Culture of Fear in America Provided by the Media

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Today, most people do not really care about the right things for their society such as environmental problems or how to improve healthcare system, social programs, and human rights. Instead, they spend most of their time to focus on and discuss about the wrong things such as crime and war around them. Therefore, people become extremely fearful and mistrust toward society. In the 2002 movie, Bowling for Columbine, filmmaker Michael Moore argues that gun violence is caused by the culture of fear that is fed by media by providing examples and reasons that violence has been flourished in America more than any other countries. In today’s society, American people worry too much about the wrong things and not enough about the right things due to TV news programs, TV talk shows, and how media focuses on showing the image of “bad guy” or villains based on race.
News reporters play a significantly important role in scaring American people as well as causing them to worry about negative phenomenon. News programs inform people what are happening around them. However, do those news programs report events that are really happening or not? Roger Johnson, professor of school of Theoretical and Applied Science Ramapo College, illustrates that the news programs tend to select stories for their entertainment value because television is primarily an entertainment medium (210). He also shows the audience is more attracted to programs containing violence (210). Knowing that audience is interested in violence, the broadcasters do not really report the reality; instead, they exaggerate or fabricate the reality by adding more violent details. The frequency of violence on TV is much more than the reality; consequently, American people believe their count...

... middle of paper ...

... fear to people, people should be more critical to understand between what is on TV and reality, so that people can focus more on positive and more necessary things.

Works Cited

Abt, Vicky. "How TV Talk Shows Deconstruct Society." News. News.psu.edu, 1 Mar. 1996. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.
Johnson, Roger N. "Bad News Revisited: The Portrayal of Violence, Conflict, and Suffering on Television News." Arapaho.nsuok.edu. Vice President for Academic Affairs Office, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013.
Johnson, Wendy M., and Graham C.L. Davey. “The Psychological Impact Of Negative TV News Bulletins: The Catastrophizing Of Personal Worries.” British Journal of Psychology 88.1 (1997):85. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Dec. 2013
"PORTRAYAL AND PERCEPTION TWO AUDITS OF NEWS MEDIA REPORTING ON AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN AND BOYS." Heinz.org. Meyer Communications LLC, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.

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