Media Logic, Terrorism, and the Politics of Fear

Abstract

This chapter examines how entertaining presentations about fear and terrorism are constructed and then define situations and shape social reality. The mass media and social media inform how audiences define reality, perceive social issues, and make political decisions. Decades of research on the nature of media logic and mediation demonstrate the interaction between repetitious images, discourse, and public perceptions. Examples from decades of crime coverage and sensationalized coverage of immigration issues in the United States illustrate how a discourse of fear and audience expectations promoted the rampant politics of fear, including the election of Donald Trump and other repressive leaders. *Forthcoming in Nelson Ribeiro (editor), Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research