Mass Communication and Fear Readings

Next week I’m going to be guest lecturing in a class about the nature of fear.  So hear are several readings that deal with the notion of how we deal with fear and the media:

• George Gerbner on why we should be concerned about media violence.
  It’s not why you think. A couple of thought provoking articles from the man who came up with the Mean World Syndrome:
  • Reclaiming Our Cultural Mythology: Television’s global marketing strategy creates a damaging and alienated window on the world, by George Gerbner
  •  TV violence and the art of asking the wrong question, by George Gerbner
• Missing Pretty White Girls Syndrome
  Why are we so worried about abduction and murder of pretty white girls and women?
• The Fear of 50,000
  Several years ago I got interested in how journalists use the number 50,000 to portray scary things.  Here are two great stories from NPR’s On The Media about that scary number.
  Prime Number
  Return to Prime Number 

(Updated 1/31/19)