Sweden This is a survey of research on how media influence risk perception, concentrating on empirical psychological findings and their theoretical underpinnings. Most researchers believe in the importance of media for people's beliefs and actions, even though this has been refuted as overstated. Studies directly addressing media influence on risk perception are scarce. 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.