Research Proposal: Fear Mongering Nature of Media

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amongst who is most impacted and the extent to which this is by news and entertainment mass media such as film, television, print and radio.

Gebotys, R., Roberts, J., & DasGupta, B. (1988). News media use and public perception of crime seriousness. Canadian Journal of Criminology, 30, 3–16.

This also takes a look at public perception on crime seriousness, as a product of mass media crime reportage. It takes an interesting look at how a group of respondents measured their exposure to news media and their relative perception of seriousness of a variety of crimes.

Lowry, Dennis T., Tarn Ching Josephine Nio, and Dennis W. Leitner. (2003) “Setting the public fear agenda: A longitudinal analysis of network TV crime reporting, public perceptions of crime, and FBI crime statistics." Journal of Communication, 53.1 : 61-73.

This piece highlights a very specific portion of scaremongering media: the networked TV reportage of crime, and its function of prioritising crime as the national crises agenda above others such as poverty, underemployment or other economic trauma.

McCombs, M., & Shaw, D. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36, 176–185.

Core text that examines the process of news media in displaying and broadcasting particular content and how this shapes political reality. Also a useful look at the importance attached to an issue determined by the ‘volume’ of the piece, the amount of information in a news story and its position on the hierarchy of the day’s news.

Macmillan, A., Roberts, M., Woodcock, J., Aldred, R., Goodman, A. (2016) Trends in local newspaper reporting of London cyclist fatalities 1992-2012: the role of the media in shaping the systems dynamics of cycling, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2016, 86, 137

This critical article sheds an interesting light on another visible effect of fear mongering media, but on the complex feedback loops that the media create when highlighting or choosing to ignore particular subject matter. Here it is directed at cyclists in London, where the proportion of fatalities involving cyclists which was covered by the networked news media rose by twelvefold over 1992-2012, whereas the same was not accounted for by motorcyclists by the media.

Niederdeppe, J., Franklin Fowler, E., Goldstein, K., Pribble, J. (2010) Does Local Television News Coverage Cultivate Fatalistic Beliefs About Cancer Prevention?, Journal of Communication, 60, 2

Takes a cross-sectional look at reports and studies that television news media cultivate fatalistic beliefs about cancer prevention amongst U.S. adults despite the fact that quite a vast proportion of cancer deaths are preventable.

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