Page 162 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

MOTIVATION (OF THE SHOT)

MORAL PANIC

A term used to describe public anxiety about a perceived deviancy or
threat from within a culture itself that is thought to challenge generally
accepted societal norms, values and interests. The term moral panic
was originally employed by Jock Young (1971) and Stanley Cohen
(1980) in studies of deviancy in the media. They argued that the media
played an ideological role, both contributing to and amplifying the
active construction of certain kinds of meaning (McRobbie, 1994:
203).
The problem with moral panic theory is that is assumes that the
media are involved in misrepresentation or distortion of opinion.
However, as Lumby (1999b) points out, this suggests that there is some
place outside of the mediasphere where rational debate and opinion
are being informed in direct contrast to the media’s construction. But
by nowthe media are fully integrated participants in the process of
public opinion and policy formation; they don’t ‘amplify’ anxieties
generated elsewhere, but orchestrate them. Thus, evidence of what
looks like a moral panic needs to take account of the extent to which
particular media are campaigning on an issue, whether it be juvenile
crime or the ‘outing’ of paedophiles.

See also: Discourse, Public sphere

Further reading: Cohen (1980); Thornton (1994)

MOTIVATION (OF THE SHOT)

The arrangement of props and actions in a film or video shot to
suggest the source of diegetic features (see deixis). Light is motivated
if a window, table lamp, candle, extraterrestrial being or other source is
shown on screen as well as the light that apparently emanates from it.
However – and this is the point for analysts – it is extremely rare to
find that the scene actually is lit from the motivating source;
motivation is a convention designed to promote naturalism (verisimi-
litude).
Motivation is among the distinctive features of a genre, contribut-
ing to its aesthetics. TV soap opera, for instance, has become
associated with unmotivated studio lighting; lots of it, pouring down
on the glistening heads of the characters, brightening colours but
flattening the scene. Subtly motivated lighting, conversely, is often

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