Ethical panic and social deviation in the countryside: Rural environment

Abstract

This article is aimed at indicating possible hypothetically-methodological aspects of the analysis of the media-country-social deviation relation. In the article was applied the deduction scientific method. Rarely analyzed and researched relation media - countryside - social deviations require analysis to be made in respect of three groups of problems. First, it concerns the general issue of impact of contemporary media and means of communication on lives of the country people which is indirectly related to the social deviations that appear in rural environment. Second, the article has tried to clarify whether media invokes the occurrence of deviant conduct of the country people and how. Third, the central problem this article is dealing with is the media image of the countryside, primarily within the context of social deviations occurring in the country. The relation between media and social deviations in the country requires a special analysis of the phenomenon of the ethical panic. Ethical panic is not a phenomenon caused by media but media play a significant role in the process of 'production' of ethical panic. This phenomenon is particularly apparent in the situations of social transformations, turmoil, ethical crises and needs for new ways of social life. Among the impressionable examples of ethi­cal panic in the Serbian society are the social transformations of the country in respect of values accepted and social deviation and criminal prevailing in the rural environment. The most common image of the Serbian country today that can be seen in the media is that of 'submissiveness', melodramatic humor and destructivity & deviance. That means that the image of the country is suscep­tible to ideological and culturological positions and discourses. .

Upotreba savremenih komunikacionih tehnologija, poput televizije, radija, kompjutera, Interneta, dvd-zapisa, itd., obeležava život savremene porodice i savremenog čoveka, pa i u seoskim sredinama u Srbiji. Mediji sa svojom realnom moći da tipifikuju socijalne odnose, da oblikuju identitete, da modeluju životne stilove i vrednosti, da podstiču kognitivne i emocionalne procese, da učestvuju u socijalizaciji i procesu vaspitanja, i da produkuju stereotipe - bitno utiču na društvenu stvarnost i ponašanja ljudi. Takođe, mediji su doprineli urbanizaciji seoskog života, a pre svega kroz promociju životnog stila i modela uspešnosti. Pojedini medijski sadržaji (a pre svega agresivnost i nasilje) imaju dugoročno negativan uticaj na ponašanja dece zato što mogu podstaći efekte poput: imitacije, podsticanja agresivnosti, negativne identifikacije, desenzitizacije i disinhibicije, modelovanja ponašanja i stvaranja negativnih uzora. Moralna panika predstavlja jedan društveni konstrukt koji nastaje kao posledica opažanja da su neke društvene pojave ili određeni devijantni činovi posebno ugrozili i oslabili moralni poredak društva. Društvene transformacije sela naročito u vrednosnom pogledu i društvene devijacije i kriminal u seoskim sredinama jedno su od upečatljivih primera moralnih panika u srpskom društvu. Slika sela je podložna ideološkim i kulturološkim pozicijama i diskursima. Selo se kroz medije danas u Srbiji najčešće prikazuje između 'pitomosti', melodramskog humora i destruktivnosti/devijantnosti. .