13: Abolitionist Activism in Post-Mass-Media Societies: Moral Panic and the Amplification of Abolitionist Voices

Publication Date:
19 Mar 2025
Pages:
245–269
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51952/9781529224061.ch013
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The downturn of the influence of centralized media systems has led to a renewed resurgence in critical challenges to state power, including punitive power. Critical work on police and penal brutality as well as movements such as ‘defund the police’ are directly linked to the loss of power by the mass media. Counterhegemonic activism has rarely been as strong as it is today, and this strength brings institutional efforts to defend centralized meaning making. This chapter explores the labelling approach and social problems sociology, and the role of the media in them. While the classical labelling approach had conceptualized media as a tool to distribute social meaning, the decentralization of media has now become a target of major moral panics, hindering and denouncing activism and counterhegemonic strife.

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