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

MEDIA EFFECTS
Despite evidence that people increasingly learn about the world from media
sources, few Americans think the media influence them. In her book Screened Out,
Carla Brooks Johnston warned, “the tragedy is that most of us have no idea how much
the media influence, often control, our feelings and behavior. True to the definition of
propaganda, people today do not realize they are being programmed any more than did
the people of Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union.” 37 Students of mass media
and popular culture agree that the media include a relatively large amount of
information and images pertaining to fear, and that audience members perceive social
life as very dangerous. 38 It is not just the events that are covered, but the emphasis on
their commonality that result in such social facts. Note how often the news uses phrases
like “another one,” “another tragedy tonight” or “not again,” which serve to remind
audiences that not only did something horrible happen, but that such incidents are all too
common. 39
In 1981, Hawkins and Pingree concluded that there was evidence for a link
between viewing and beliefs regardless of the kind of social reality in question. 40
Qualitative research studies conducted by the Glasgow Media Group revealed that
people read a great variety of meanings into the content of news. The studies suggest
that the variance in what people gain from a news program is influenced not only by
differences in the quality of information received but also according to the peculiarity of
individual social circumstances. According to Jenny Kitzinger, diversity was not only
52