Moral panic, moral regulation and essentialization of identities: Discursive struggle over unethical business practices in the Finnish national media

Abstract

The study sheds light on the language of moral panic and moral regulation in the Finnish news media over a 9-year period on the subject of cartels and cartel agreements. What makes the case particularly interesting is that the object of the most explicit moral panic was the introduction of new laws (leniency programmes) designed to regulate illegal cartel behaviour. The main argument is that the construction of both moral regulation and moral panic in news media takes place through essentializing discursive claims that contribute to national identity construction. The study contributes to current literature on moral panics as ideologico-discursive phenomena and throws some light on the power-laden discursive processes that work to reconstruct, essentialize and stabilize identities. In addition, there are some suggestions as to why some moral panics fail to develop.

Keywords:

• critical discourse analysis
• discursive strategies
• essentializing
• Finland
• moral regulation
• moral panic
• national identity
• news media

Acknowledgements

This work has greatly benefited from constructive comments and feedback given by three anonymous reviewers. The helpful comments given by Eero Vaara, Bobby Banerjee and Teppo Sintonen and the feedback received at the BAM 2009 annual conference (identity track) on the earlier versions of this manuscript are also gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.