One shortcoming of the media is that they present facts outside their contexts, and leave evaluation to the public. Media content is influenced by real risks but biased towards the dramatic, while entertainment fiction is filled with violence and other depictions of hazards. Media are too diverse to be used in general ways. The only comprehensive theory used by psychological media researchers is Bandura's social learning theory, while the only larger-scale framework for understanding risk perception is the social amplification theory. The impersonal impact hypothesis states that hazard information will have different impacts on the societal and personal risk levels.
Availability has an impact on risk perception.
What is available as information about risks is often taken from the media. The media express themselves in a manner that is understandable, not with quantitative measures, but qualitative statements and a micro instead of macro perspective. Different kinds of mass media have different impacts. Sheer amount of even positive media coverage influences public opinion negatively. Our perceptions are far from stable, and much research into media have found effects that might be very temporary.