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

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duct tape and plastic sheeting. You could have relieved your stress with some exercise, but you may have not wanted to run outside anymore. A recent report on the environment had warned of the health risks of breathing exhaust fumes, not to mention the constant speculations that there may be a chemical or biological attack in the area. To be on the safe side, you may have gone to Washington Sports Club instead. However, if you had watched the Sports Club Network, a break in the music videos would have alerted you that your zip code could be making you fat. If you looked at the larger televisions instead, you would have noticed that most were tuned on to news networks. That familiar “America at War” logo would have been staring at you again. THE BURGEONING AGE OF FEAR There is no doubt that signs with the potential to provoke feelings of fear and anxiety are everywhere. There is also no dispute that such representations are affecting American sentiment; results from a Gallup Poll conducted from January 13-16, 2003, showed that overall levels of satisfaction with the way things are going in the country have dropped to the lowest point since 1996. 1 In a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll conducted after the terror alert level was raised in February, results showed that the percentage of Americans who said they were very worried that they or a relative would become a victim of terrorism rose even more dramatically outside the Northeast than inside it. 2 In addition, for the first time since the end of WWII, parents expect that life for their children will be worse than it was for them. 3 Yet, despite all the warnings about 3
dangers to our health, the environment, our economy and our lives in general, studies show that overall conditions in the United States are better than they have ever been. So why are we so concerned? There have been numerous perplexing occurrences in the past decade that have justifiably contributed to increased suspicion about the world. Several of these incidents have raised a fear of “being at the mercy of a complex conspiracy with vague but sinister intentions,” 4 and have become deeply ingrained in the popular imagination. As Patrick O’Donnell observed in his book Latent Destinies, “It appears that the trilateral paranoia of the Cold War is now in the process of being internalized, scattered, localized and reiterated at a multitude of sites, from Oklahoma City, Waco and Ruby Ridge to Bosnia, the White House and the security fire walls of the Internet.” 5 The events surrounding the Y2K panic on the eve of the new millennium, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC and the October 2002 sniper slayings in the Washington, DC area, where the entire nation felt somehow involved in the horror, brought an unprecedented level of fear and anxieties about the future into American society. The recent war with Iraq in March 2003 has only spiked apprehensions, resulting in a general mentality ripe for feelings of acute fear and anxiety. However, widespread fear and anxiety is not a new phenomenon, nor is it limited to the United States. In fact, documented studies of paranoia date back to Freud, and instances of extreme anxiety in society are held accountable for such devastating historical atrocities as the Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust. However, while 4
Page 1 and 2: MEDIA INDUCED FEAR AND ANXIETY A Th
Page 3 and 4: MEDIA INDUCED FEAR AND ANXIETY Laur
Page 5 and 6: CHAPTER 4: ENTERTAINMENT………
Page 7: “nothing is what it seems,” and
Page 11 and 12: assault, from fear of contracting c
Page 13 and 14: shootings, many residents of the ar
Page 15 and 16: conducted by the RAND Corporation o
Page 17 and 18: CHAPTER 2: FEAR, ANXIETY AND RISK W
Page 19 and 20: person but signify something entire
Page 21 and 22: Sports show there is a Sports Disas
Page 23 and 24: was suspended for pretending to sho
Page 25 and 26: individual personalities rather tha
Page 27 and 28: used to describe a person’s menta
Page 29 and 30: 11, may cause people to feel anxiou
Page 31 and 32: when the danger is no longer presen
Page 33 and 34: The possibility of recurrence Altho
Page 35 and 36: anxiety. 67 However, it was sociolo
Page 37 and 38: experts in the field of risk. 73 Th
Page 39 and 40: examine the American media, its con
Page 41 and 42: MA: Perseus Books, 1999). 74 Wilkin
Page 43 and 44: Generally, the term media is meant
Page 45 and 46: entertain rather than inform and it
Page 47 and 48: Television is a rapid information s
Page 49 and 50: more evidence of the severity and d
Page 51 and 52: and hazard from the media than they
Page 53 and 54: environment, our neighbors, childre
Page 55 and 56: H. Aaron Cohl asserts that people l
Page 57 and 58: MEDIA EFFECTS Despite evidence that
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of risk factors by presenting graph
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seen most recently dominate people
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outcome rather than probability sec
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viewers are more likely to buy new
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Peril (New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 2
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CHAPTER 4: ENTERTAINMENT Halloween
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television is a contradiction in te
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Why, when people understand that wh
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movie, the news magazine gave the i
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and a missing intern with whom he w
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as a result of watching a movie. Al
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this country. Perhaps we were so bl
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CHAPTER 5: CASE STUDY - SEPTEMBER 1
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Directly after the attacks, many su
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MEDIA’S ROLE A Gallup Poll conduc
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exposure to such violent images. So
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distress, the only variable with si
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from the WTC, victims running from
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on a television drama like Law and
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NOTES 1 Graham. 2 Marshall, Randall
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increase people’s sense of vulner
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1. APPENDIX A How did you first lea
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5. 4. 16 15% 1 1% 2 2% 1 1% 0 0% 10
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15 14% 0 0% 109 100% 7. Check all o
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9. 108 100% Was anyone close to you
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13. 14. 23 21% 2 2% 109 100% How di
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17. Check all of the following symp
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19. 100% Check all of the following
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21. After September 11, how did you
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25. Gender 1 1% 17 15% 29 26% 39 35
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28. Racial Background 14 13% 65 59%
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Allen, Colin. “Real
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Hassett, Afton L. and Leonard H. Si
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Marshall, Marc N. Elliott, Annie J.
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