Does it disturb you when the News tries to frighten you into watching it?
I've noticed for quite sometime that many of my local television news stations tend to have commercials that are meant to sensationalize or frighten you so that you will watch their broadcast. They use statements like "How your children could be kidnapped right now." "Someone could be ripping you off right now." "What your children are doing that could kill them right now." Now these statements I wrote are made up but often I feel that its almost as if I am being bullied into watching a particular news broadcast and that my children's very lives could be lost if I didn't watch that news broadcast. Am I alone in my feelings about these inflammatory news commecials?
pip2007-11-29T09:48:32Z
Favorite Answer
yes it does, because it aids in breeding a fearful, paranoid society.. and that helps lead to greater problems.
It doesn't so much disturb me as p*ss*s me off. I find it reprehesible.
For a while a local station had a tag line: You have questions? Five has answers.
So, for instance: How to keep your teens off drugs. Five has answers.
Right, like if you watch, your kids will NEVER try any drug. There are no guarentees (though, of course, there are things you can do to make it less likely, or make it unlikely that they'll become enslaved or totally mess up their lives).
Yes, I've been noticing this style for quite some time, and rather than frightening me, it makes me sick.
Terror sells.
The Daily Show did a great piece after the London Bombings of this, where the news networks were trying to scare the poopy out of everyone: Are WE vulnerable? Could WE be next? Can it be stopped? and so on.
Trying to make everyone think they were definitely going to die tomorrow.
I think that is how the media survives. It does tend to work. Do we really see kids running around neighborhoods or riding their bikes that much after school? How many parents just open the door and let their kids run the neighborhood and ring the dinner bell or yell for them at dinner time anymore. We are scared to death as a society. Yes it angers me. All the news stations do it including the major networks. We are scared to go to the malls alone, scared to let our kids play, scared of certain dog breeds, etc, etc, etc. I think that the things they are reporting more of happened all those years ago but they just report on it more now. Everything on the news is gloom and doom. I have almost completely stopped watching.
To an extent it is kind of disturbing, but I think they use phrases like that because they're trying to get our attention. The society we live in has become desensitized because we hear about murders, rapes, kidnappings, robbings, etc. all the time, so that's what they do to make us listen.
Yes. I've noticed an increase in sensationalism. Rarely is it as extreme as they portray it. There are exceptions, but everything doesn't have to come with the boogey man delivery. C. :)!!