For The Dispatch Jon Krosnick, an OSU professor of psychology and political science, says the public's reaction depends on whether events seem plausible.
Experts discuss the role of news reports in generating anxieties in the public.
More than 60 years ago, armed Martians landed outside Newark, N.J., sending the United States into a panic. For The Dispatch Jon Krosnick, an OSU professor of psychology and political science, says the public's reaction depends on whether events seem plausible. Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air made up in the attack in their radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds , but the public alarm was genuine. Since that hoax, observers of the news media and journalists themselves have been wary of the power of mass media. As the Year 2000's approach brings more news reports about problems that could arise with computerized technology, some wonder whether the media are overreacting or carelessly inducing anxiety, even panic.