Sport and alcohol consumption as a neoteric moral panic in New Zealand: context, voices and control

Abstract

Recent media coverage of New Zealand's Wellington Rugby Sevens tournament has focused on the morally questionable drunken behaviour of fans. The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical discussion, based on discourse analysis of relevant news articles from New Zealand media, on the issue of alcohol consumption at the Wellington Sevens and whether this issue befits a form of moral panic. Employing aspects of Klocke and Muschert's (2013) hybrid model for moral panic research, the discussion is centred on three central themes of moral panic analysis: emergence of the issue, perspectives on the issue and overall agreement, and regulation and reappearance of the issue.

Resumen

La reciente cobertura mediática del torneo de rugby 7 Wellington de Nueva Zelanda se ha centrado en el moralmente cuestionable comportamiento borracho de los fans. El propósito de este trabajo es ofrecer una discusión crítica, basada en el análisis del discurso de artículos de noticias relevantes en los medios neozelandeses, sobre el tema del consumo de alcohol en el torneo de rugby 7 Wellington y si el mismo corresponde a una forma de pánico moral. Empleando aspectos del modelo híbrido de Klocke y Muschert's (2013) para la investigación del pánico moral, la discusión se centra en tres aspectos fundamentales del pánico moral: la aparición del tema, las perspectivas sobre el tema y el acuerdo general, y la regulación y reaparición del tema.

Palabras claves: alcohol; rugby siete; los medios; bebida; estudio de caso

Résumé

La récente couverture médiatique du tournoi de Wellington Rugby Sevens de la Nouvelle Zélande s'est concentrée sur la remise en question de la morale du comportement d'ivresse des supporters. Le but de cet article est d'offrir une discussion critique basée sur l'analyse du discours des articles d'actualités couvertes par les médias en Nouvelle-Zélande sur la question de la consommation d'alcool à Wellington Sevens, en vue de déterminer si cette question suscite une forme de panique morale. En utilisant des aspects des modèles hybrides de Klocke et de Muschert (2013) pour la recherche sur la panique morale, la discussion est portée sur trois thèmes principaux de l'analyse de la panique morale: émergence de la question, perspectives sur la question et l'accord global, et régulation et réapparition de la question.

Mots-clés: Alcool; Rugby Sevens; médias; consommation d'alcool; étude de cas

摘要

近来有关新西兰惠灵顿橄榄球七人赛的新闻报道关注球迷们引起道德质疑的醉酒行为。这篇论文的目的是基于对新西兰媒体的相关新闻报道的话语分析，对在惠灵顿橄榄球七人赛上的酒精消费及其是否和一种道德恐慌类型相匹配进行批判性的讨论。通过运用克拉克和马斯克特的道德恐慌研究的多元模式，这个讨论的焦点集中于道德恐慌的三个中心主题: 问题产生，问题的视角和总体认同，以及问题的管理和重现。

关键词: 酒精、橄榄球七人赛、媒体、饮酒、案例研究

Keywords:

• alcohol
• rugby sevens
• media
• drinking
• case study

Notes

1. In Klocke and Muschert's (2013) hybrid model, the third stage is dissipation, however, since the issue of alcohol consumption at the Wellington Sevens is regarded as an ongoing moral panic rather than a discrete event, a discussion on actual legacies after the waning of such a moral panic is conjecture at best and therefore omitted from this analysis.

2. Today, New Zealanders accept drunkenness as socially acceptable, with 1.2 million believing that it is OK to get drunk, 350,000 binge drinking on their last drinking occasion and 275,000 setting out to get drunk on their last drinking occasion. New Zealand has a drinking culture that accepts high per-occasion consumption as normal. (Collie and the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand, 2007, p. 12)

3. The Wellington Sevens event was first held in 2000, therefore the search was limited to news articles printed after 1 January 2000.

4. There was one other article in 2009 that reported a case of two men who had indecently assaulted a woman in Wellington during the same weekend that the Wellington Sevens was held (Woman still, 2009). However, the article did not report a direct association of the attack with the event, only that the men were allegedly in town for the Wellington Sevens, or even the amount of alcohol that the two men had consumed. Therefore, the article was considered not conclusive enough to include in the analysis.