The effects of mass media reports on risk perception and images of victims : An explorative study

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effects of mass media reports on risk perception and images of victims. Study 1, which examined newspaper articles about human deaths, revealed that: (1) the ages of dead persons tended to be reported in headlines when they were very young or very old, and (2) suicides were reported more, while murders were reported less relative to actual rate of occurrence per population. Study 2 conducted through a survey revealed that: (1) the main information source of traffic accidents, fires, suicides, and murders was the mass media, and (2) more than half of respondents had some personal experiences with traffic accidents (more than 80%) and fire (more than 50%). Also, it was apparent that (3) the respondent's estimates and the amount of exposure to mass media reports about the distribution of dead persons over a lifetime period were correlated. The implications of these findings and future problems to be solved were discussed.View full abstract