ISBN:
0202306593
,
0202306607
Language:
English
Pages:
XI, 223 S.
,
Ill., graph. Darst.
Series Statement:
Social problems and social issues
DDC:
302.23/0973
Keywords:
Angst
;
Berichtgeving
;
Crises
;
Massamedia
;
Médias - Aspect psychologique
;
Médias et opinion publique - États-Unis
;
Opinion publique - États-Unis
;
Peur - États-Unis
;
Psychologische aspecten
;
Publieke opinie
;
Massenmedien
;
Medien
;
Psychologie
;
Fear
;
Mass media and public opinion
;
Mass media Psychological aspects
;
Public opinion
;
Massenmedien
;
Furcht
;
Angst
;
Wirkung
;
Öffentliche Meinung
;
Nachrichtensendung
;
Öffentlichkeit
;
USA
;
USA
;
USA
;
Massenmedien
;
Öffentliche Meinung
;
Nachrichtensendung
;
Angst
;
USA
;
Öffentlichkeit
;
Massenmedien
;
Furcht
;
Wirkung
Abstract:
The creative use of fear by news media and social control organizations has produced a "discourse of fear"--The awareness and expectation that danger and risk are lurking everywhere. Case studies illustrates how certain organizations and social institutions benefit from the exploitation of such fear construction. One social impact is a manipulated public empathy: We now have more "victims" than at any time in our prior history. Another, more troubling result is the role we have ceded to law enforcement and punishment: we turn ever more readily to the state and formal control to protect us from what we fear. This book attempts through the marshalling of significant data to interrupt that vicious cycle of fear discourse. David Altheide employs a method, which he calls "tracking discourse", to map how the nature and the extent of the use of the word "fear" has changed since the 1980s; how the topics associated with fear, the topics of media discourse, have also changed over the same period (for example, the emphasis "moves" over time across AIDS, crime, immigrants, race, sexuality, schools, and children); and how certain news sources prevail over others, thus protectively insulating themselves from criticism of the premises of their discourse frames.
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