[WarriorDiplomat]

Social movement theory in action using the media....of course the virus is real but separating the wheat from the chaff is critical unfortunately the media is what it is.....yeah for freedom of the press. Now ask yourself who is in charge of the social responses?

The media[edit]
The media plays a crucial part in delivering social reaction. According to Stanley Cohen, there are three processes that the media expresses: Exaggeration and distortion, prediction, and symbolization.

Exaggeration and distortion[edit]
In this process, the media can "over-report" with their choice of words. For example, the word "disturbance" can be used to mean having a noise complaint due to loud music next door and a group of people acting violently by throwing rocks and setting vehicles on fire. The wording of the stories can make a minor problem seem more serious than it really is. This can make people overreact in response to relatively minor problems and may lead them to believe that disturbances, acts of terrorism, riots, and instances have the same meaning.[2][page needed]

Furthermore, the headlines used by the media might cause society to act irrationally to a story about minor issues. They can be misleading and can report information that has nothing to do with the actual story. Negative words such as "violence" can be used when there was no violence involved. The media can also point to specific characteristics that are the reason for the crime that was committed. For example, a story can discuss a murder, but the headline might focus on the hoodie the culprit was wearing. Emphasizing the hoodie will draw attention to what the person was wearing instead of the murder that took place. This causes people to become paranoid and overreact when they see someone wearing clothing that looks suspicious.[citation needed]

Prediction[edit]
This is where the media speculates that an incident might occur again. The media can report that an event will occur in the future, which is not always the case. People involved describe what should be done the next time it happens and what precautions should be taken. Predicting the future can cause people to constantly think about what could go wrong and lead to catastrophe. This can cause major stress and cause people to have social panics more often.[citation needed] However, there are certain situations where making predictions is necessary for security, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.

Symbolization[edit]
This involves stereotypes, words and images that possess symbolic powers that can cause different emotions. Symbolization can be described in three processes. It includes words such as "deviant" and, as Cohen would say, "it becomes symbolic of a certain status."[2][page needed] By this he means that the word represents something meaningful. Then the object, which can include clothing, represents the word. Therefore, the object can also symbolize the status. Neutral words can symbolize an event or emotion. For example, people can have specific feelings connected to the word "Hiroshima" that remind them of the bombing that occurred there. Furthermore, the use of labels given to a person or word puts them in a certain group in society. Those individuals that are in that group are viewed and interpreted based on their label.

Symbolization, exaggeration and distortion are similar in the sense that they both use misleading headlines that creates negative symbols. For example, images can be posed to seem more dramatic or intense than they really are. Through both of these procedures, it is easy to cause people to come to conclusions that the news and photographs always display reality.[2][page needed]