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

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself –
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Or is it? Contemporary popular culture certainly wouldn’t have you think so.
Violence, disease, scandal, foreign enemies, crime, accidents and death consume
American media. Film and television constantly project images of large-scale tragedy,
destruction and suffering, and mainstream news publications routinely recall
catastrophes or warn about our impending doom. Take the February 10, 2003, issue of
Newsweek, for example. That week’s top stories included: “Tragedy in the Sky,” “Toxic
Anti-Americanism in Europe,” “Bush’s War at Home,” “A Decade on the Mean Streets
in the Bronx,” “Among the Nation’s Men, Syphilis is Back,” “Bad News From the Bush
Market,” “Living With Threats, Preparing For Conflict” and “Spies, Lies and Iraq.”
Certainly, these stories were important and newsworthy. But was there really not
something, anything, positive Newsweek could have included to hint that all was not
awry in the world?
It is no wonder the National Institute of Mental Health reports that more than 19
million adult Americans ages 18 to 54 have anxiety disorders. There is, after all, a lot to
be anxious about. Consider that week in February 2003. If you had turned on CNN, or
any of the major news networks, “America at War,” “Attack on America,” or “Terror
Alert: High,” would have constantly resonated that known and unknown enemies could
strike at any moment. Or at the local cinema, The Recruit would have advised you that
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