For one of my study’s last assignment I have to start a debate on a social relevant subject. I have chosen the topic fear for terrorism and other social and public crises that involve violence and casualties. Please read the following and post your comments. It would be a great help!
In the years following the September 11 attacks we, citizens of Western countries, have become aware of terrorism. After the bombing in Madrid and London it became apparent that at any time we could be targets of new attacks in our own countries. These attacks took the lives of thousands of people and left deep scars in society. The fear for terrorism increased significantly after the 9/11 attacks. Naturally, we are afraid of (the threat of) massive (political) violence. And with so much media coverage on the terrorism and the war against it is no wonder people are afraid.
Fear is a long lasting and profound result of terrorism. I think fear in society also follows other incidents that cause extensive damage and possibly many casualties (but which are not considered terrorism). Think of the attack on the Royal family in Apeldoorn on Queen’s day 2009 or the recent shooting in a shopping mall in Alphen aan de Rijn. I call these public crisis situations.
Some say the media play a role in creating fear. In his essay “marketing fear” Chermak describes how fear for terrorism is generated by mass media. This is based on four factors. (To shorten the introduction to the topic I have placed the four factors on another page. If you would like to read them, please click here.)
I believe that extensive and manipulative media coverage on terrorism increases our fear for it. I also believe this is true in cases of public crisis situations that involve violence and casualties, such as the attack on Queen’s day and the shooting in Alphen aan de Rijn, but which are clearly no terrorist attacks. Therefore the statement of this debate is:
Extensive media coverage on terrorism and other public crisis situations increases our level of fear for such happenings.
In other words, people’s level of fear for large-scale public violence and threats to their safety increases following extensive media reporting on such events.
Feel free to share your thoughts! They are more than welcome and really help me out for my assignment. Thanks!
Though one… My first thought is that it is not more than logical that we become more afraid of terrorist attacks by watching whatever the television shows us about it, or reading whatever the newspapers tell us about it. After all: they cover the event/crisis, hence making us aware of what damage terrorist attacks can do. However, I believe that the extent of our fear is not due to media at all. In my opinion, we make ourselves and others more and more afraid of potential terrorist treats. Is it not in our nature to be emotional about such things and therefore perhaps blowing it out of proportions? I believe that most of the time the media is not that subjective, they simply inform us about what happened and hardly ever post things like ‘Al Quida will bring the world to an end’ (unless you are reading/viewing some shabby, sensational magazine/network). We just become more afraid and anxious ourselves, because simply more terrorism is an increasing threat… So in short: I have to disagree with the statement that media increases our fear of terrorism, it is just how we feel about it ourselves as is it is not in our nature to stay objective when such horrible things happen…
PS: I don’t think the Alpen a/d Rijn incident was considered a terrorist attack in the media now was it?
Hmmm… I think indeed that the Media increase fear. One of the reasons is that “bad news is good news”for news agencies, as they sell well: people are interested in horror stories of any sort.
What makes terrorism so special is the fact that it could really happen to us, like the recent shooting that happened at a mall in the netherlands, or that shooting in a german school a few years ago.It’s not just happening in countries striken by war, but to ours as well.
Right now in France a father is suspected to have murdered his entire family (wife + 4 children). They were a seemingly normal family. The media hasn’t stopped talking about it since!
So yes, I think the media are increasing our fear of terrorism, and feeding on the war… perfect current example: Mr. Laden’s recent execution, just look how it was mediatised…
I think also that media may increase fear but its a problematic conclusion because what is the media supposed to do, ignore the issue? It’s the journalists job to notify us on news and terrorism is news because it’s so threathning. I would never want to live in a world where the news is kept from us to ‘protect’ us from feeling threathened.
This topic made me think about research recently done amoung the Dutch population where people were asked, how do you feel about the Dutch society as a whole and about your own life. To the first question people responded very worried, society was more dangerous, less economic stability and less social coherence. On the other hand people individually claimed to be very content and gave their own lives very high grades. This shows that is not neccesarly a link between how people about their individual life and about the general state in society. They may not feel threathened themselves but feel society is more threathning. That society is percieved as more threathning could have to with more media attention, but to know this more research has to be done on how media attention to terrorism is percieved.
How do you like my profile pic? hahaha! Made this with Liza Geurts, 100 years ago fro ICM!
Hahaha jaa ik heb ook zo’n pic! Eerste jaar ICM. Had nog nooit SATC gezien, stond ik daar als Carry…
Terrorism by definition is meant to create fear. That’s why public locations are mostly targeted. The extreme media coverage is of course strengtening this ‘fear’. However, the coverage on both terrorism and the other public crisis situations have not necessarily increased my level of fear. Actually, I think we got used to the terroristic attacks. Of course 2001 was a terrible event. But, when this topic now shows up in the media, of new terrorist attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jemen or wherever, it does not increase or fear. We do think its terrible for the people living there and 5 minutes later we almost forgot what we have seen. To me, the media only creates awereness of these topics. and I tend to ask myself why humans would do this to another. Because of these attacks I started to wonder what motivation these people have to do something like this. I am interested in their side of the story, but that’s never highlighted in our media.