One of our biggest conclusions and about fear in the media is that fear correlates strongly with business. Regardless of the platform most major news companies are out to make a profit. IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS and TIME IS MONEY. So if you want your headlines to win you need to get it out first and it needs to have some umph. Your headline needs to feed on the emotions of the viewer and what better way than to exaggerate and infuse some fear within your story. In today’s modern world information alone isn’t enough. The story needs to be exciting and entertain. Think of CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, and other similar news corporations as infotainment factories. Wonder why newspapers are going out of style? Because they’re boring. But stick a news anchor in front of a green screen with catchy graphics and summarized stories and you’ve got an audience that comes back night after night. If you add fear into your story it makes it personal because it conveys the sense of possible threat and insures the audience returns the next night to find out if “everything will be okay” and what “new culprits popped up today”.
In the media today there is a term called the fear tactic that plagues the minds of the people observing. The research my partner and I have inquired could change the shape of media literacy forever. Everyone in this great nation absorbs content through a media platform. So, it is understandable that they may have seen something fear inducing sometime before. With technology the way it has grown, the ability to have this certain method presented only becomes stronger. Social media for example is a way for you to communicate with several people. However, it is also a way for political campaigns, businesses, and other groups to communicate their points of view, or their product. Those who consume social media are at high risk of seeing something that causes fear. About 84.7% of people on our surveys said that they’ve been at least concerned or uncomfortable while browsing social media, because of these factors. With how the current social climate is reacting, and with the approaching presidential campaign, I am 100% certain that every media platform will be controlled by people with opinions. Opinions that could change you, people close to you, and even everyone.
However, this can be easily prevented. The one key word I can recommend is research. Research the topics that have had an impression on you. Don’t let what you hear or see effect you entirely based off of how unsettling it may be. Do some research. Maybe if a company says your health will decline if you don’t purchase the product, then don’t just believe it. Do some research on it. We beg of you. Please help us change the path that media literacy is going down, and help us combat the looming fear tactic in our feeds.