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Эпидемия ВИЧ: социальная проблема или новая моральная паника? (Социологическое обоснование)
2016 marked the next phase of the protracted social crisis. Economic instability and tension in the international political arena ensured the maintenance of affective reactions in the social environment, thereby providing opportunities for media controllers to build manipulative schemes. The most widespread form of affective reactions is moral panics.
In 2016 media controllers made an attempt to construct a moral panic, presenting the problem of HIV spread as an epidemic. Using the tools of symbolization and exaggeration, journalists complicated the phenomenon familiar to the public, interpreting it as a forerunner of a social catastrophe. Thus, the HIV epidemic has become the basis for the production of the second-order moral panic, cultivated on social grounds, prearranged by a prior wave of the events of social reality.
According to the results of the study it is concluded that there are two media strategies: inspiring moral panic and its containment. The example of constructing a moral panic concerning the HIV epidemic by LIFE has demonstrated the fallacy of the chosen strategy, since due to the lack of media tandem this phenomenon has not caused long-term affective reactions in the social environment. The main federal channels (for example, First Channel) promoted the need for HIV prevention. The rhetoric of regional channels (STRC “Orenburg”, TRK “TC-Region”) corresponded fully to the strategy of the federal mass media and was focused on the adaptation of HIV-infected people in the society.
To conclude, the spread of HIV in Russian cities has reached a critical level in 2016 and it has been defined as a real social problem that requires consolidated solutions on the part of the society and the state. The increase of public awareness and knowledge – millions of people across the country get interested in their HIV status (only in the Urals the number of people who tested for HIV has increased by 3%) can be considered as a constructive consequence of this problem coverage by federal and regional mass media.