I. Media Use of Fear: Profit
A. Fear sells – it attracts audiences
Inherently exciting/stimulating
Underlying facts seemingly important
B. Low production costs
Official press conferences/releases
Limited research: image or event often speaks for itself
Techniques
A. Scenarios Substitute for Fact
Stark imagery
Atypical anecdotes
Distorting with numbers
Distorting the significance of the numbers
Pygmalion effect
B. Presentation
Credibility of presentation makes scary pronouncements seem probable
People with impressive titles
Backed up with select testimonies from people the audience will find sympathetic
Often presented by professional narrators
Amount of coverage
Disproportionate to actual threat
II. Political Uses of Fear: Control
A. Maintain Power: Mask negative political
news and distract public from neglected issues
B. Gain Power: Persuade to support
- Using fear, not evidence, in
one’s argument
"[F]earful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard-line postures. . . .They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities." George Gerbner
“We turn ever more readily to the state and formal control to protect us from what we fear.” David Altheide, Creating Fear
Techniques
A. Paid advertisements
B. PR: press conference, news releases, 3rd party advocacy, staged events,
etc.
III. Symbiosis
Media use fear for profit
Politicians use fear to gain and maintain control
Media use politician's fear mongering ads and PR for their own profit
and this furthers the politician's control