False Worries

"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 quote from the book The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner tells about his opinions on news media and how it can make us "come to believe [we] are living in a cruel and gloomy world in which you feel vulnerable and insecure." In my opinion, I do think that the media can easily do that, because there are so many journalists and news channels such as CNN, NBC, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, the New York Times, the LA Times, Newsweek, and so many others. Each can have their own story on one topic, even if each news company is talking about the same issue. They can either really exaggerate something (such as CNN with ebola in 2014) or make something a lesser deal than it actually is. One thing I saw of this was once I was on Buzzfeed and they had an article about the supposed "end of the world" on September 23, 2015. Of course, this spooked me, as does every other time I hear the world is going to end, and so I did my own research. Well it was, of course, false, and many people really exaggerated it, even religious extremists. What is supposed to happen is a 2-mile-wide meteor will crash in Puerto Rico, causing a geographical split of North America. The California coast would fall into the ocean, causing cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego to be destroyed entirely. However, this won't happen. NASA eventually got involved in the situation, saying that they haven't seen a meteor of that size anywhere, making it impossible. But just how Buzzfeed made people convinced of how the world was going to end before specifying why it would happen and the causes, almost makes it distrustful. 

Of course extreme focus on one subject for weeks upon weeks, such as CNN's intensive coverage on ebola in 2014, and all those doctors who contracted it and (stupidly) came back to the United States. When news sources talk about potential and life-threatening catastrophes over and over again, it will make people afraid to even leave their own homes, and may accept "repressive measures such as more jails, capital punishment..." In my opinion, if you really believe a news story, do some extensive research and see if different news source's stories add up, and make sure that something isn't as big as a deal as the media wants to be.

So do I agree with Barry Glassner's argument between fear and media? In a sense, I do, as the media can be so intensive about one subject that people can easily believe it, as these people are our source of news. But to prevent this reluctancy to go outside your home because you're afraid some person is going to run up to you and shoot you is absurd, especially over one news story. Do your own research, and find things out for yourself with more than just the story from the media.