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Culture Of FearCulture of fear is the term used by some sociologists, anthropologists, media critics and intellectuals in general to refer to a culture in which the feelings of fear and anxiety are carefully and repeatedly created and fed by the mass media - through the manipulation of words, facts, news, sources or data - allegedly in order to induce certain personal behaviors, justify governmental actions or policies (at home or abroad), keep people consumming, elect demagogic politicians, and/or deviate the publics attention from social issues like poverty, social security, unemployment, gun control or pollution. According to some authors like linguist Noam Chomsky, sociologist Barry Glassner or writer-filmmaker Michael Moore, these manipulations would be carried out through the following techniques, among others : - the careful selection and omission of news (some relevant facts are shown and some are not);
- the distortion of statistics or numbers;
- the transformation of single events into social epidemics;
- the deliberate corruption and distortion of words or terminology according to specific goals;
- the "election" of disqualified people as experts or "renowned" specialists;
- the stigmatization of minorities, especially when associated with criminal acts or degrading behaviors;
- the generalization of complex and multifaceted situations;
- the causal inversion (turning a cause into an effect or vice-versa).
Potential Examples See also References Books DVDs External links *
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