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The Demonization of Patronage: Folk Devils, Moral Panics and theBoston Globe'sCoverage of the Terrorist Attacks of 9-11

“…Sometimes the panic passes over and is forgotten, except in folklore and collective memory; at other times it has more serious and long-lasting repercussions and might produce such changes as those in legal and social policy or even the way the society conceives itself. [10] At the center of the moral panic is the "folk devil," an object of fear or contempt, which becomes the focus of the citizen backlash and governmental intervention. Folk devils are ".…”