What are moral panics and folk devils?

The term moral panic was originally created by Stan Cohen. He argued that the media exagerrated certain crimes in the news, this then created a panic as the more media coverage there was the more arrests that were made and the situation became exagerrated. An example of this is the Mods and Rockers in the 1960s, they clashed and travelled to the south of England to fight, however the media exagerated the extent of this situation meaning the mods and rockers were then seen as folk devils. Folk devils are the groups that have been targeted by the media, they then get a bad name for themselves and are seen as a threat to society. To evaluate this point you can argue that Stuart Hall believes moral panics come at a time in society when there are big problems the government have caused such as unemployment, therefore moral panics hide the extent of these problems and focus on petty crimes that the mods and rockers were involved with because this conceals bigger problems.