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

“nothing is what it seems,” and Bowling for Columbine would have emphasized that the
United States is the most gun crazed, paranoid society with the highest gun-death rate of
modern Western society. That week, a shelf at Blockbuster Video was dedicated to 9/11
tapes and DVDs, just in case the images from that tragic day had started to fade. But
forget about the looming war or terrorist attacks, the guns and covert activity. If you had
taken a drive down Massachusetts Avenue near the National Cathedral and Naval
Observatory in Washington, DC, an elderly man would have been flaunting a sign that
declared the pope was a pedophile; a poignant reminder about the controversy
surrounding the Catholic Church and pedophilia at the time. If you had continued
driving, you would no doubt have eventually noticed police lights glaring in your rear-
view mirror. Assuming you were not speeding, there was probably another terrorist
threat somewhere, or a war protest or political demonstration, but more likely it was the
D.C. metro police’s attempt to deter terrorism by flashing their lights at all times.
Regardless of the reason, the encounter would have probably made you somewhat
nervous. If you had gone to a coffee shop to relax, a “Tuition Funds” tip jar may have
upset you about the high costs of a decent education, or its emptiness may have
prompted you to lament the sagging economy. Not even a trip to the hardware store
would have let you forget that the nation’s nerves were on the brink; by the end of that
week, on Valentines Day, Home Depot was sold out of duct tape and displaying terror-
readiness kits. After the Department of Homeland Security raised the terror alert level
from yellow to orange, the second highest security designation, people scrambled to do
anything that might give them a sense of control, including sealing their homes with
2