COLUMN: Media can play with fears and emotions
Don’t let the news scare you into believing the world is crashing down around you. Just because TV shows and news media say things are bad doesn’t make it so.
People tend to forget that there were other people who went though similar fiscal and political problems we are going though today — it’s nothing new.
The media knows that the scarier they sound the more people watch their programs, read their papers and visit their websites. It’s all too easy for the media to push an agenda using fear created by their alarmist news coverage. Now that’s not to say all media is bad most of it is
very straightforward.
It is well known that jobs are scarce today. Rightfully, the media reports on the state of the economy and job losses. However, sometimes the way that story is presented has as much impact as the content itself.
A Jan. 18, 2011 article on CNN.com said that the city of Camden, New Jersey announced the termination of 168 police officers and 67 firefighters. The article goes on to say that some of the Camden residents are now fearful for
their safety.
My immediate reaction to this information was also one of fear. South Dakota isn’t experiencing the best economic times — as indicated by the near-annual budget cuts — and if police cuts were happening in New Jersey what says they can’t happen in our town next? I was worried that if cuts to police forces become the norm, the crime rate
might skyrocket.
So I gave it some thought as to why the CNN would emphasize the fear residents feel due to the budget cuts. Regardless of their intentions, they made the information sound more
menacing then it really is.
The story to me implied that the lack of police will cause more crime. This is a nice theory, but in reality the absence of law enforcement will probably not affect the crime rate in Camden — according to FBI crime statistics, it was already one of the least-safe places to live in the U.S. People are still going to commit crimes regardless of the amount of police officers on the payroll.
There are a number of Americans who feel that their families and assets are in danger of being just another crime statistic. This is because some in the media and TV shows like “CSI” portray crime as common as sunshine.
Every night on the local news they talk about the newest homicide that hit the community. Every week on the crime shows there is a new murder that is gruesome and unique.
The news and TV shows portray violent crime as a common occurrence. This instills fear into the hearts of Americans who are already worried about every
little thing.
It is the job of the news to inform us as citizens — not to use information to scare us into believing some political agenda. Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, said it best when uttered the words emblazoned on the front of the Neuharth building right here at the University of South Dakota,
“The First Amendment guaranteed a free press. We in the media must make sure it is a
fair one.”
This carries more weight today, when we can access news and video with the touch of
our phones.
Americans are like sheep — believing and following whatever the government or the media, like CNN, says without getting all the facts. And now they want us to believe that we the people are not safe because of a few police cuts? Or just because of a few violent TV shows?
We have survived much worse than what we are experiencing now — despite what the media and politicians keep telling us. We will not roll over and we will not be scared.
Reach columnist Alex Dayan at
