Unnecessary Fear

"Watch enough brutality on TV and you come to believe you are living in a cruel and gloomy world in which you feel vulnerable and insecure. In his research over three decades Gerbner found that people who watch a lot of TV are more likely than others to believe their neighborhoods are unsafe, to assume that crime rates are rising, and to overestimate their own odds of becoming a victim. They also buy more locks, alarms, and- you guessed it- guns, in hopes of protecting themselves. 'They may accept and even welcome,' Gerbner reports, 'repressive measures such as more jails, capital punishment, harsher sentences- measures that have never reduced crime but never fail to get votes- if that promises to relieve their anxieties. That is the deeper dilemma of violence-laden television.'"

This excerpt from Barry Glassner's The Culture of Fear, exposed me to the dangers of the media. I could not agree more with this statement. His argument about the power of the media never occurred to me. I never fully understood how much the media can manipulate stories to their benefit until after reading the excerpt from the chapter.

After reading the article, I found myself recognizing how much the media manipulates and overhypes stories. A few days ago, I was reading an article on Dailymail.com. I read a strange article claiming that a giant meteor was going to hit Earth and we were all going to die within ten years. At first, I was genuinely scared. I had believed the story instantly without hesitation. Then I reflected back on the article: what was their evidence? Where were they getting these ideas? I reread the article again and I realized there was no evidence to support their claim. I then decided to further my investigation by researching online. I read on another website that shared that people were frightened by the article, just like I was. I also discovered that NASA had to eventually step in to squash the unsupported theory. Although this does not specifically relate to violence, it still exemplifies how media can greatly impact the masses.

Yet another example of the power of the media is the coverage of increased racial tension. Many news channels cover stories pertaining to increased tensions between African American men and the police force. In my opinion, covering so many of these stories negatively influences police officers to commit violent acts. I recently saw a statistic that claimed that an African American man was more likely to be arrested than to attend college. I was shocked to hear this. I think this statistic is an example of the influence media has on its viewers.

Nadine Gordimer's short story "Once Upon a Time," is an excellent example of how people are effected by the media. In the story, two parents are going to extraordinary measures to protect their house from external threats which leads them to completely ignore what is going on around them. They begin to focus on the external threat more than the internal problems which causes their son to accidentally kill himself on the wire fence. The wire fence was supposed to be a symbol of safety but ends up hurting more than helping.

To summarize, the media is a powerful tool which can sometimes be used to manipulate its viewers into believing crazy stories so the channel can benefit as a result of the induced fear. However, what I really took from this is how important it is for me to remain skeptical. I should be skeptical of what I read online. I should always check the sources and continue to research before becoming unnecessarily fearful.