Western Australia's (WA) response to shark attacks, i.e. culling sharks, is an example of moral panic. Moral panic is not a new concept for modern society; episodes of panic, anxiety or alarm due to numerous forms of threat perceived as an element of society. Many studies have been conducted since Stanley Cohen first addressed the concept in 1972 with his book “Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers” – including that of Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda (Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance). A combination of these two studies results in what Brian Klocke and Glenn Muschert have called a “hybrid model” (Klocke and Muschert, 2010) for determining moral panic in the contemporary world; one in which the “widespread concept of moral panic… has in recent decades obscured its conceptual coherence” (Krinsky, 2013). Perceived threats to the “moral fabric of society” (OED Online, 2014), moral panics (as agreed by most sociologists who have studied and explored the phenomenon) take place to a large extent in the media. Cohen not only emphasized the crucial role of the media in building moral panics, but also established a five-part process for moral panics:1. The behavior of folk devils is defined as a threat to the values ​​and interests of society.2. The threat is represented by the media in a recognizable dramatic form.3. Public concern is quickly created.4. Authorities, politicians and moral entrepreneurs ask for a strong solution to the problem.5. Panic recedes or results in social and institutional changes. (Krinsky, 2013) Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda then expanded on Cohen's concept of moral panic in their study by outlining the elementary characteristics of a moral panic: worry... middle of paper... more or less Journal of Sociology , (1997): 629-648. Print.Krinsky, Charles. The Ashgate research companion on moral panic. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2013. Print. Mcrobbie, Angela and Sarah L Thornton. “Rethinking 'moral panic' for multimediated social worlds.” British Journal of Sociology, (1995): 559-574. Print.Miller, Barbara. "The world today - New shark attack sparks political frenzy." March 2. 2009. Network. 15 April 2014. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content /2008/s2504985Skelton, R 2013. Can governments protect people from killer sharks? [online] December 22. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-22/can-governments-protect-people-from-killer-sharks/5158880 [Accessed 14 April 2014]Sunstein, Cass R. " Overreacting to Fearful Risks Cass R. Sunstein and Richard Zeckhauser.” Press.