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Media and Fear

 

            "We have so many fears, many of them off-base, the argument goes, because the media bombard us with sensationalistic stories designed to increase ratings. This explanation of fear is called the media-effects theory."" "Culture of Fear.
             The news is everywhere we look. It's on television, billboards, sidewalks, and in stores. The reason is because the media is trying to reach a great audience. The audience is the entire world. The media wants to keep you updated on current events and wants to keep you interested in what is going on in your society. The media tries to appeal to all types of audiences and will expose or produce any story to boost their ratings. In the media world ratings are everything. Fear can boost ratings. If the news can expose the fears of people, many people would watch or read about it. People want to know everything. People are fascinated by other people's fears or tragedies. Why do people enjoy contact sports? They enjoy them because they can sense the presence of death. In Roman times, people were executed at the Coliseum for entertainment. That thirst for brutality still exists with us. The news uses this and other human qualities as advantages to boost ratings. The main purpose or the presentation of news is to inform or persuade their audience.
             I noticed that the presentation of the news consisted of a list of headlines and each headline was discussed in a certain time period. There were many statistics given for each headline. The news broadcasters seemed to hold back information for some articles. I felt as if we were only meant to know so much. The types of stories they presented varied greatly. It was as if the news was trying to appeal to many different audiences. I was watching the Bay Area channel 2 News. They began by talking about the recall election and did not give sufficient information about what was said by the candidates. They mainly summarized it because they had a lot of headlines to get through.


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