Fear mongering or accurate reporting?

By Marilyn Jones Senior Writer

In this year's hit documentary Bowling for Columbine, filmmaker Michael Moore and author Barry Glassner stroll down to the intersection of Florence and Normandie in South Central Los Angeles. Here is where truck driver Reginald Denny was pulled from his truck and beaten during the Rodney King riots in 1992. Glassner notes that the scene today is peaceful, and the likelihood of anything dangerous happening to him or Moore is remote.

Yet venturing to this location is, in the minds of many, tantamount to crossing a minefield in a war zone. One explanation that many such misperceptions abound, according to Glassner, is that while the murder rate during the period from 1990-1998 in the US declined by 20 percent, news coverage of homicides increased by 600 percent.

Glassner's 1999 book, Culture of Fear, also explains that many stories reported in the media are based on faulty research, which in turn creates an atmosphere of fear. He points out that politicians, advocacy groups, and media sources too often report—and perpetuate—either entirely fabricated stories (such as those of poisoned Halloween candy) or maximize claims about aberrant behavior (for example, school shootings or moms killing kids), without putting these reports into a wider context of underlying social problems.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

PARENTING

A time for caring and nurturing