This paper talks about the “outraged opposition” to novel-reading in 18th century England as an early example of moral panic in response to popular media culture.

Moral panic was described as an episode of intensive, exaggerated concern about a particular issue or perceived threat, which — when empirically assessed — turned out not to be especially damaging.

In short: any moral panic involves a heightened level of concern over the (supposed) behaviour of a certain group or category, and the consequences that this behaviour presumably causes for the rest of society, which is manifested in a number of concrete, tangible ways with media commentary as the most general one. Perceived as harmful and threatening, the alleged culprit often incites hostile stereotyping, which is encouraged by a strong sense of consensus in the society about the menace being serious, and the fear and animosity justified. The most conspicuous feature and defining characteristic of moral panic is that the concern grows grossly out of proportion.

People did not stop reading novels. Nor did moral panic in any way weaken novel-writing or the distribution of novels — just as, two centuries later, it did not prevent people from watching television. On the contrary, the success of the genre and the campaign against it run parallel. And readers seem to have gone along with it.