‘Zombies’, ‘cannibals’, and ‘super humans’: a quantitative and qualitative analysis of UK news media reporting of the cathinone psychostimulants labelled ‘monkey dust’

Abstract

Background

News media helps set the agenda for public thinking and policy responses to drugs use, by framing substances, substance use and people who use drugs (PWUD) within a ‘drug scare’ narrative. Using the example of ‘monkey dust’, an inconsistently identified set of substituted cathinone psychostimulants, we explored how an emerging drug ‘problem’ was reported in the UK news media, and what this tells us about prevailing attitudes towards substance use and PWUD.

Methods

A quantitative and qualitative analysis of UK news media (n = 368 articles) representations of ‘monkey dust’ was conducted, and the underlying discourses identified.

Findings

Monkey dust reporting met the criteria of a drug scare, which was predominantly underpinned by discourses of criminality and legality. An unrepresentative, somewhat distorted, incomplete and simplified account of monkey dust as new and dangerous, and as requiring urgent legislative action, was provided. PWUD were dehumanised, criminalised, and stigmatised and the complexities of use, and responses other than those that fell within the status quo, obscured.

Conclusions

To prevent the negative impact such reporting may have on PWUD, it is important that relevant stakeholders, including advocacy groups, academics, and researchers, work with journalists to change the way drug use and PWUD are reported.

Keywords:

• News media
• drug scare
• cathinones
• discourse

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Ms Kaylen Forsyth for their support with data retrieval and proof reading.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Notes

1 The routine photographing of individuals committing criminal offences. They allow individuals to be kept under surveillance and for criminal identities to be documented (Finn, 2009).

2 It is for these reasons that images identifying PWUD have not been reproduced in the article.