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

more evidence of the severity and duration of media-induced fear. 13 The studies
involved samples of undergraduates from three universities, and results indicated that
the presence of vivid memories of enduring media-induced fear was nearly universal. In
Hoekstra’s study, all of the participants reported such an incident. In the other study,
conducted by Harrison and Cantor, 90 % of the participants reported an intense fear
reaction to something in the media. This number is especially telling, since the
respondents could have received full extra credit for participating in the study if they
simply said “no,” meaning they never had such an experience, and thereby avoid writing
a paper and filling out a three-page questionnaire. 14 Both studies revealed a variety of
intense reactions characteristic of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxieties,
specific fears, unwanted recurring thoughts, and disturbances in sleeping and eating. In
addition, the study by Harrison and Cantor concluded that the resulting fears were long
lasting, which qualifies them as abnormal and thus could potentially be identified as a
disorder. One-third of those reported having been frightened said that the fear effects
had lasted more than a year, and more than one-fourth of the respondents said that the
emotional impact of the program or movie was still with them at the time of reporting. 15
LEARNING FROM THE MEDIA
Before the incarnation of mass media, individual’s imaginations and fears were
primarily shaped by personal experiences. However, with the surge in electronic and
wireless communication, people of the developed world have access to sophisticated
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