Nature of Mass Communication and Media Construction of Fears

Abstract

The research examined correlation between essential characteristics of mass communication, caused by its nature, and origin, and spread of fears and anxieties in society. We analyzed the role of such essential components of mass communication as subjects of mass communication, features of mass information, its production and distribution, media news in causing fears and anxieties. Academic works covering the problems of mass communications were theoretical-methodological basis of research. Results of the leading state sociological services’ surveys and regional researches were used as empirical basis for research. We used comparative analysis and secondary data analysis. The study also looked at the roles of mass media's founder and journalist in the development of audience’s fears. The study highlighted that the journalist’s perception of an audience, the idea of social mission of journalism, audience's attitude towards journalistic activity transformed under the influence of commercialization of all aspects of social life in the post-Soviet Russia and it played a crucial role in emergence of anxieties and fears. The study analyzed the impact of information entropy on generation and circulation of population's fears. We found that, on the one hand, media become means of stabilizing public attitudes in crisis situations, and, on the other hand, controversial image of social reality created by media produces state of confusion and provokes growth of population's anxieties and fears. Analysis of the news' role in creating fears and anxieties is based on the idea of their non-normativity that deroutinize everyday reality, which may also happen due to creating a show of catastrophic events by the media.