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