Discourse Of Fear Research Articles

It could be my son! ‘Himpathy’ and the male fear defence in rape trials

AbstractWhy do legal professionals mention their sons when discussing a new consent‐based rape law? Drawing on feminist legal studies and sociology of emotions, this article investigates a discourse of male fear of rape accusations among Swedish legal professionals and how defence lawyers strategically employ it. The analysis shows that a male fear defence is deployed to evoke a specific kind of sympathy termed ‘himpathy’ among judges. The male fear discourse serves as a himpathy resource to problematize the implications of the new rape law and to explain irrational behaviour from men accused of rape, instilling doubts about the complainant's credibility, suggesting false accusations, and creating an imagined ‘ruined’ future for the accused man if convicted, including his and his relatives’ shame over the rapist stigma. The findings highlight the role of background emotions in legal practice concerning rape and how the law remains ‘himpathetic’ despite radical consent‐based rape legislation.

‘I am on Guard’: The Making of Race, Gender and Affect in Human-Dog Relations in South Africa

This article will analyse human-dog relations in the post-apartheid White South African suburbs to show how they operate in the production of racial and gendered difference. The analysis draws primarily on my experience as a White woman growing up in the suburbs and my work as a dog walker, as well as interviews with the owners of two dog day-cares in Cape Town. Given this locatedness, the article tracks the affective and biopolitical effects of human-dog relationality to consider how they work in the socio-spatial structuring of the White suburbs. To begin, it uses Donna Haraway’s understanding of relation across difference in interspecies ‘becoming’, augmenting this with Harlan Weaver and Sarah Ahmed’s respective theorisations of the work of affect between bodies. It outlines White discourses of fear around crime and security and describes the spatial organisation of the suburb, which informs dogs’ socialisation/enculturation with White people, and their hostility towards Black people. As such, suburban dogs become part of a racialised species kinship, in which they are cast as White people’s companions, while protecting private property and White bodies. Drawing on Ahmed and Fanon’s work on phenomenology, the paper considers how dogs reproduce the historico-racial schema so that Black subjects are made to feel vulnerable in White space. Finally, it looks at gendered racialised narratives of threat and the construction of White women as objects of protection in relation to the imagined threat of Black men. By analysing these modes of relation, this paper hopes to show how interconnectedness yields an ethical responsibility towards others, across differences of race and species.

The Role of Language during the Pandemic: A Mixed-method Exploration of Discourse of Fear and Sinophobia

The Role of Language during the Pandemic: A Mixed-method Exploration of Discourse of Fear and Sinophobia

Viral Fear or Panic Myth? Emotions in Ebola News and Social Media Responses

The COVID‐19 pandemic has catalyzed debates about how the public and leaders respond to health threats and the role that the media and emotions play in these responses. Predating COVID‐19, the 2014 Ebola outbreak can serve as a case to examine the constructions and pervasiveness of fear discourse and other emotions in news and social media. In this mixed‐method study, we examine fear discourse in web‐based and traditional newspaper headlines and emergent emotions in social media data (Twitter) during the peak of Ebola coverage. Users discuss fear on Twitter in a variety of ways and there was an increase in Tweets following the first Ebola case in the United States. However, it is humor, not fear, that is the most dominant theme in Twitter responses. Claims by health leaders and media scholars, that information technology and social media spread fear, receive limited support. Prevalence of different emotions vary across format (headlines and social media) and have important implications for understanding the myths and realities of public responses to health threats.

Discourse of Fear in the Social Semiotic Representation of the Novel Coronavirus in English Language Newspapers

Discourse of Fear in the Social Semiotic Representation of the Novel Coronavirus in English Language Newspapers

Interfacing the semiosis of affect and crowdsourced spatialities in the context of post-panoptic surveillance. A case study of Safecity app

ABSTRACT The current study investigates the intersection between crowdsourcing apps and postdigital affective polarization of online communities as manifested in the mobile app Safecity. The main thesis is that the embodied, affective semiosis, as enacted by the app algorithmic agency and participants’ testimonials, produces a negative discourse of fear that may regulate the spatial actions of the putative app users. Safecity algorithms discursively frame, shape, and sort the app contents, contributing to the construction of new spatial repertoires. The resulting space is of a particular hybrid spatiality. First, it is divided down by being algorithmically entextualized as abstract de-territorialized space. Second, it is reassembled in different timescapes by different participants through a series of data flows. The ways in which sporadic incidents of harassment are recorded by past participants and then (re)interpreted by algorithmic rationality, the study concludes, should be treated as may be having consequences beyond warning other users, potentially altering larger spatial realities and instantiating ideologically-based spatial inequalities.

The Use of Fear Discourse on Twitter: A Comparative Analysis of Political Leaders

İnsanları “ben” olmaktan çıkararak “biz” olmaya iten korku, toplumsal yapının oluşmasında ve bu yapıdaki yöneten-yönetilen ilişkilerinde rol oynayan temel ve belki de en güçlü duygudur. Bu duygu yönetenler ve yönetmek isteyenler tarafından halkın desteğini ve rızasını alarak iktidar alanlarını kazanmak, bu alanları korumak ve genişletmek amacıyla kullanılmaktadır. Sağlık, ekonomi, terörizm, savaş, demokrasi ve benzeri konulardaki korku kaynakları özellikle seçim dönemlerinde insanların sevk ve idarelerini sağlamak amacıyla daha yoğun şekilde kullanılmaktadır. Çok kısa sürede geniş kitlelere erişilebilmesini sağlayan sosyal medya platformları ise belirli amaçlar doğrultusunda oluşturulan bu korkuların yayılımına hizmet etmektedir. Özellikle toplumsal hareketlerin ve siyasi konuların mecrası haline gelen Twitter, aynı zamanda söz konusu korkuların üretildiği, dağıtıldığı ve tüketildiği bir mecradır. Bu bağlamda çalışmada, korkunun siyasi çıkarlar doğrultusunda kullanılmasına açıklık getirmek amacıyla Cumhur ve Millet İttifakı’nda yer alan siyasi parti liderlerinin 2023 Türkiye Cumhurbaşkanlığı Seçimine hazırlık döneminde paylaştıkları tweetler içerik analizi tekniği ile incelenmiştir. İki haftalık zaman diliminde paylaşılan tweetlerle sınırlı olan bu çalışma, korkunun Twitter ve siyasetle bağdaştırılarak incelendiği nadir çalışmalardan bir tanesi olması nedeniyle önem taşımaktadır. Analizler sonucunda, makul oranda kullanılması halinde korkunun daha geniş kitlelere erişebilmeyi sağladığı, ancak korku kültürünün siyasi başarıda tek başına belirleyici bir role sahip olmadığı görülmüştür.

‘AI 이미지’ 담론에 관한 질적 연구

This study analyzed Internet comment discourse on ‘AI images’ using generative artificial intelligence to find out what subjective perceptions and meanings actual recipients share and how they form discourse. We also sought to gain understanding for the development of convergent knowledge in the design field. To this end, text analysis, discourse performance analysis, and sociocultural practice analysis were conducted according to Fairclough's critical discourse analysis method. As a result, the 'AI image discourse' in our society competes with the 'discourse of fear' created by the media and the 'discourse of expectations' created by recipients, and at the base of it, the 'discourse of artistry' centered on criticism of modern art coexists. was able to find out, and based on this, implications and implications were revealed.

Where are the Parents? The Drama of Youth Crime in the Media an Australian Focussed Discourse Analysis

The language in media stories surrounding the high drama of juvenile and youth crime is very alarmist and continues to fuel political debates and demands for tougher penalties rather than the proverbial slap on the wrist for young offenders. Further there are fear discourse elements that suggest that for some politicians cited in the daily news cycle as being “out of control”. In opposition to this fear and alarmist discourse in the notion that the media news cycle highlights youth crime for its sensationalist perspectives and poor reporting of youth courts and their judgments in such matters. A comprehensive discourse analysis of youth crime reporting may suggest that media must take the blame for some of the inappropriate focus on youth crime as being selective. This yearlong study suggests that the public need more information to see for themselves whether the current moves and political debates need to be reviewed and refreshed. In addition, family supports are a signal to consider as presented by expert authorities involved in decision making and reporting.

Caring for melting glaciers

Melting glaciers and snow fields have become one of the strongest symbols of global climate change, instigating last-chance tourism and rallying cries for climate action from activists. In this sense, retreating glaciers act as charismatic entities, appealing to the public’s feelings and imaginations. The melting cryosphere is also a subject for scientific enquiry, providing the knowledge needed to establish the rates at which glaciers are declining and how they interlink and interact with other natural and human systems. Here, by applying a relational ontology rooted in human geography and science and technology studies, we show how melting glaciers and snow fields serve as charismatic boundary objects that enable tourism actors to raise awareness about climate change and push for action. Specifically, we conducted interviews and surveys with mountain guides and other actors involved in glacier tourism in local communities surrounding two of the major ice caps in Norway, Jostedalsbreen and Folgefonna, and found that the melting glaciers serve to reconcile different knowledge systems, allowing for the coexistence of affect, imaginaries, and scientific rationality. Thus, with mountain guides as the catalysts, melting glaciers contribute to a shift from a discourse of fear to one of care.

Discourses of Fear on Climate Change in International Human Rights Law

Abstract Discourses of fear on climate change are pervasive. International human rights law frequently refers to climate change as one of the most serious threats to human rights, and this language of threat reveals a discourse of fear. Fearful representations of climate change are justified by scientific data and can be effective in drawing attention to the issue and incentivizing necessary action. However, psychologists and communications experts have demonstrated that fear can also lead to disengagement, ‘climate change fatigue’ and active opposition to climate change policies. By invoking a discourse of fear on climate change, human rights actors are not only reflecting accurate climate science but also engaging in emotional rhetoric. The discourse of fear that presents climate change itself as the main threat to human rights, moreover, contributes to framing climate change primarily as a physical and scientific problem and obscures other important dimensions of climate change. Those individuals engaging with international human rights law must acknowledge the rhetorical and emotive power of the language they speak and engage more seriously with the literature on discourses of fear and their effects on a broad general audience. Only then can we truly work towards effective action on climate change, supported by international law.

Discourses of Fear in Online News Media: Implications for Perceived Risk of Travel

This paper analyzes the role of Canadian online news media in framing travel during the pandemic. The article applies Altheide’s concept of the problem frame to reflect how news media contribute to the emergence of a highly rationalized problem that, in turn, generates a discourse of fear. While the impacts of COVID-19 on tourism have been extensively examined within tourism scholarship, less attention has been devoted to the impact of news media. Because travel and the pandemic are heavily intertwined, discourse analysis can help process media narratives, furthering our understanding of their role in influencing perceived risk of travel. A critical discourse analysis of over 100 online news articles was conducted using thematic analysis to uncover themes in Canadian media sources and to explore how the media have framed travel during the pandemic. The role of online news media in promoting fear was communicated through the themes of anxiety, antitrust, avoidance, and animosity. The role of the media in producing the problem frame in the context of travel was examined as well as its implications for perceived travel risk and tourism demand. The power dynamics between media, government, and the citizens it serves are also discussed.

Covid-19 in the Mass Media Through the Lens of South African Editorial Cartoons: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACTThis study explored the main themes present in South African editorial cartoons related to Covid-19 published in 2020 to examine how they portrayed the societal discourse around the pandemic. Our data set of 1196 single-frame editorial cartoons, created by 19 cartoonists in three languages and published in 24 publications over the course of 2020, shows that Covid-19 was a pertinent topic for South African cartoonists. Thematically, “politics and government” dominated as broad themes, while other pertinent themes were “society and social consequences”, “economic impacts” and “health”. Politics and politicians were prominent, but science and scientists were represented only rarely. In terms of tone, the cartoons were predominantly negative, with fear as a frequently used emotional appeal. Very few cartoons contained educational messages, but most did depict the virus and face masks, which could have heightened public awareness about health-related issues. We conclude that editorial cartoons added to the media coverage of the pandemic, often adding to general media discourses of fear and anxiety, and therefore it is likely that these cartoons influenced public sentiment. Furthermore, through their focus on politicians, these cartoons added to the politicisation of the pandemic, but made only a minor contribution to public education and the combating of misinformation.

An onion with layers of hope and fear: A cross‐case analysis of the media representation of Tor Network reflecting theoretical perspectives of new technologies

AbstractThe Onion Router (Tor) is a sophisticated web browser accompanied by an encrypted network that enables online anonymity, protecting people's privacy. Adopted by many as a counter‐surveillance mitigation around the world, legitimate users of Tor include the military, journalists, whistle‐blowers, and citizens from authoritarian regimes. This article shows that the data protection offered by Tor is consistently associated to criminal and anti‐social uses by the media. This research looks at the British press representation of Tor conducting a thematic analysis of articles published by six newspapers between 2008 and 2017. This analysis connects the press coverage to three theoretical approaches: moral panics, technological ambivalence, and liberation technology. This research demonstrates through three case studies that the media reproduces theoretical discussions about new technologies on Tor's portrayal, presenting cases with only positive, only negatives and both positive and negative uses. However, examples of optimistic views of Tor are rare, and the press coverage focuses mainly on the criminal uses, especially crypto markets and child pornography. Overall, the British press ignores a culture of surveillance and spreads a discourse of fear through a recurrent connection of Tor to horrifying uses, undermining any potential positive outcomes.

WAR IN UKRAINE: HUMOR VS FEAR (COMMUNICATIVE AND PRAGMATIC ASPECT)

The article presents material on the peculiarities of the linguistic representation of the fight against fears of war in the modern Ukrainian language (using the example of posts on the Facebook social network and other Internet sources). The following methods were used for the research: linguistic observation and description of linguistic phenomena, text decoding method, comparison, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, continuous sampling method. The article traces the evolution of the discourse of fear in general and in the life of a modern Ukrainian in particular. The study describes the system of emotional and psychological images expressing war fears and verbal means of overcoming them. The main purpose of using humor turns out to devalue fears, so the fears themselves and the negative characters associated with them are depicted in comical, uncomfortable situations. It has been proven that the means of humor in its most diverse manifestations (irony, satire, trolling, banter) permeate all resources of Ukrainian language thinking: dictionary, grammar, orthographic means, quotation thesaurus, linguistic and sociocultural stereotypes, language. norms and registers of speech. From a communicative and pragmatic point of view, images of putin, the aggressor country of russia, russian invaders, etc., were analyzed. It was established that some names form semantic microsystems and branched synonymous series (stereotypical names of russia, russians, and putin himself). As the analysis showed, a significant number of new creations, obscene and euphemistic vocabulary perform primarily protective (health-preserving), evaluative-reflective and integrative (socially unifying) functions, since they are primarily intended to calm, encourage Ukrainians and maintain at least a relative mental balance and at the same time help to sort out feelings, condemn the enemy and brace up to keep struggling on the way to victory. The study of the mechanisms of dispelling fear and means of overcoming it in the modern Ukrainian language have contributed to the knowledge of the connection between the people's worldview and their language and the national linguistic picture of the world.

‘Listen to your fear’: how fear discourse (re)produces gendered sexual subjectivities

This article explores the interrelations between gender and fear, based on the hypothesis of sexual fear being produced as a feminised emotion in discourse. Empirical analyses of historically contingent constructions of sexual fears from 1961–2021 in the advice pages of the popular German youth magazine Bravo show how fear has been produced as a central technique governing feminine sexuality, by far surmounting the importance of either feminine love or desire. The results point to historically specific constructions of feminised sexual dangers, developing from premarital pregnancy in the 1960s, emotional suffering because of premature coitus in the 1980s and 1990s, to digitalised sexual practices in the 21st century. Feminised constructions of sexual risks and fears render feminine subjects as passive, vulnerable and in need of protection while simultaneously producing masculine subjects as actively sex seeking and potentially dangerous. The results also indicate that discursive delegitimisation of feminine sexual fear may equally contribute to re-establishing sexual inequality by pressuring girls to be sexually available. I argue, therefore, that it is not sufficient to analyse constructions of gendered subjects as being either fearful or fearless. Instead, the reconstruction of discursive model practices governing subjects to manage sexual fears is key to disentangling the complex nexus of gender and fear. The investigation of historical transformations of sexual fear discourses contributes to tracing both dynamics and continuities in gendered power relations, thereby illustrating the central role of fear in classic sociological research themes of inequality and power relations.

Towards a general sociology of fear: a programmatic answer to crucial deficits of the contemporary fear discourse

Towards a general sociology of fear: a programmatic answer to crucial deficits of the contemporary fear discourse

Masculinity as a ‘hard small cage’? Reflections from Chimamanda Adichie’s We should all be feminists

With data from YouTube, this paper examines some masculinity issues raised by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her TEDx talk ‘We should all be feminists’ and some selected interviews. She problematizes the masculine ideal of suppressing emotions and acting tough and uses them to gauge how masculinity can be described as a ‘cage’. To exemplify how this ‘cage’ might look like in reality, I draw on evidence from the literature on masculinity and men’s health as well as data from an unpublished document on discourses of fear and anxiety among male COVID-19 survivors in Ghana. Using the concept of hegemonic masculinity, I argue that the plethora of evidence in the literature suggest that (hegemonic) masculine norms indeed constrain men in ways that may have dire consequences, not only for their ego, but also for their health; hence, Chimamanda’s call to change the existing discourse is in order. Focusing on the ‘cage’ metaphor (including its qualifiers), however, I question Chimamanda’s description of masculinity since it suggests as though there is no room for contestation – something which weakens her own call for changing the narrative. The paper therefore proposes going beyond the kind of cage Chimamanda equates masculinity with, to make way for the needed interventions.

The figure of the fake doctor in the era of covid-19: rereading Molière

With the emblematic figures of false doctors, the rereading of The imaginary patient (2012) and The Doctor despite him (2018) reveals a reality corroborating medical imposture through false doctors. The theatrical piece synthesizes a certain number of real facts, which accentuate the doubt on medicine; and the inability of science to overcome human disaster. Illness, like the current covid-19 pandemic, constitutes in theatrical poetics a comic variation on the theme of human ignorance. Our article is part of a hermeneutic approach and is inspired by the socio-analytical approach of Pierre Bourdieu, based on the interpretation of the sociolects and idiolects present in the work. A way of understanding the symbolic significance of a discourse of fear and hope in the theatrical environment. The study on the figure of the fake doctor in the era of covid-19 aims primarily to go beyond the discursive framework of a comic fable for an ethical reflection on man and his faith in science. Keywords: doctors, theatre, patients, covid-19, pandemic.

Navigating fear and care: The lived experiences of community-based health actors in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic

The activities of community-based health actors are widely recognized as critical to pandemic response; yet, there exists a lack of clarity concerning who is included in this ecosystem of actors and how these actors experience the complexity of delivering community-level care in the context of a public health emergency. The objectives of this study were (1) to characterize the lived experiences of community-based health actors during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines; and (2) to identify opportunities for further supporting these critical actors in the health workforce. Virtual semi-structured interviews were conducted (January–February 2021) with 28 workers employed by a Philippines-based non-governmental organization (NGO) to explore their lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were analyzed thematically using a hybrid inductive-deductive coding process, informed by Tronto's conceptualization of an ethic of care. Lived experiences among study participants were shaped by discourses of fear and care, and the interaction between these two affects. Participants reported everyday experiences of fear: NGO workers' fears of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 to others; perceived fear among community members where they worked; and fears around COVID-19 testing, recognizing the personal and social implications (e.g. stigma) of a positive test. Amid fear, participants had everyday experiences of care: care was a powerful motivator to continue their work; they felt supported by a caring organization that implemented safety protocols and provided material supports to those in quarantine; and they engaged in self-care practices. These findings contribute to understanding the ecosystem of actors involved in community-based health care and engagement efforts and the challenges they encounter in their work, particularly in a pandemic context. We highlight implications for civil society organizations charged with protecting the mental and physical well-being of their workers and describe how these actions can contribute to local health systems strengthening.