Responses to Media Coverage of Terrorism

Differential anxiety responses to television coverage of national threat situations and terrorism in Israel were examined. A total of 237 participants were evenly divided into two groups, each exposed to an experimental or control condition. The experimental condition involved exposure to television news clips of terrorism and threats to national security. The control condition involved equivalent-length exposure to news clips unrelated to national danger situations. Results supported the anxiety-inducing effect of the experimental condition and indicated differential demographic and dispositional responses to the footage according to gender, religiousness, and level of dogmatism. These results support the powerful effect of the mass media and advocate further exploration of links between media broadcasting of political violence and psychological processes.