Trans Youth Sport Bans and the Facilitation of Moral Panic: A Cross-Platform Comparison of 2022 Media Narratives

This study incorporates moral panics as a lens for investigating discussions in US news reports and on social media surrounding anti-transgender youth sports legislation. A total of 210 newspaper articles and 6,405 Twitter posts from January 2022 through November 2022 were analyzed to highlight the proportion of content that incorporated moral panic elements of concern, hostility, consensus, and disproportionality within the discussion. While the frames advanced on the two platforms largely mirrored one another, social media posts were more likely to incorporate aspects of moral panic escalation (concern and hostility) than were news reports. Escalation elements stayed high on both platforms over the course of time. Pro-ban protests significantly rose on social media while equity/fairness arguments cross-state comparisons diminished as content moved closer to election day.