The final speaker in this session at the IAMCR 2025 conference in Singapore is Melanie Radue, whose interest is in moral panics and polarised discourses in Malaysia and Germany. This is in the context of a turn towards the conservative right in countries around the world, which often uses and fuels polarising discourses through moral panics, leading to democratic backsliding. What is the role of traditional media in such processes?
The concept of moral panics helps us to understand how certain issues become identified and intensified in media discourse: moralised discourses have long been understood as intensifying polarised narratives; they draw distinctions between ‘the community’ and the folk devils that are said to threaten it. This can then lead to discursive polarisation, combining both ideological and affective polarisation.
This study draws on an asymmetrical comparison of two polarised discourses around moral panics in Malaysia and Germany, taking a relational sociological perspective. It uses qualitative network analysis to explore two cases: a controversy around fights between young men at swimming pools in Berlin, which were painted by conservative media as being caused by migrants; and religious controversies around socks with the word ‘Allah’ and ham sandwiches with Halal labels in Malaysia, which also targeted non-Malay communities in Malaysia.
What discourse positions are present in these cases; what networks of actors, frames, and consequences emerge here; what contextual factors within the respective national media systems enable or constrain polarised moral panics in the two countries? This project begins with an explorative mapping of frames in media content, and then analyses user interactions in the comments attached to these articles. This qualitative mapping of discourse networks is then also enhanced with further expert interviews.
Early findings from this work show that in Germany there is a more extreme discourse of media outlets attacking each other for their coverage choices, and in the process acting as agents for specific polarised positions; in Malaysia, news reporting appears to be less loaded, and polarised debate remains more restricted to online spaces.
