Slender man panic United States Mass media and Christian blog portrayals of an internet folklore phenomenon

Slender Man was born from a Photoshop contest and quickly became the age of information's boogie-man. The faceless, tall, slim, ghost-like figure looming in the background of photographs of children eventually popped up in video games like Minecraft, and allover mainstream media in mid-2014 when two pre-teens stabbed their friend almost to death in its name. Mass media portrayed Slender Man in a way that fits most of the characteristics of a moral panic as defined in the academic research literature. Christian lifestyle and parenting blogs reflect and extend upon the moral panic framing of Slender Man in the mainstream media by also exhibiting the moral panic characteristics of concern, hostility, disproportionality, and volatility.

SLENDER MAN PANIC UNITED STATES MASS MEDIA AND CHRISTIAN BLOG PORTRAYALS OF AN INTERNET FOLKLORE PHENOMENON by Holly Vasic A Senior Honors Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The University of Utah In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Degree in Bachelor of Science In Communication Approved: ______________________________ Sean Lawson, PhD Thesis Faculty Supervisor _____________________________ Marouf Hasian, PhD Chair, Department of Communications _______________________________ Natasha Seegeurt, PhD Honors Faculty Advisor _____________________________ Sylvia D. Torti, PhD Dean, Honors College July 2019 Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Slender Man was born from a Photoshop contest and quickly became the age of information’s boogie-man. The faceless, tall, slim, ghost-like figure looming in the background of photographs of children eventually popped up in video games like Minecraft, and allover mainstream media in mid-2014 when two pre-teens stabbed their friend almost to death in its name. Mass media portrayed Slender Man in a way that fits most of the characteristics of a moral panic as defined in the academic research literature. Christian lifestyle and parenting blogs reflect and extend upon the moral panic framing of Slender Man in the mainstream media by also exhibiting the moral panic characteristics of concern, hostility, disproportionality, and volatility. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii INTRODUCTION 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 4 METHODS 9 RESULTS 15 DISCUSSION 25 REFERENCES 28 iii 1 INTRODUCTION A tall figure, over six feet, lurks in the shadows of wooded areas, dark hallways, or the corner of your room in Anywhere, U.S.A. The apparition is faceless, wearing a suit and tie, with tentacle arms that can snatch up children, adults, and even you. He is everywhere, and nowhere, here and there, and he is named as he is shaped, Slender Man. Born from internet folklore, the age of information’s boogie-man was first created in a meme, which according to Paul Gil (2018) is a “a virally-transmitted cultural symbol or social idea” that can include audio and visual aspects or is simply a photo with a funny, clever, or horrifying caption. This particular meme spread like Slender Man’s tentacle arms reaching to capture a lost soul through social media, rapidly and persistently, after being created by a user named Victor Surge on the website, Something Awful (Dewey, 2016). The two doctored photos, black and white featuring Slender Man ominously in the background amongst random children with horror movie style text, was part of a thread on the Something Awful website in 2009 requesting just that, scary Photoshopped pictures. But Slender Man took off, inspiring many more memes, doctored videos, fan fiction, and much more than Eric Knudson, the real man behind the Victor Surge username, could have ever anticipated (Dewey, 2016). Scary stories have been passed down in a myriad of different ways through generations and Slender Man is considered a new kind of folklore, a so-called “creepypasta.” The word “creepypasta” is derived from the words copy and paste due to being online and how the stories like Slender Man are shared through copying from one site, such as Something Awful, and pasting to another, either verbatim or re-imagined (Trevor, 2018). Copying the creepy stories eventually turned to creepy and pasta, being 2 altered from the word paste, hence creepypasta (Blank, 2018). This creepypasta was passed around, re-done and re-molded to the extent Slender Man has infiltrated YouTube videos and video games, changing and morphing to fit the medium. For example, in the block-shaped world of Minecraft, Slender Man became Enderman (Blank, 2018). Slender Man became infamous nearly instantly on the darker side of the web but it wasn’t until a real-life horror story started circulating through the news media that the fictional creature was in the spotlight. The last day of May, 2014, in the sleepy Midwest town of Waukesha, Wisconsin, 12-year-old’s, Morgan Geyser and Annissa Weier, were discovered splattered with blood and walking along the interstate to meet the Slender Man, according to them, to receive his blessing after stabbing a fellow classmate 19 times (Brodsky, 2016). The two girls claimed the mythical creature made them attempt to murder Payton Leutner in the park, a plan they had worked out for weeks and eventually implemented by beckoning Leutner into a secluded wooded area, pinning her down, all while Geyser drove the blade into Leutner over and over again as Weier watched (Brodsky, 2016). The girls left Leutner to die and went to find Slender Man’s mansion in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest but Leutner pulled herself to the road, where she was discovered and rushed to the hospital. Both girls were tried as adults and plead guilty to intentional homicide, considering undiagnosed mental illness they were both sentenced to a psychiatric institution instead of prison (Kelly, 2019).Weier was sentenced to 25 years in late 2017 and Geyser was sentenced to 40 years in early 2018, due to her role in the crime of actually stabbing the victim, but is currently appealing her sentence (Kelly, 2019;Staff, 2017). 3 This crime was reported about all over the country, and abroad, by top media sources as well as discussed in blogs around the web. For this project, I asked to what degree the responses to Slender Man can be considered a moral panic based on academic definitions of what constitutes a moral panic. To qualify as a moral panic, the mythical creature must be reported about in a certain way, perpetuating fear, but also a set of the population must believe the panic to be real (Krinsky, 2013). To assess the degree to which responses to Slender Man exhibited these characteristics, I analyzed mainstream news reporting on Slender Man, as well as a subgenre of lifestyle blogs, United Statesbased Christian blogs. Thus, my primary research questions included: • Q1: To what degree do mainstream media portrayals of Slender Man fit the characteristics of a moral panic as defined in the academic research literature? • Q2: In what ways do Christian lifestyle blogs echo, extend upon, or reject the moral panic framing of Slender Man in the mainstream media? Although mass media claims to be reporting the facts objectively, the way Slender Man and the affiliated 2014 Wisconsin crime was portrayed in the news fits most of the characteristics of a moral panic as defined in the academic research literature. Christian lifestyle blogs reflected and extended upon news media moral panic framing of Slender Man, exhibiting most of the moral panic characteristics of concern, hostility, disproportionality, and volatility. The additional characteristics of a technopanic were also apparent in news media and Christian lifestyle blogs in reaction to the source of the creature and the age of the perpetrators in the crime (Marwick,, 2008; Krinsky, 2013). LITERATURE REVIEW 4 The literature on moral panic is vast but for the sake of this paper I will use the framework of moral panic from “To Catch a Predator? The Myspace Moral Panic” by Alice E. Marwick (2008). Marwick’s moral panic framework is appropriate to apply in this case because it discusses a monster archetype—though online predators are real and not fiction like Slender Man—and her focus on a social media platform is closely related to the focus of this paper (Marwick, 2008). In the book, The Ashgate Research Companion to Moral Panics (2013), editor Charles Krinsky describes the phenomenon of moral panic as, Exaggerated or misplaced accusations of believed moral wrongdoing, the persecution of innocent parties, and the fear, suspicion, or concern that certain individuals, groups, or categories threaten a community’s or a society’s wellbeing, way of life, and moral order (Krinsky, 2013, p. 23). Another definition Krinsky (2013) gives of moral panic is, “the outbreak of moral concern over a supposed threat from an agent of corruption that is out of proportion to its actual danger or potential harm” (p. 26). Krinsky (2013) also describes who is involved in a moral panic, The principal ‘actors’ in the moral panic are the media, which publish or broadcast stories about a supposed threat; the public at large, the members of which feel, verbalize, or act on their concern; representatives of the legal system, including politicians and lawmakers, who propose and enact legislation and the police who enforce it; and social movement activists, who organize, recruit, proselytize, assemble, demonstrate, and lobby on behalf of their cause against the putative threat (p. 26). The concept of moral panic emerged in the 1960s, according to Krinsky, changing the notion of deviance from being positive to constructive. Krinsky (2013) says the “old” idea was “objectivistic or essentialistic” (p. 27). The conceptualization of objectivism comes from writer and philosopher Ayn Rand and expresses the belief that “reality is an 5 absolute—that facts are facts, regardless of anyone’s hopes, fears, or desires” (Biddle, 2014, ‘The Nature of Reality’). As this essentialist view has fallen out of favor, many authors, including Krinsky, have produced a checklist style idea of moral panic that does not consider reality as an absolute. Moral panic demonstrates the way a culture’s, or community’s, beliefs play a role in how a subject is perceived. The Ashgate Research Companion to Moral Panic outlines a number of characteristics of a moral panic, including: 1. Concern: “members of the society feel anxious, worried, or fearful that something is wrong that must be corrected” (Krinsky, 2013, p. 26). 2. Hostility: “the public, or a segment of the public, believes that certain parties are engaging in harmful or threatening behavior, and designate them as a folk devil or deviant” (Krinsky, 2013, p. 26). 3. Consensus: “a certain, though unspecified, swath of the public shares this concern and feeling of hostility” (Krinsky, 2013, p. 26). 4. Disproportion: “a measurable disparity exists between concern felt and conveyed (in both talk and action) and the objective threat posed” (Krinsky, 2013, p. 27). 5. Volatility: “moral panics tend to be outbreaks, temporary episodes of exaggerated concern; they come and go like a fever, although the time span cannot be designated with precision” (Krinsky, 2013, p. 27). Drawing from much the same literature as Krinsky, Marwick (2008) offers a similar set of moral panic characteristics, but with a few differences. For instance, Krinsky looks at concern as pertaining to only a few expressing concerns while Marwick’s description 6 does not focus on who is concerned but more to what extent this concern will have on the broader society. Regarding consensus, however, neither Marwick nor Krinsky say how much of the population should believe there is a real threat, but they do agree it should be a substantial amount. Like Krinsky, Marwick provides her own checklist of moral panic characteristics, which include: 1. Concern: there is a “heightened level of concern over the behavior of a certain group or category and the consequences that that behavior presumably causes for the rest of society.” 2. Hostility: The group is “collectively designated as the enemy” and viewed as evil, anti–social, and deviant. 3. Consensus: A majority of population must believe that “the threat is real, serious, and caused by the wrongdoing group members and their behavior. 4. Disproportionality: Victor writes that the concern is not justified by empirical evidence; that is, “the numbers of deviants are minimal or even non–existent and their harm is very limited or non–existent.” 5. Volatility: “Moral panics come to prominence very quickly and fade out after a period of time” (Marwick, 2008). Marwick also includes the concept of technopanic in her work, which is relevant to my research because Slender Man emerged from and circulated on the Internet. Marwick describes a technopanic as “an attempt to contextualize the moral panic as a response to fear of modernity as represented by new technologies” (Marwick, 2008). 7 Krinsky and Marwick both provide an affective framework when relating to the research discovered in regards to Slender Man and if the response to the creature would be considered a moral panic through the different lenses of popular newspapers and Christian lifestyle blogs. As I delved into the research, I suspected I would find that the response to Slender Man would meet some of the characteristics on both lists but not all of them. This is because some of the wider social responses that Krinsky and others say are necessary for a full moral panic have been absent in the case of Slender Man. For example, the legal system has not been involved in preventing the internet folklore from spreading and police have not been involved to enforce it, nor has any protesting or lobbying been done to prevent the threat, all of which Krinsky suggested should be expected in the case of a full-blown moral panic. The thesis, “Child on child killing: Societal and legal similarities and dissimilarities 1840-1890 and 1950-2000” (Pegg, 2007), written by Samantha Pegg, uses the theoretical framework of moral panic as well to discuss the thesis question she presents in her work. The child on child killing phenomenon does not always result in a moral panic, Pegg says (Pegg, 2007). The similarities in this research are valuable to mine considering the two girls in Wisconsin were children attempting to murder another child. To further address moral panic in the news media I will use the article “Moral panic: From sociological concept to the public discourse” (Altheide, 2009). The author discusses moral panic being a form of “social control” and explores how the sociological concept is used in other places besides news, like op-eds and editorials (Altheide, 2009, p. 79). Altheide also comments on moral panic being more prevalent in print, which was 8 valuable information to consider as I identified themes within the newspaper articles I collected (Altheide, 2009). Christian lifestyle blogs give interesting insight into the moral panic phenomenon. Considering moral panics are usually centered around the young, either protecting them or them being involved, I wanted to consider a demographic of the population that aids in the guidance of vulnerable populations, like children and child-rearing, and reflects beliefs of the rest of society (Krinsky, 2013). According to a Pew Research Center 2014 study, the U.S. Religious Landscape Study, 70.6% of people in the United States consider themselves belonging to a Christian faith. By using Christian lifestyle blogs that intend to help others solve problems in every-day life with the help of a faith of which the majority of the U.S. population considers themselves to be a part, new opportunities are presented to study moral panic, especially in relation to online deviants, fiction or not. Being raised a non-denominational Christian in the U.S. myself has also added to my interest in the influence of Christianity on popular culture. I was in elementary school when the first Harry Potter book was released, which led to much discussion at home and in church about witchcraft and how evil wizardry is, including any book about wizardry, especially considering the book was intended for children. This firsthand experience with Christian responses to popular culture, coupled with the percentage of Americans who identify themselves as belonging to a Christian faith, is another motivating factor for this project. Christian organizations and people in the United States tend to push a moral code in attempts to influence politics and pop culture. There are multiple examples of this, including a recent petition signed by thousands of Christians to remove a show that they 9 believed encouraged Satanism from streaming platforms (Lou, 2019). According to CNN reporter Michelle Lou, the series “Bad Omen” depicts angels, devils, God’s voice as a woman, and the anti-Christ as a regular little boy, all of which are not acceptable for the Christian organization The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property. The petition read, “Please sign our petition, telling Netflix that we will not stand silent as they destroy the barriers of horror we still have for evil.” Over 20,000 people had signed as of writing this essay (Lou, 2019). The use of moral panic framing through the lens of American Christianity is valuable while assessing Slender Man. By drawing on research literature and Christian beliefs, ascertained from Christian lifestyle blogs, how well responses to Slender Man fits into the Moral Panic framework can be revealed. METHODS Deciding the topic of my research was a crucial first step and emerged from personal experience with the Slender Man story. Once my topic was established, selecting which newspapers and blogs to use and how I would collect them were the next steps before I delved into my analysis, which included creating a codebook to identify themes. I first heard of Slender Man when my daughter was about five years old. She had come from the neighbor’s house scared of a tall, faceless figure wearing a suit in the woods who she said was named Slender Man. Her friend’s older brother had told them about the newest thrill, creeping around the web. This story had scared both little girls terrifically that day in 2012. A few years later, about 2017, my daughter began to scare her little brother, now five himself, with a character she had created named Evil-Olive. 10 Some of the facets of Evil-Olive reminded me of Slender Man. With the approval of my daughter’s therapist, we sat down and watched the HBO documentary, Beware the Slenderman (Brodsky, 2016). The movie recounts the horrifying true story of two 12year-old girls in Wisconsin who nearly stabbed their friend to death. While being interrogated by police they claimed Slender Man made them do it (Brodsky, 2016). Though the stabbing had been on the news in 2014, when the crime occurred, I hadn’t paid much attention until Evil-Olive appeared. When it came time to select a topic and research question for my thesis, Slender Man seemed appropriate. After deciding on a broader topic, with guidance from my thesis advising professor, I was exposed to the idea of moral panic for the first time. I did not know what it was before, though I had seen the concept in action on my TV screen. Being a Communication Major, I was excited about the idea of using a mass medium. Being a mom, I had my own opinions on Slender Man when it came to my children. Those ideas mashed and melded together, with a lot of help from my professor, into deciphering whether the response to Slender Man fit into the framework of a moral panic. Originally, I was exploring so-called “mommy blogs” in general, but after initial research the subgenre of religious parenting and lifestyle blogs had more available data on the specific topic of Slender Man and revealed an interesting commentary on the internet-driven world we live in today. This research is important because the Slender Man phenomenon and resulting crime is the precursor to what we are seeing in the world currently as people struggle to tell “fake news” from reality online. By gaining a better understanding, within the 11 framework of moral panic, of how the media portrayed this generation’s boogie-man and how Christian parents and leaders reacted, new insights can be obtained. To demonstrate how the media portrayed Slender Man and how Christian blogs reacted, for my research, I wanted to capture an overall feeling from a sample size of newspapers and blog posts immediately following the crime up to one year later. To collect the most appropriate newspaper articles, I went to Cision’s website, a marketing firm that specializes in collecting analytics to help their customers receive as much exposure to their target audience as possible, to seek out top newspapers in the U.S., according to circulation, during that time period. As of June 18, 2014, the newspaper with the most circulation in the country was the Wall Street Journal, followed by The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Post, and Los Angeles Times (Cision, 2018). The difference in 2015, according to Statista.com (2018), a firm with similar offerings as Cision, is the Washington Post was ranked number three, with an average weekday individually paid print circulation of 33,0000 as of September 2015. Chicago Tribune had a 438,015 circulation of yearly papers. Thus, by dividing the amount a year by the number of weekdays in 2014, 261, Chicago Tribune has about 1,678 per weekday. This figure does not factor the amount of Sunday papers only ordered or multiple copies delivered to one place; hence the confidence level is not substantial. For the sake of my research, I will use the New York Times, considering its high circulation and I will not be using the Wall Street Journal or the New York Post because all three are based out of New York and more than one would be redundant. I have chosen the Washington Post, as opposed to Chicago Tribune, due to location as being the U.S. capitol and both having relatively similar circulation, as described above. I also 12 analyzed The Los Angeles Times due to location, being on the west coast opposite of the east coast New York Times, and for being in the top five most circulated newspapers in the U.S. in 2014 and 2015, according to Statista (2018) and Cision (2018). Blogs emerged on the web not long after the internet became accessible to the majority of the U.S. population. Mark Tremayne (2007) defines blogs and the word’s origins in the book, Blogging Citizenship and the Future of Media, According to blog veteran and unofficial movement historian Rebecca Blood, the brief etymology of the term ‘blogs’ goes back to the late 1990s and looks something like this: web journal → web log → weblog → wee blogs → blogs. Blogs are distinguished from other websites in their dynamism, reverse chronological presentation and dominant use of the first person (p. ix, para. 1). For my research, I intended to use the subgenre of Christian parenting blogs from all-over the United State, after I had found Mommy blogs did not have as much to offer on the Slender Man conern. I discovered, however, that not all Christian blogs that discuss parenting were solely devoted to the topic. Thus, I chose to focus on Christian lifestyle blogs more broadly that include content on the subject of parenting. Blogs are unique because their first-person point of view allows insight into what parents, specifically Christian parents or those who aid in childrearing to some capacity, are actually saying on the topic of Slender Man and their opinion on the internet boogie-man (Tremayne, 2007). I used the database, Nexus Uni, accessed via the University of Utah’s Marriot Library, to collect the newspaper articles for my research. By searching “Slender Man” in the database and then narrowing down my search by selecting the specific publications I had decided to use, I was able to collect the articles from the New York Times and Washington Post within the date range of May 31, 2014, when the stabbing occurred, 13 until May 31, 2015. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Times did not have much available via the Nexus Uni database. To collect those articles, I used another database available from the University Library, ProQuest, searching “Slender Man” again, within that same date range, May 31, 2014 to May 31, 2015, and was able to locate articles from the Los Angeles Times. I also used Nexus Uni and Google Trends to demonstrate the rise and fall of interest in Slender Man over time based on articles written and when people searched “Slender Man” on Google News. The streamlined process used for collecting newspaper articles could not be applied to blog post collection. Using the Google search engine, I used various searches to discover as many U.S. Christian blogs as I could find discussing Slender Man in the same range as the newspaper articles, May 31, 2014 to May 31, 2015. The definition of Christian, for the sake of this research, is any monotheistic religion that worships Jesus Christ as the son of God. Though the initial goal was Christian parenting blogs, I discovered that many blogs could more accurately be described as Christian lifestyle blogs that included parenting but also other aspects of life such as marriage, friendships, or anything else relating to living specifically, for these blogs, in a Christian way. Considering the stabbing involved children and the Slender Man character has a draw and unique relationship to children—some stories saying he saves them while others say he kidnaps and possibly murders them (Brodsky, 2016)—all the articles obtained referred to parenting in some form. To gauge how people who consider themselves Christian in America responded to the Slender Man phenomenon I attempted to collect every blog I could find, in that date range, but did not focus on a specific Christian denomination or 14 region of the country. The approach was intended to capture a broad, overall feeling of this group. After reading all the blog posts and articles I collected, disposing of any that were unrelated, I created an initial codebook. As I did a second, third, and more readings of my research texts, I further defined the codes I used. Use of these codes helped to uncover themes that revealed how well media and Christian blog coverage of Slender Man fits the framework of a moral panic. Codebook: Codes and Definitions: Sub-Codes (if applicable) and Definitions: Fear: Moral Panic Concern & Disproportionality: When the word “fear” is used, or a synonym of that word, in the newspaper articles by the journalist themselves, not describing quoted case facts or quoting anyone else. 19 Times: any time “19 times” is said, which is the amount of times the Slender Man Wisconsin victim was stabbed. To Death: any time the words “to death” is used, considering no one died thus perpetrating fear. Positive: when terms with positive connotations are used, i.e. survived vs. nearly killed. Consensus: Moral Panic Consensus: when language that implies Slender Man is a real threat is used. Concern for the Children: Moral Panic Concern: when language that implies Slender Man is a real threat to children is used. Concern by the Media: Moral Panic Consensus: when language that implies Slender Man is a real threat by the mainstream media (in this case the newspaper sources selected for research) is used, may overlap with the children but specifically applies to the consensus checkpoint. 15 Demon: Moral Panic Hostility Disproportionality: Any reference to Slender Man being a demon. Bible Verse: Moral Panic Hostility Disproportionality: When a Bible verse is referenced. Enemy: Moral Panic Hostility: When Slender Man in portrayed as the enemy/deviant/the problem. Something else=Enemy: When the internet, bad parent, mental instability, etc. is framed as the enemy. RESULTS The results of my research showed to what degree mainstream media portrayals of Slender Man fit the characteristics of a moral panic as defined in the academic research literature and in what ways Christian blogs echoed and extended upon the moral panic framing of Slender Man in the mainstream media. By breaking down each characteristic from Marwick and Krinsky’s moral panic checklists, including the technopanic concept Marwick uses in her own work, I will demonstrate how the newspaper articles and blogs that were used for my research meet, or do not meet, the different aspects of a moral and technopanic. 1. Concern Concern is defined by Marwick as a “heightened level of concern over the behavior of a certain group or category and the consequences that that behavior presumably causes for the rest of society” (2008). For the sake of my research, Slender Man represents the “certain group or category” (Marwick, 2008). Though the character is a single fictional figure the way creepypastas are morphed and spread creates a category. The heightened level of concern was revealed using the code “fear” and establishing how newspaper articles and Christian 16 blog posts discussed Slender Man in relation to the two Wisconsin girls stabbing another, perpetrating fear, and thus heightening concern regarding the creature. By using the code fear, defined above as when the word “fear” is used, or a synonym of that word, in a newspaper article by the journalist themselves, not describing quoted case facts or quoting anyone else, I was able to establish how journalists reported about the May 31, 2014 stabbing. One example comes from Monica Davey and Steven Yaccino who wrote in a June 8, 2014 New York Times article, “In the hours after the two Waukesha girls were found, they talked separately to the police, providing horrifying, elaborate details of all that had happened” (p. 16). The use of the word “horrifying” to describe the details, the root word “horror” being a synonym of fear, shows a theme of fear being perpetuated. In the next paragraph of that same article, Davey and Steven’s wrote, “They said they believed they needed to kill someone in order to become a ‘proxy’ to Slender Man and to prove to doubters that he was real” (Davey & Yaccino, 2014, p. 16). Thus, the connection to Slender Man and the “horrifying, elaborate details of what happened” (Davey & Yaccino, 2014, p. 16) is made. Many articles and Christian blogs also mentioned the number of times the victim was stabbed, 19, which appeared in over 70 percent of the articles I collected. Both newspapers and blogs had a reoccurring theme of using certain words to describe the victim’s condition. Though Leutner lived despite the multiple stab wounds, phrases like “trying to kill”, “nearly to death”, “attempted murder”, and other terms with negative connotations were used more often, as opposed to positive words such as persisted, endured, or survived. 17 The definition of concern by Marwick also includes the concern for society, “the consequences that that behavior presumably causes for the rest of society” (2008). A June 4, 2014 article, in the Los Angeles Times, written by Matt Pearce, is one of many examples of the articles that go more into depth, showing concern for society, specifically children in society, The case prompted Waukesha Police Chief Russell P. Jack to warn parents in his community, about 20 miles west of Milwaukee. ‘The Internet has changed the way we live. It is full of information and wonderful sites that teach and entertain’, Jack said in a Monday news conference. ‘The Internet can also be full of dark and wicked things. ... Unmonitored and unrestricted access to the Internet by children is a growing and alarming problem’ (Pearce, 2014, A.6). Christian blog posts also discussed the dangers of Slender Man to society. This is demonstrated in common themes throughout many of the posts. For example, Aaron Zubia wrote on the Summit Ministries blog, posted June 12, 2014, “The stories that we tell our children have a profound influence on their development. Their understanding of right and wrong and their ideas about identity and purpose” (Zubia, 2014). The general theme of needing to protect the children of society was prevalent in both newspaper articles and Christian blog posts. This shared distress demonstrates that a heightened level of concern over Slender Man was met as well as the consequences Slender Man could cause for the rest of society, with children being used as a catalyst. 2. Hostility Krinsky defines hostility as “the public, or a segment of the public, believes that certain parties are engaging in harmful or threatening behavior, and designates them as a folk devil or deviant” (Krinsky, 2013, p. 26). Using the codes I created for demon and Bible verse, this definition is met in regards to Christian U.S. blog posts. Nearly a quarter 18 of the posts referred to Slender Man as being a demon and a greater amount used Bible verses in relation to the fictional character. One example of Slender Man as a demon occurs on the website Christian Thought Sandbox, where a blogger by the username of reggierivett posted an article titled, “What is Really Frightening About Slenderman & What We Should Do About It.” Reggierivett wrote, “It is possible that some evil force, a nonfictional force, inhabits the character and influences the reader” in regards to Slender Man (Reggierivett, 2014). Half of the religious blog posts used at least one Bible verse when discussing Slender Man, while some used multiple in one post. A common theme in the Bible verses selected, after comparing them side-by-side, was demonic. For example, the verse 1 Pete 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (The New King James Version) was used on a March 2015 post by Taylor Thomas on her Christian-based supernatural blog, Taylor, Spiritually Speaking…, in reference to Slender Man. In a June 2014 post, another Christian blogger used 1 Corinthians 10:19-20, “What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils (The New King James Version). This verse, which was used to draw a parallel between Geyser and Weier’s attempted sacrifice of Leutner, portraying Slender Man as being connected to the devil. The Christian blogs clearly meet the definition of hostility by Krisnky but the newspaper articles only had one incident of Slender Man in reference to a demon. The New York Times article by the Associated Press refers to Slender Man as “demonlike” 19 (2014), though it did not claim he is an actual demon, like some of the Christian blogs implied. Marwick defines hostility as “The group is ‘collectively designated as the enemy’ and viewed as evil, anti–social, and deviant” (Marwick, 2008). Using Marwick’s definition, newspaper articles focused more on a different enemy, with quotes or opinion editorials that point their finger at parents and their children’s unfettered access to the internet. Slender Man was more of a bi-product of bad parenting, overexposure to the internet, mental disorders, or another underlying cause to a larger societal problem. By using the code “enemy or something else=enemy,” a theme appeared of who the media thought was to blame. Who to blame varied in the articles analyzed. Many articles discuss the mental health of the 12-year-old perpetrators quoting psychiatrists and the judge on the case or interviewing mental health specialists to elaborate on the possible reasons the crime was committed. Articles that didn’t focus on the mental health aspect took the route of access to the internet; the girls would have never learned about this boogie-man had they not discovered him online. Articles differed or were vague on who and how internet should be regulated but many articles warned parents about internet usage. The article, “Urban Legends Told Online,” in the New York Times, demonstrates one way that newspaper articles discussed what to blame, A lot of people are now saying, 'How do we stop kids from reading this online?' Dr. Chess said. ‘Well, that's not really the right question. This story is no more threatening than vampire stories or zombie stories. Like those, it's just articulating specific cultural fears in online spaces’ (Manjoo, 2014). Christian blogs discuss Slender Man as harmful and threating and designate the creature as a folk devil or deviant thus the requirement of hostility is fulfilled with this segment of the population (Krinsky, 2013). The newspaper articles did not reflect 20 hostility in the same way as the Christian blogs and had a different theme as to who the deviant, or enemy, is. For newspapers, this included access to Slender Man via the internet, bad parenting or lack of government regulation, and struggles with mental health, but not the fictional character himself. 3. Consensus Marwick describes consensus within the framework of moral panic as when a majority of the population believes that “the threat is real, serious, and caused by the wrongdoing group members and their behavior” (Marwick, 2008). The way newspapers and Christian blog posts discuss children’s inability to tell the difference between what is real and what is not, coupled with concern expressed over children’s access to Internet, displays the level of seriousness the media wants the public to believe. Christian blog posts take the level of threat further, adding spirituality to the list of why readers should consider Slender Man as a real and serious threat. Out of the newspaper articles collected that went into more detail about the reasons why, most discussed children’s inability to tell fake from real, like in the New York Times article, “Urban Legends Told Online,” “That doesn't mean that children can always tell the difference between fact and fiction on the web” (Manjoo, 2014, p. 1). Christian blogs have a more faith-centered approach, such as on the Brad Andres Inspired Thinking blog, in which he wrote, “The hard line to cross is that between reality and fiction. However, in all actuality, any false god is centered around a fictional reality” (Andres, 2014, para. 8). Both blogs and articles still presented the same concern that the threat Slender Man caused was initiated by how real the creepypasta seemed. The crime itself pushed Slender Man into the media spotlight, over exaggerating Slender Man’s 21 threat considering the meme was started in 2009 but did not gain attention until the related crime five years later. The use of blog posts and newspapers does not necessarily reveal the extent to which the threat of Slender Man is perceived be by the majority of the population, nonetheless, both paint Slender Man in a way that encourages the majority of the population to perceive the creepypasta to be a real threat. Technically, however, the moral panic characteristic of consensus is not met. 4. Disproportionality To be considered a moral panic, according to Marwick, “the concern is not justified by empirical evidence” (Marwick, 2008). With the use of Nexus Uni, the database used to find the newspaper articles, and Google Trends, disproportionality can be shown. Google Trends gives insight into when Slender Man was being searched online via the Google News search engine. Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term (Google, 2019). Figure 1 shows August 2018 is when the term peaked in searches, which correlates to when the Slender Man movie—a major motion picture based on the Slender Man character with a fictional story focused around a group of teen girls in Massachusetts— was released into theatres (IMDb, 2019). June 2014 is the next highest peak, which correlates to when the Slender Man stabbing occurred on May 31, 2014. We can compare these to Figure 2, which demonstrates the jump of newspaper articles referring to Slender 22 Man occurring on June 1, 2014, the day after the Wisconsin stabbing. Considering the search “Slender Man” in Nexus Uni can include the words “slender man,” not in reference to the fictional character but as a descriptive phrase—e.g. “He was a slender man”—the chart does include occasions when the description is used not in reference to the internet character. Nexus Uni also does not show the fluctuation of articles but continues to rise as articles are more prevalent. Despite these discrepancies, the visual still represents the sudden interest immediately after May 31, 2014. Figure 1 Retrieved from: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2009-01-01%202018-1231&geo=US&q=%22Slender%20Man%22+ Figure 2 23 Retrieved: https://advance-lexis-com.ezproxy.lib.utah.edu/firsttime?crid=d98b47c9-a6a84f96-9aa5-34c37d8dc21a With the use of these two charts it can be concluded that the sudden jump of stories after just one incident indicates the concern was not widely supported by empirical evidence. One New York Times article did mention another incident in reference to Slender Man. Julie Bosman wrote about the high suicide rate on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, “At least 103 attempts by people ages 12 to 24 occurred from December to March, according to the federal Indian Health Service” (Bosman, 2015, p. 1). Out of the four deaths from suicide by young people on the reservation, Slender Man was associated with one. Bosman wrote, “several officials with knowledge of the cases said that at least one of the youths who committed suicide was influenced by Slender Man” (Bosman, 2015, p. 1). She further describes how a similar character appears in Native American folklore, the Tall Man Spirit, and refers to the Wisconsin girls’ attempted murder the summer prior. One of the Christian blog articles also mentioned another incident while discussing the Wisconsin stabbing, in which a young girl attacked her mother with a knife to please Slender Man (Reggierivett, 2014).The Google Trends 24 chart displays the drop of interest after the Waukesha incident, with the other two stories of Slender Man in relationship to violence causing little or no reaction, and the rise again when the movie came out, further demonstrating the lack of empirical evidence as a driver of attention to Slender Man. Christian blogs echo this disproportionate emotional reaction, though not as visually and easily demonstrated. As in the newspapers articles, the content of the Christian blog posts displays disproportionality, with posts suddenly discussing Slender Man after May 31, 2014. When searching for the articles to use in the Google search engine, I found pre-2014 Christian blog posts related to Slender Man were minimal. Christian blogs, newspaper articles, and searches for Slender Man in Google News reflect one-another in the disproportionate interest after a single incident. 5. Volatility Volatility is defined by Marwick as “Moral panics come to prominence very quickly and fade out after a period of time” (Marwick, 2008). News coverage and blog posts regarding Slender Man peak during initial stabbing and major trial events, such as determining if the 12-year-olds will be tried as adults. Figure 1 can also be used to determine whether volatility was met. The Google Trends chart shows the rise and fall of people searching Slender Man over the past 10 years, again with peaks correlating with the Wisconsin stabbing and major motion picture release. Thus, we can see that peoples’ general interest in Slender Man was, indeed, rather volatile. 6. Technopanic Considering the online origins of the Slender Man character, the moral panic framework could be expanded upon to fully understand what the media perpetuates that 25 Christian blogs reflect and extend upon. Hence the concept of a technopanic, which considers new technologies, such as the internet, and their relationship to children, how they misuse the new technologies and how to attempt to control them from the misuse. Pegg argues that the moral panic model, though still a useful tool, may need some alterations, because “it cannot account for the sensitive ideologies that have underpinned periods of social concern or social apathy” (Pegg, 2007, p. 199). Marwick discusses an extension of moral panic in her work, technopanic, that allows for what Pegg suggests. Marwick outlines the term as; Technopanics have the following characteristics. First, they focus on new media forms, which currently take the form of computer–mediated technologies. Second, technopanics generally pathologize young people’s use of this media, like hacking, file–sharing, or playing violent video games. Third, this cultural anxiety manifests itself in an attempt to modify or regulate young people’s behavior, either by controlling young people or the creators or producers of media products (Marwick, 2008). Slender Man fits into the technopanic framework because the creepypasta form derives from computer-mediated technologies and, as displayed throughout the preceding analysis of the moral panic characteristics, older generations’ cultural anxiety about the internet is displayed in the concern they have for society’s children, how young people found Slender Man online to begin with, and how that related to a specific case of child on child violence. DISCUSSION The goal of this study was to establish to what degree news media coverage of Slender Man exhibited the characteristics of a moral panic and whether this framing was reflected or extended upon in Christian lifestyle blogs. After identifying my research question, collecting articles, coding them, and discovering different themes, I believe I 26 have established that concern, disproportionality, and volatility were shared by both newspaper articles and Christian blog posts, whereas hostility was extended upon by Christian bloggers and consensus is undetermined via this research. To truly be considered a moral panic, however, Krinsky (2013) points out another characteristic of moral panic, which is that lawmakers must make attempts to prevent whatever wrongdoing from occurring again, either via lobbying or legislation. Altheide (2009) also states one of the components of moral panic is lawmaking bodies, such as governments, getting involved. Yet, the Child Internet Protection Act was developed in 2001, well before the Slender Man phenomenon. Thus, I argue that the fear people have of the internet and their children, as well as attempts to make laws against it, has been around much longer than creepypastas and therefore the response to Slender Man is not a fully formed moral panic Despite not meeting every requirement to be considered a true moral panic, the internet’s newest boogie-man fits into the theoretical framework of a technopanic. Slender Man is a reflection of what is going on in the United States right now: fake news, propaganda, the inability people seem to have to sort out what is real and what is not online. The fear or anticipation of something going viral, like Slender Man, is also currently prevalent online. How things go viral, such as a funny cat video on YouTube or a creepypasta, is still a mystery. Knowing how something goes viral for promotion and advertising could benefit the market, but certain entities, like Slender Man, can and do go viral when society would rather they not. At this point, why certain things go viral, how to utilize or stop it, is unknown, which fits into the technopanic framing of fear of new technologies and what they will do to society. By analyzing mass media reporting of, and 27 reaction to, viral internet folklore and reception by specific groups, this study has provided insight into this phenomenon and will hopefully serve as inspiration for further investigation by other researchers. 28 Bibliography Altheide, D. L. (2009). Moral panic. From sociological concept to the public discourse. Crime, Media, Culture, 5, 79-99. doi: 10.1177/1741659008102063 Andres. (2014, June 4). The Slender Man stabbing and childlike faith: what should we learn from this? [Blog]. Retrieved from http://www.bradandres.com/slender-manstabbing-childlike-faith/ Biddle, C. (2014, Feb., 5). What is objectivism?. The Objective Standard. Retrieved from https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/what-is-objectivism/ Blank, T. (2018). Slender Man is Coming. 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