Moral panic and the post 80s generation in Hong Kong

Abstract

This research seeks to examine the definition and the phenomenon of the “post 80s generation” in Hong Kong and the extent to which the post 80s generation constituted a moral panic. It also seeks to explore the role of media in the construction of the same moral panic. Cohen (1972) developed the concept of moral panic in order to examine some social phenomena, which created a threat to society. Goode and Ben-Yehuda (1994) identified five elements to examine moral panic including (1) concern, (2) hostility, (3) consensus, (4) disproportionality and (5) volatility. Based on the textual analysis on 3,854 news reports on two local newspapers within the period 2009--2012 as well as 12 in-depth interviews with the youth and journalists, this research attempted to identify the meaning of the term “the post 80s generation” from the perspectives of the mass media and the interviewees. Our findings indicated that the post 80s generation seemed not to constitute a moral panic in terms of the elements mentioned above. The post 80s generation in fact had both positive and negative sides. Rather than serving as agent in producing moral panic, mass media, including social media, projected multiple images of the post 80s generation. Our study also identified a “sense of local consciousness” among the post 80s generation which merits further study.