The Ethnographic Semiotics of a Suburban Moral Panic

Abstract

This article describes Worth’s notion of ethnographic semiotics as part of an overall strategy employing the anthropology of visual communication in ethnographic research focused on media portrayals of a suburban community during a moral panic over a concentrated number of teenage heroin overdose deaths. While the full-length ethnography details multiple media events surrounding the moral panic, the central place of one piece of print media is described in detail. This article served as a catalyst for the moral panic that occurred within the suburb, facilitated community response, and became a template for further national media coverage in the United States. In addition, the article became an instrumental research tool for elicitation among informants during ethnographic research. The overall study and employment of Worth’s ethnographic semiotics serve as a bridge between foundational studies in the anthropology of visual communication and contemporary methodologies employed in media ethnography.