The future of stupid fears | Bryan Alexander - 0 views
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education media future bryanalexander fear book review
shared by Ed Webb on 13 Jan 19
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Culture of Fear argues that media and political fear-mongering teaches consumers and voters to see problems in terms of stories about heroic individuals, rather than about social or political factors. The contexts get set aside, replaced with more relatable tales of villainous criminals and virtuous victims, which Glassner calls “neurologizing social problems” (217). There is also a curious, quietly conservative politics of the family involved. Such fears emphasize stranger danger, which is actually statistically very rare. Instead, they minimize the far more likely source of harm most American face: our family members (31).
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“news is what happens to your editors.” By that he means “editors – and their bosses… [and] their families, friends, and business associates”(201)
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Our politics clearly adore fear, notably from the Trump administration and its emphasis on immigrant-driven carnage. Our news media continue to worship at the altar of “if it bleeds, it leads.”
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that CNN is the opposite of a fringe news service. Between Fox and MSNBC it occupies a neutral, middle ground. It is, putatively, the sober center. And it simply adores scaring the hell out of us
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What does the likelihood of even more stupid fear-mongering mean for education? It simply means, as I said years ago, we have to teach people to resist this stuff. In our quest to teach digital literacy we should encourage students – of all ages – to avoid tv news, or to sample it judiciously, with great skepticism. We should assist them in recognizing when politicians fire up fear campaigns based on poor facts.
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the negative impacts of such fear – the misdirection of resources, the creation of bad policy, the encouragement of mean world syndrome, the furtherance of racism – the promulgation of real damage