It’s a scary world outside. Past the comforts of my tiny, messy dorm room, danger lurks at every turn. People from foreign lands plot to wipe me and my country off the map. Even getting into a Toyota is akin to dancing with death. Or that’s at least what the media would have you believe. To me, news today has increasingly become a stream of cautionary tales and exaggerated warnings.
Every time you flip on the channel, you are greeted with another shark attack, deadly car accident or plane crash. While terrible tragedies such as the airplane crash that killed Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski and the mine disaster in West Virginia certainly warrant coverage and worldwide exposure, I cannot help but feel that the news often relies too much on stories that deal with tragedy and manufacture fear for the sake of ratings. Every time I turn on the television, another tragedy has occurred overnight and my own sense of security is assaulted. Even against my own judgment, I can’t help but listen to these news reports and become engrossed in the manufactured melodrama.
Eventually, I see others and often find myself incorporating their warnings into my own daily life and worrying about things that prove irrational. A great example is the blitz of coverage that surrounded the outbreak of swine flu last year. While swine flu is a serious illness, I felt it was truly overblown and turned into an all-out plague of fear. Warnings over the safety of products are incredibly important to consumers, but many times they are overblown and only incite irrational panic.
In addition to this, ever since I can remember, television shows that deal with crimes, murders and the like have worked constantly to bring other peoples’ pain into your home and bring dramatic elements to crimes. These elements, often created through the use of haunting music, the dulcet tones of Bill Kurtis and/or the ghostly visage of Keith Morrison, only serve to exaggerate and intensify the fear of the world outside of our doors. It is easy to understand why news organizations broadcast such personal tales of tragedy. Crimes committed against innocents are heart wrenching. They force the viewer to watch the events out of a shared sense of humanity and horror.
It often seems that the more gruesome and bizarre the sad event is, the more excessive the coverage. However, exploiting personal suffering and pain for ratings and in the name of creating manufactured drama only serves as a catalyst to creating panic in an already fearful America. Creating news reports covering and warning of dangers in the world, along with broadcasting of personal stories of crime and deviance, has the combined effect of portraying the world outside our doors as one fraught with threats and filled with strangers. Too often, I feel like the media sensationalizes stories and fabricates a world that is exponentially more perilous than the one we live in. This is not to say that there are no dangers that we have to look out for. Victims of crime will tell you to always be aware of your surroundings, especially at night. Driving a car is a daily event that can, and unfortunately sometimes does, end in tragedy.
Personally, I strongly advise people to cover their ears when Owl City or Ke$ha comes on the radio. While there are dangers in the world, I have a problem with television news and other shows creating what I see as manufactured fear. We must remind ourselves that the world outside is often not the one shown on television and to have a little faith and trust in fellow people.
Joshua Lee is a political science sophomore. His column appears every other Wednesday.
