A moral panic erupted during the 1980s among the American public when stories about crack cocaine saturated the media. In this thesis I analyze how discursive productions of deviancy operated in the CBS news documentary: 48 Hours on Crack Street (1986) and other print news sources at that time. Three salient characters that appear in news media discourse during the panic are "crack mothers," "crack babies," and "Black male dope dealers." The news media frightened the public with such representations (among others) and the public urged politicians to get tough on drug crime to control the so-called crack cocaine plague. Politicians responded with omnibus drug reforms that established mandatory minimum sentences and the controversial 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. The enforcement of the draconian drug laws that were passed in response to the crack cocaine panic continues to be a contributing factor to America's current prison crisis. Moreover, the laws are enforced in ways that disproportionately punish the poor and African-Americans. I conclude that the criminal disenfranchisement of millions of people since the 1980s relates to the media's representation of the crack cocaine "epidemic" and the legislation that was passed to control illicit drugs such as crack cocaine.

The artificial intelligence (AI) technology has developed unexpectedly fast for the last five years. There is an ongoing discussion about whether the technology should be seen as a contributing tool that could make life easier for people or if it is a risky innovation threatening human systems, particularly among journalists. The different opinions of AI within the journalism profession contributes to the interest in studying how artificial intelligence is written about in newspapers. Despite this, there is a lack of studies that investigate the portrayal of artificial intelligence in Swedish news. This paper examines the depiction of artificial intelligence in the most read daily newspaper in Sweden to contribute to this research gap. It also offers a comparison of the portrayal for the year 2018 and 2022. The study is based on Entman´s framing theory and explores the framing of AI within different subjects, perspectives of time and the representation of AI as an aid or a risk. The study also applies theorized concepts of media panic and technological optimism to enable a deeper analysis and discussion of the results. The analysis was conducted through qualitative content analysis of twentyone news articles from Dagens Nyheter. By analyzing significant words and sentences the results of this study shows that AI is mostly framed along the following subject categories: ethics and culture. Further on the results show a predominantly framing of AI as a contributing aid and a discussion from a present or future perspective of time. The comparison between the portrayal of AI during 2018 and 2022 presented a rather similar result. The most noticeable differences are that more subjects, such as economics, politics, education and climate, were identified in articles from 2018 and that articles from 2022 tend to discuss risks of AI to a slightly higher extent. Due to the predominant framing of AI as an aid, there could be traces of technical optimism in the empirical data but there is nothing in the material to clearly indicate this.

This study was conducted in the Indian state Kerala, among 15 physical education (PE) teachers. The aim of this study was to investigate intergenerational touch in the daily work of Indian PE teachers, and more precisely whether or not the teachers thought intergenerational touch was an issue and what their views on this subject were. The data was generated through semi-structured interviews with teachers from Keralan primary, secondary and upper-secondary schools. Collected data was analysed by using Michel Foucault’s theoretical concepts of discourse, power/knowledge, bio-power, governmentality, normalisation and panopticism. The study identifies a number of different discourses, in which physical interaction emerged as a dilemma for Indian PE teachers. Two of the most distinct ones were, what we refer to as, the “no touch”- and “risk”-discourses. Based on the findings of this study we conclude that the gender of the PE teacher plays a crucial role in whether a teacher choose to physically interact with their students or not. Societal norms have a great influence on PE teachers’ actions concerning intergenerational touch, which in this context cohere around no touch.

This paper aims to examine the different portrayals in Swedish journalism about a case with a controversial topic. The analyzed case in this study focuses on the provocative rapper Mr Cool and his song about sexual intercourse with a child and the following mediated debate about freedom of speech and morality. The research questions examined were: How does the media frame the meta-debate about Mr Cool? We picked 16 articles and analyzed them with a qualitative content analysis method using framing theory and argumentation techniques in order to be able to examine how the debate were portrayed by the media. We also used the moral panic concept to get a deeper understanding of the mechanics of topics the society is concerned with. We have found that the participants of the debate handled the subject differently and with different strategies, depending on which side they would support. The central discussion was about personal taste, boundary making and the consequences of silencing what is thought to be offensive. The results of the analysis agrees with previous studies and theories in the field when it comes to moral panics and fear as a natural part of our society. History is likely to repeat itself but with other motives and other fears.

Na década de 1980 o sistema brasileiro de segurança pública experienciou mudanças, no contexto da transição democrática. Foi nesse momento que se buscou efetivar, em São Paulo, a agenda política conhecida como Políticas de Humanização dos Presídios. Trataremos aqui de uma dessas experiências: um canal de comunicação e de representação de presos no sistema penitenciário paulista chamado Comissões de Solidariedade. Analisaremos como tais Comissões foram deslegitimadas publicamente por meio de uma denúncia: a existência de um grupo criminoso, organizado por presos no interior da Penitenciária do Estado, e que teria se infiltrado nas Comissões de Solidariedade. O grupo foi anunciado como Serpentes Negras. Desta forma, pretende-se descrever a tentativa de efetivação dessas políticas e como a disputa de interesses afetou os rumos das reformas, se refletindo nas praticas internas às prisões; busca-se também recuperar os efeitos produzidos pela denúncia e, com isso, o debate público em torno das políticas de segurança e dos Direitos Humanos no período, bem como a formação e a circulação de um novo discurso sobre o crime organizado em São Paulo, cuja atualidade não pode ser desprezada. / In the 1980s the Brazilian public security system experienced changes in the context of democratic transition. It was at this moment that the political agenda known as \"Humanization Policies of Prisons\" was sought to be implemented in São Paulo. We will deal with one of these experiences: a channel of communication and representation of prisoners in the prison system of São Paulo called Commissions for Solidarity. We will analyze how these Commissions were publicly delegitimized by means of a complaint: the existence of a criminal group, organized by prisoners inside the State Penitentiary, and which would have infiltrated the Solidarity Commissions. The group was announced as Black Serpents. In this way, the intention is to describe the attempt to put these policies into effect and how the dispute of interests affected the direction of the reforms, being reflected in the internal practices of the prisons; It also seeks to recover the effects produced by the denunciation and thus the public debate on security and human rights policies in the period, as well as the formation and circulation of a new discourse on organized crime in São Paulo, whose actuality can not be overlooked.

Na década de 1980 o sistema brasileiro de segurança pública experienciou mudanças, no contexto da transição democrática. Foi nesse momento que se buscou efetivar, em São Paulo, a agenda política conhecida como Políticas de Humanização dos Presídios. Trataremos aqui de uma dessas experiências: um canal de comunicação e de representação de presos no sistema penitenciário paulista chamado Comissões de Solidariedade. Analisaremos como tais Comissões foram deslegitimadas publicamente por meio de uma denúncia: a existência de um grupo criminoso, organizado por presos no interior da Penitenciária do Estado, e que teria se infiltrado nas Comissões de Solidariedade. O grupo foi anunciado como Serpentes Negras. Desta forma, pretende-se descrever a tentativa de efetivação dessas políticas e como a disputa de interesses afetou os rumos das reformas, se refletindo nas praticas internas às prisões; busca-se também recuperar os efeitos produzidos pela denúncia e, com isso, o debate público em torno das políticas de segurança e dos Direitos Humanos no período, bem como a formação e a circulação de um novo discurso sobre o crime organizado em São Paulo, cuja atualidade não pode ser desprezada. / In the 1980s the Brazilian public security system experienced changes in the context of democratic transition. It was at this moment that the political agenda known as \"Humanization Policies of Prisons\" was sought to be implemented in São Paulo. We will deal with one of these experiences: a channel of communication and representation of prisoners in the prison system of São Paulo called Commissions for Solidarity. We will analyze how these Commissions were publicly delegitimized by means of a complaint: the existence of a criminal group, organized by prisoners inside the State Penitentiary, and which would have infiltrated the Solidarity Commissions. The group was announced as Black Serpents. In this way, the intention is to describe the attempt to put these policies into effect and how the dispute of interests affected the direction of the reforms, being reflected in the internal practices of the prisons; It also seeks to recover the effects produced by the denunciation and thus the public debate on security and human rights policies in the period, as well as the formation and circulation of a new discourse on organized crime in São Paulo, whose actuality can not be overlooked.

<p>"The choreography of fear" is a discourse-analysis study which focus at how young men speaks about fear, threat and violence in the public everyday life. The study adopts socialcontructionism as theoretical approach and also uses theories about gender, hegemony masculinity, fear as a social constructed phenomenon and moral-panic. The study is based on qualitative interview whit young men in age 18-30 and the method is mainly discourse-psychology. The section of Analysis discuss subjects as what and whom the young men consider to be a threat and which areas in the public space they consider to be dangerous and how they choose to handle the menace. The Analysis also focuses on how the informants speak about fear, how they define fear and what they consider arouse fear.</p>

"The choreography of fear" is a discourse-analysis study which focus at how young men speaks about fear, threat and violence in the public everyday life. The study adopts socialcontructionism as theoretical approach and also uses theories about gender, hegemony masculinity, fear as a social constructed phenomenon and moral-panic. The study is based on qualitative interview whit young men in age 18-30 and the method is mainly discourse-psychology. The section of Analysis discuss subjects as what and whom the young men consider to be a threat and which areas in the public space they consider to be dangerous and how they choose to handle the menace. The Analysis also focuses on how the informants speak about fear, how they define fear and what they consider arouse fear.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study, a sociological perspective, has aimed to investigate the possible existence of a relation between the social phenomena fear of crime and moral panic. The study was realized through a research in Superinteressante magazine. Its purpose is to understand how this magazine emphasizes in its reports/articles the issues/themes which contain the concepts of fear of crime , risk and moral panic as central issues. The first concept, fear of crime , is based in Borges (2011) and Glassner ([1999] 2003), being portrayed as a social construction. The second concept, risk, is based in Giddens ([1990] 1991), where it is conceived as more individual, and in Beck ([1986] 2010) where it is global. The third and last concept, moral panic , is guided by the ideal classification of Goode & Ben-Yehuda ([1994b] 2009). The research has the hypothesis that the fear of crime here treated as a social phenomenon and derived from a social construction influences negatively in the conception of risk of potential criminal victimization. Therefore, there is a direct relationship between fear of crime and moral panic, with risk being present in this discussion, either directly or indirectly. / No presente trabalho, de cunho sociológico, proponho-me a investigar, a possível existência da relação entre os fenômenos sociais Medo do Crime e pânico moral. O trabalho foi realizado através de pesquisa na revista Superinteressante. O intuito é compreender como a revista Superinteressante dá ênfase, em suas reportagens/artigos, a assuntos/temáticas que tenham os conceitos de Medo do crime , risco e de pânico moral, como temas centrais. O primeiro conceito, Medo do Crime , baseado em Borges (2011) e Glassner ([1999] 2003), tratam o Medo do Crime como uma construção social. O segundo conceito, risco, será baseado em Giddens ([1990] 1991), um risco percebido como mais individual, e Beck ([1986] 2010) tratando o risco como global. O terceiro conceito, pânico moral, será norteado, pela tipificação ideal de Goode & Ben-Yehuda ([1994b] 2009). A pesquisa tem como hipótese que o Medo do Crime , aqui compreendido com um fenômeno social, derivado de uma construção social, influencia negativamente na concepção acerca do risco de potencial vitimização criminal, havendo, portanto, relação direta entre Medo do Crime e pânico moral, estando o risco presente na discussão, direta ou indiretamente.

Presented diploma thesis is occupied with issues of so-called "social parasitism" in the socialist Czechoslovakia in early normalization era. It follows existence of a law term "social parasitism", or more precisely independent paragraph which criminalized "fishy ways of livelihood" and "avoiding righteous job" within the Czechoslovakia penal code. I would like to observe this marginal social phenomenon in a broad perspective. So-called "social parasitism" is understood as a normative, disciplinary and symbolical category which defined basic value hierarchy of socialistic society and had to help make a new consensus for conditions consolidations in 1968. The focal point of the thesis is considering on the environment of Prague in 1969-75 with an aim to analyse the function and role of "social parasitism" in political administration of district authorities, media discourse of local press and in a practice of security authority. The "social parasitism" oppression is explained as an attempt of communist dictatorship and its institutions for creating a moral panic as a restoration tool of undermined legitimacy power in the eyes of Czechoslovakian society after 1968. Key words: social parasitism, criminality, social disciplination, moral panic, Normalization time in Czechoslovakia