The hate industry: mass media, moral panic, and the mobilization of anti transgender prejudice
Abstract
ABSTRACT Mass media plays a central role in shaping public attitudes towards minorities, and recent years have seen increased scrutiny of the transgender community. Drawing on cultivation and priming theories of the relationship between media exposure, belief, and behavior – and integrating these with the sociological concept of moral panic – this study examines the nature and potential consequences of this attention. Using a database of Fox News broadcasts (2012–2021), a network known for platforming negative coverage of the transgender community, I first employ content analysis to examine how media coverage may cultivate climates of anti-transgender prejudice. Findings reveal a growing portrayal of transgender individuals as threats to society and, particularly, children: a prototypical moral panic. Incorporating federal hate crime data, I then use vector autoregression to assess how societal exposure to negative portrayals of the transgender community relates to bias-motivated behaviors. Results show a significant, positive association between heightened coverage of the transgender community and anti-LGBT hate crimes two months later. Moreover, broadcasts invoking moral panic narratives are found to drive this aggregate patterning. These findings offer new insight into the interplay between mass media discourse and anti-minority prejudice, with broader implications for scholars of culture, communication, and criminology.
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Record history
| When | Event | Field | Old | New |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-18 19:37:53.011249+00:00 | identifier_assigned | DSEID | DSEID-000-3349652 |