Premium
Some Pertinent Questions on Collective Violence and the News Media
Author(s) -
Lang Gladys Engel,
Lang Kurt
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1972.tb00006.x
Subject(s) - news media , media coverage , affect (linguistics) , function (biology) , political science , criminology , social psychology , psychology , public relations , sociology , media studies , law , communication , evolutionary biology , biology
How responsible the coverage of conflict and confrontation by the news media is for the violence in contemporary American society involves at least four separate issues. (1) Do general news practices help create violence‐prone situations? (2) What effect does the presence of TV and other news media in such situations have on the likelihood that violence will erupt? (3) What impact do news reports of violence already in progress have on its subsequent spread or abatement? (4) Are predictions of violence more likely to become self‐fulfilling or self‐defeating? The information available suggests that the media are rarely a major influence on the amount of violence in any specific situation and that they function as much to deter as to incite violence. Yet, if media reports of both actual and potential violence affect expectations, then this will influence the nature of public protest as well as the official response to it and to other situations where the possibility of violent confrontation must be reckoned with.