Work

Terrorism Coverage and the Fear of Terrorism

Year: 2013

Type: preprint

Abstract: Taking the terror out of terrorism is the surest way to make this form of violence unappealing, but the strategies for achieving this goal are unclear. This project examines the potential for the mass media to desensitize the public to acts of terrorism. The media is usually seen as advancing the interests of terrorist organizations by heightening public anxieties about future terrorism, but work on “fear extinction” suggests that frequent exposure to material about terrorist activity may have the opposite effect. We test this argument with an experiment designed to gauge the effects of exposing people to different doses of terrorism coverage on a range of human emotions.

Source: SSRN Electronic Journal

Authors: Aaron M. Hoffman, Chris Kowal, Jose Kaire de Francisco

Institution: Purdue University West Lafayette

Language: English

Topic: Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W1526538296

Cites: 36

Cited by: 4

Related to: 10