A
number of us have been working feverishly on the news coverage
of terrorism in the US and Europe. The remarks in Robinson's
paper are on the mark, but there is an additional connection
that I have tried to make in some modest comments about the
legacy of crime reporting and the production of a "discourse
of fear": the pervasive communication, symolic awareness,
and expectation
that danger and risk are a central feature of everyday life.
(See my book, Creating Fear: News and the Construction of
Crisis (2002).)
A related development is the emergence of "victim"
and "victimization" as a legitimate status. This has
been pursued by entertainment oriented news media. Perhaps
one of the most important developments is the
emergence of a new "Politics of Fear" that links terrorism,
victimization, crime, and social control. The context of crime
reporting proved to be consequential for the
seemingly easy public acceptance of governmental proposals to
expand surveillance and social control.
The resulting mesures reflected and promoted a foundational
politics of fear, which refers to decision-makers' promotion
and use of audience beliefs and assumptions about danger, risk
and fear in order to achieve certain goals.
David Altheide
Arizona State University
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