Cultivation of Fear Through Media: Analysis to Reveal Relationship between Perception about COVID 19 and Socio-economic Background of Media Consumers

Abstract

COVID-19 is the pandemic that has been experienced by the whole world presently. The present research sought to explore how media is cultivating fear among heavy and light users of upper, middle, and lower socio-economic background. Theoretical support for the present research was taken from the theory of cultivation analysis. Twenty-one residents of Multan belonging to upper, middle and lower socio-economic background were selected through snowball sampling technique and interviewed through WhatsApp by the researchers. The interview data was analyzed through NVIVO 10. Eight themes emerged out of the interview data and it was observed that media was cultivating fear among the users of upper and middle socio-economic backgrounds as they were using media for longer periods of time while media users of lower socio-economic background were not very fearful of this pandemic. The results supported that media has strong cultivation effects regarding COVID-19.