youth culture without mentioning social media. Large amounts of research show that this type of media adversely affects young people, but at the same time, much of this research is written from an adult perspective. Our purpose in this bachelor thesis is to examine and highlight a young persons own perspective on this type of media. We have chosen to focus on younger people that use Instagram between the ages of thirteen through sixteen. The teens are most active on Instagram and it's their main social media platform. We have been studying Instagram accounts and have had interviews with focus groups to explore the culture that prevails on Instagram today. The study shows that young people today use Instagram in order to take advantage of the sharing of their everyday lives. All of the respondents believe that girls and boys use Instagram in different ways. The main difference is that girls seem to care more about their social media lives than boys do. Something that is demonstrated by all the girls is that they use two different accounts for two different audiences. In the discussion, we review why the culture looks like it does and how young people today jointly build rules about how to behave in this social medium. Then we finally arrive to the point that young people today have a better eye on social media than previous researchhas shown. We believe that the concerns many parents have about their children on social media in many cases is excessive. / Sociala medier har kommit att spela en allt större roll i dagens samhälle. Det går idag inte att prata om ungdomskulturen utan att nämna de sociala medierna. Mycket forskning visar att ungdomar påverkas negativt av denna typ av media men samtidigt är mycket av denna forskning skriven ur ett vuxenperspektiv. Vårt syfte med denna studie är därför att undersöka och belysa de ungas egna perspektiv på denna typ av medier. Vi har valt att inrikta oss på ungdomar och Instagram då det är unga mellan 13-16 som är mest aktiva på sociala medier och Instagram är deras största plattform. Vi har genom att studera Instagram-konton och intervjuer i fokusgrupper undersökt kulturen som råder på Instagram idag. Studien visar att ungdomar idag använder Instagram i syfte att ta del av samt själva dela med sig av sin vardag. Samtliga respondenter menar att Instagram används på olika sätt av tjejer och killar. Främsta skillnaden är att tjejer verkar bry sig mer än vad killar gör. Något som styrks av att samtliga tjejer använder sig av två olika konton för två olika målgrupper. I diskussionen går vi igenom varför kulturen ser ut som den gör idag och hur de unga idag tillsammans bygger regelverk kring hur man ska bete sig på detta sociala medium. Det vi till sist kommer fram till är att unga idag har bättre koll på sociala medier än vad tidigare forskning visat. Vi anser att den oro många föräldrar känner över sina barn på sociala medier i många fall är överdriven.

Each new medium of communication that has emerged over the past century and more has generated concern over its alleged negative effect on children. This concern has (in most cases) generated a moral panic, involving campaigning by moral guardians and office spokespeople, calls for greater regulation and subsequent response from the government or designated regulators. Based on continued inconclusive media effects research and debates over adults' and children's rights, regulation has become increasingly problematic. Such questions as how far you should restrict and protect children and how it may be possible to balance protection with rights, are complex and fraught with practical difficulties. These are the kind of questions that regulators have currently to consider. In addition, media convergence and internet technology threaten traditional regulatory structures. Such developments pose a further regulatory quandary. How are regulators attempting to tackle these issues? The thesis attempts to examine this question by exploring how regulators have responded to panics over children's media and whether their attempts have resulted in robust regulatory systems. The regulation systems analysed embrace advertising and obesity, internet chat-rooms and grooming, video games and violence and cinema regulation (the 12A classification). Case studies of these particular areas of current concern show how regulation has developed and how it works in practice, assess whether such regulation is effective and if not, recommends ways in which it could be improved.

The aim of this study is to examine what social workers consider as ‘challenging behaviour’ among adolescents, but also to examine the connection between investigation and intervention in cases where such behaviour is being displayed. The questions of the study are to examine what social workers think of the instrument of assessment BBIC (Children’s Needs in Focus) and how the usage of BBIC affect social workers understanding of challenging behaviour. Moreover, it is a qualitative study and the respondents are all social workers with various length of professional experience who work with making decisions in juvenile welfare cases. The social workers’ opinion about which behaviours among adolescents that were important to intervene in could be understood with what was considered as moral panic for some behaviour. The social workers use of and opinion towards BBIC could be understood in relation to practical theory, tacit knowledge and naïve theories.

The concept of moral panic has enjoyed a rich history in sociological literature. Since Stanley Cohen (1972) published his seminal study on the Mods and Rockers, scholars have used the concept of moral panic to identify and explain disproportional and exaggerated societal reactions to perceived threats against the social order posed by some condition, episode, person or group of people. However, recent scholars have sought to revise or problematize Cohen’s initial conceptualization, culminating in calls to ‘rethink’ (McRobbie and Thornton, 1995) and ‘think beyond’ (Hier, 2008) moral panic, as well as to ‘widen the focus’ of moral panic analysis (Critcher, 2008). In response, my thesis seeks to strengthen the conceptual and methodological approach to the concept of moral panic by integrating the meta-theoretical principles of critical realism. Critical realism, I argue, provides both the conceptual clarity and methodological insight necessary to enhance scholarly research on moral panic. In addition, the integration of critical realism allows me to more fully explore the internal dynamics and causal mechanisms involved in the genesis of moral panic. The result is a deeper understanding of the ontological nature of moral panic.