“A moral panic is a feeling of fear spread among a large group of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society” (Jones & Jones, 1999). In other words, a moral panic is something that people of societies are afraid to get caught up in or something that goes against what they believe in. This essay will discuss how the definition of the American media that the HIV/AIDs disease is a ‘gay plague’ created a moral panic is current years in the Nyanga East Community in Cape Town South Africa in the mid 2000s.
HIV/AIDs often lead to other health conditions such as pneumonia and tuberculosis (TB). A moral panic was created by the American media about the HIV/AIDs disease and they reason for this was because they felt that the public was under informed about the disease. “ A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by mass media” (Cohen, 1972:9). Also, media newspapers and channels nicknamed the disease as the ‘gay plague’ which caused further misunderstandings and fear about the disease to society which increased violence against the gay community by members’ of communities after decades of its emergence. “In Southern Africa, the disease was seen as belonging to the Western world or to homosexuals and people with deviant lifestyles” (Mngomezulu, 2005: 23). For example, in Nyanga East a township in Cape Town the community was already against gay relationships but because of previous media reports and the increase of people being diagnosed with the disease especially men, community members acted violently towards gay couples by burning them and destroying their homes because they were afraid that the gay community would spread the disease to the youth community so by killing them , there disease will not reach their area and community. They fear was that the gay men would be sexually involved with females in the community which would spread the disease, so they believed that by getting rid of gay individuals, the spread of the disease would decrease in the area. Furthermore, many societies had always believed that men should marry or be in relationships with women, therefore gay relationships were not normal to them because the norm was for men to be in relationships with women and not with their same sex. By the media calling HIV/AIDs the ‘gay plague’ made society more angry, increased their belief that gay relationships were wrong and gave them a good reason too not want gay relationships or gay individuals in their communities because it violates what they believe in and it was perceived as an act of deviance.
“Deviance describes an action or behaviour that violates social norms including a formally enacted rule” (Macionis & Gerber :2010).Perceived is to become aware of something or assuming something which in this context is that the Nyanga community assumed that the gay men were going to spread the HIV/AIDs disease. As said by Cohen that deviance is created by society (Cohen, 1972:12). The gay community was perceived as acting deviant in areas such as Nyanga East, because they violated the social norms and beliefs like mentioned above that men should marry women and not their same sex which also applied to women. “ Social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance” (Becker, 1963:8-9). In addition, the fact that HIV/AIDs is a ‘gay plague’ and that the Nyanga East community has believed that report is an act of being biased because they only believe what the media said and also because they had already formed an opinion of the gay community. But it was also the moral entrepreneurs that increased the violence in communities against the gay community because they played an important and influential role in the communities.
“A moral entrepreneur is an individual, group or formal organisation that seeks to influence a group to do the norm” ( Donald,1993:57-144).Moral entrepreneurs is a group in a community which normally consists of community leaders and pastors who preach about heterosexual relationships being the norm. Pastors also can be seen as moral entrepreneurs in this case because they make religious arguments about norms in the world which include heterosexual relationships as being seen as the right thing. Moral entrepreneurs encourage the community to do what is ‘right’ for the community. In this case, it was the community leaders in Nyanga East that encouraged community members to destroy the homes of gay people, get rid of them and act violently towards them because HIV/AIDs was their plague, they were going to spread it to the community, they children would also get the disease and that it is not following the Xhosa tradition which says that a man should marry or be in a relationship with a women. If community leaders did not encourage the members to take action against gay members, then no community member would have taken action or believe media reports that the HIV/AIDs disease was a gay plague and gay members would not have been seen as folk devils.
“A folk devil is a person or group of people who are portrayed in folklore or as outsiders by the media and deviant” (Cohen, 1997). Gay members were seen as enemies and devils in areas like Nyanga East, because of their attraction to their same sex and because they were doing something that was out of the norm. Their attraction too same sex and not acting in a normal manner made them become blamed for spreading and plaguing the HIV/AIDs disease. But the main reason for gay members to be blamed for plaguing and spreading the HIV/AIDs disease was because of the media.
“It is well acknowledged that media coverage influences public opinion” (McCombs & Shaw:1972). Media reports played a very important role in the HIV/AIDs disease being a ‘gay plague’. It was this false reporting of news that made increased violence against gay members particularly in areas such as Nyanga East . “The theory being that complex societies rely on mass communication to provide individuals with the information they need to carry out their own function” (Perse ,2001:54).
Instead of the media defining the disease, provide the causes of the disease, provide or report on accurate information about the disease, informing the society that the disease is not deadly and report that there is treatment for the disease, they provide incorrect information about the disease which is that it was a ‘gay plague’, because they knew that many communities like Nyanga East were against gay relationships and that they would be blamed for the disease. By this action, many men and women lost their lives due to false reporting.
In conclusion, a moral panic has curious effects on the society. News media is considered to be very reflective and supportive of societies norms and often raises legitimate or true concerns in its reporting. However, our reliance on it , gives it greater power to manipulate the situation which led to the violence against gay members because of false reporting on the HIV/AIIDs disease. However, our reliance on media is not going away but it is also our duty to gather more information on a situation or issue before believing on media reports.