New book: Media and the Dissemination of Fear: Pandemics, Wars and Political Intimidation
Media and the Dissemination of Fear: Pandemics, Wars and Political Intimidation
Edited by: Nelson Ribeiro and Christian Schwarzenegger
Part of the Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and IAMCR Series book series. Available here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-84989-4
- Discusses the role of different media in the creation and dissemination of fear
- Examines the mechanisms of persuasion that trigger willingness to accept extreme measures or actions during crises
- Argues that fear is recurrently used by political and social actors to increase their own power in different societies
“This is an outstanding book which will be of interest to media historians and communications scholars around the world. It reveals how fear is incubated, spread and, sometimes, countered through the media in ways that are profoundly illuminating and relevant in the era of Covid.”
—James Curran, Professor of Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London
“This outstanding volume traces the impact of fear, uncertainty – and sometimes related – hope, historically, from World War I to the present and the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, media reporting is deconstructed in much systematic detail which allows understanding continuities and discontinuities of its complex role, locally, glocally, and globally. A must read for scholars and laypeople alike!”
—Ruth Wodak, Emeritus Distinguished Professor, Lancaster University
“Media and the Dissemination of Fear explores its workings across natural disasters, wars, conflicts and health crises over the past 100 years. Although circumstances may have changed, the exploitation of fear as a means of social control and intimidation has not, and this book speaks to the myriad ways in which its damaging currents destabilize individuals and communities, force widespread compliance and entrench enmity and otherness, particularly in association with populist regimes. A thoughtful, important volume that wrestles mightily with the centrality of fear in contemporary life writ large.”
—Barbie Zelizer, Raymond Williams Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Media and Fear—Diachronic, Intermedia, and Transcultural Perspectives on a Toxic and Functional Relationship during Pandemics, Wars, and Political Crises
Nelson Ribeiro, Christian Schwarzenegger
From Black Death to COVID-19: The Mediated Dissemination of Fear in Pandemic Times
Anna Wagner, Doreen Reifegerste
Hebrew Popular Press, Catastrophe Stories, and the Instigation of Fear in Ottoman Palestine
Ouzi Elyada
Fear-Relations: Word War I, Military Authorities, and the International Feminist Peace Movement
Susanne Kinnebrock
Voices for a World In-Between? Exile Media as Transnational Fulcrums Between Confidence and Fear
Christian Schwarzenegger, Gabriele Falböck
Terror, Fear, Disbelief, and Complacency in the Face of Evil: The Reactions of the Hebrew Press in Palestine to the First News on the Extermination of the European Jewry by the Nazis in 1942
Gideon Kouts
The News Media and the Ever-Present Fear in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Thomas Birkner, Aysha Agbarya, Oren Meyers, Rachel Somerstein
Fear of the Spanish Red Danger: Anti-Communist Agitation and Mobilisation in Portugal during the Spanish Civil War
Alberto Pena-Rodríguez
Nazi Broadcasts to a Neutral Country: Disseminating Fear in Portugal during the Second World War
Nelson Ribeiro
Fear of Communism in the Twentieth-Century United States and the Vietnam War
Paul Haridakis
“Beware of Terrorists, Spies and Chaos!”: Stabilization Techniques from the Arab Uprisings
Hanan Badr
Educate Online Through Online Fear: Exploring the Chinese Rumours Online Phenomenon
Gianluigi Negro
Media Logic, Terrorism, and the Politics of Fear
David L. Altheide