The phrase ‘moral panic’ was first used by Jock Young in 1971, but Cohen notes inspiration from Marshall McLuhan’s work on media.

Evidence

Moral Panic: A Concept Adrift — University Ethics Observatory (University Ethics Observatory)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Folktales can escalate into moral panics in troubled times. — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 77; First coined by Jock Young (1971) and, later, Stanley Cohen (1972) — Moral Panic - Library at University of Wisconsin-Parkside; Moral panic is a widespread fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values of a community, first theorized by Stanley Cohen in 1972. — Moral panic — Wikipedia (+3 more)

Related

• First coined by Jock Young (1971) and, later, Stanley Cohen (1972) (similarity 0.93)
• Both Young and Cohen may have been influenced by the brief appearance of the term in Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 book Understanding Media. (similarity 0.90)
• Moral panic is a widespread fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values of a community, first theorized by Stanley Cohen in 1972. (similarity 0.89)
• Cohen (1972, p. 9) defined moral panic as a condition where a group emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests, presented in a stylized way by mass media. (similarity 0.86)
• The term ‘moral panic’ experienced a significant rise in media usage. (similarity 0.85)
• The term was coined by Stanley Cohen in his 1973 book Folk Devils and Moral Panics. (similarity 0.83)
• Stanley Cohen showed how a small event can grow into a national moral crisis through media exaggeration, public fear, and official control measures. (similarity 0.82)
• Jock Young pioneered the concept in 1971, rejected it by 1980, and began using it again from the late 1990s (similarity 0.81)
• Folk Devils and Moral Panics is a 1972 sociology book by Stanley Cohen — the first book to define the social concept. (similarity 0.81)
• A moral panic is a widespread fear, most often an irrational one, that someone or something is a threat to the values, safety, and interests of a community or society at large. (similarity 0.80)
• The moral dimension of social reaction is essential to Cohen’s concept of moral panic. (similarity 0.80)
• Cohen suggested that the term panic in itself connotes irrationality and a lack of control. (similarity 0.79)
• The concept of a permanent moral panic contradicts its definition. (similarity 0.79)
• Cohen documented moral panics as sudden threats or disorders involving mass hysteria, delusion, and panic. (similarity 0.79)