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- Title
Moral Panic and Neknominations in Great Britain.
- Authors
Webb, William
- Abstract
In early 2014, the neknomination drinking game rose in popularity among young people in places such as the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and Canada. In response, news media, alcohol awareness charities, citizens, and government officials raised moral and health concerns about the drinking game. This article offers a case study of the neknomination drinking game in Britain. In particular, the neknomination craze is examined in relation to British binge-drinking narratives from moral panic theory and moral regulation theory. For this case study, discourse analysis was used to examine newspaper articles, statements issued by government officials, and responses by alcohol awareness charities. The findings indicate that while the neknomination craze exhibits many signs of a moral panic, such as concern, consensus, disproportionality, and volatility, it lacks a convincing folk devil. Moreover, the neknomination moral panic reflects a qualified intermediary instance of risk discourses within a longer process of moral regulation. This research shows the usefulness of Goode and Ben-Yehuda's attributional model of moral panic despite recent challenges claiming the contrary, and the merit of Critcher's (2008) adaptations to moral regulation theory.
- Publication
Reinvention: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research, 2015, Vol 8, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1755-7429
- Publication type
Academic Journal