Creating Fear
Subtitle: News and the Construction of Crisis
By: David L. Altheide
Contributors: Altheide, David
Series: Social Problems and Social Issues; Social problems and social issues
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017
Place of publication: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 236
ISBN-13: 9780203794494; 9781351525282; 9781351525275; 9781351525268
Subjects: Mass media and public opinion; Fear; Mass media; Psychological aspects; Public opinion; SOCIAL SCIENCE; Sociology; General
Description: The creative use of fear by news media and social control organizations has produced a "discurse of fear"--The awareness and expection that danger and risk are lurking everywhere. Case studies illustrates how certain organizations and social institutions benefit from the explotation 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 resutl 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
Table of contents: title: Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Preface; 1 Give the Devil His Due: Fear in Its Place; THE MASS MEDIA AND IDENTITY; NARRATIVES OF IDENTITY AND CRISIS; SOCIAL CONTROL; THE ICONOGRAPHY OF FEAR; RATS AND GUNS; A PREOCCUPATION WITH FEAR; FEAR IN THE COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT; 2 Tracking Discourse; FROM CONTENT TO DISCOURSE; CONCLUSION; 3 The Problem Frame and the Production of Fear; FEAR IN THE COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT; Formats, Frames, and Fear; THE ENTERTAINMENT PERSPECTIVE; The Problem Frame as Entertainment; FRAMING FEAR; AN OVERVIEW OF FEAR; CONCLUSION; title: 4 The Discourse of FearPERCEPTIONS OF FEAR; The Arizona Republic in Perspective; Arizona Republic Sections and Formats; THE TOPICS OF FEAR; Fear Travels; Feared and Fearing; EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT FEAR; THEMES OF FEAR; FEAR AS A RESOURCE; Reactive Fear; Proactive Fear; The Discourse Process; FEAR AS A TOPIC; HELPLESSNESS FUELS SCARINESS; FEAR AND VICTIM; A Hierarchy of Victims; Cultural Differences; Shielding Victims; Victim and Blame; CONCLUSION; 5 Journalistic Interviewing; MEDIA LOGIC; THE POSTJOURNALISM TURN; THE CHANGING AUSPICES OF INTERVIEWING; INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ENTERTAINMENT; title: THE IMPACT OF JOURNALISM BECOMING A PROFESSIONINTERVIEWING AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON; PRIME-TIME TV INTERVIEWING; CONCLUSION; 6 Policing Crime and Fear in the News Media; THE MILITARY-MEDIA COMPLEX; CAPITALIZING ON PUNISHMENT; POLICING HATE; FEMALE SEXUAL OFFENDERS AND THE SEARCH FOR A VICTIM; CONCLUSION; 7 Children and the Discourse of Fear; INTRODUCTION; PARALLEL USE OF FEAR IN THE 1980S; NONPARALLEL USE OF FEAR IN THE 1990S; KIDS AS ABUSED; CHILDREN AS VICTIMIZERS; News Sources and Blameshifting; CONCLUSION; 8 The Lens of Fear; ADJUSTING THE LENS OF FEAR; RISK, DANGER, AND FEAR; title: DEALING WITH FEARVICTIM IDENTITY, OR FUN WITH FEAR; CONCLUSION; References; Index