Media Induced Fear and Anxiety - Georgetown University: Web ...

experts in the field of risk. 73 This implied that something was causing people to
attribute a greater risk factor than actually existed; something gave them a skewed
vision of reality.
While knowledge of risk may do no more than alert people to the possibility of a
future that holds unknown quantities of danger, it can certainly be considered as a
possible cause of anxiety. Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens have both emphasized the
knowledge of risk being the cause of anxiety. 74 Particularly, Giddens and Beck have
focused on the potential for an increased awareness of risk to make people feel more
insecure about their place in society and to arouse their anxieties in regard to the
possibly catastrophic future ahead. Both also note that the mass media has an essential
role in the cultivation for risk consciousness, which they understand “to increase levels
of existential doubt among the populations of Western societies as they become more
cognizant of a future of possible hazard and hidden danger.” Consider how often the
media presents issues in regard to how risky they are. For example, they talk about at
risk youth, new risks in the home, the risks of eating or not eating certain foods, the
health risks of using a cell phone, microwave, tanning bed, or sitting too long at the
computer, the risks of contracting certain diseases, the risk of terrorist attacks, the risk of
getting fired, laid off, or losing money, the risk of being raped, mugged or murdered,
and so on. Needless to say, the current political climate in the United States is rife with
situations that put citizens in the country at great risk. Giddens believes that, “public
debates about the safety of public transport, health risks, food scares, environmental
pollution, economic insecurity, crime and the threat of war all combine to create a
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