Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobblehead
I'm not wanting to say the risk doesn't exist, or that no one should every worry.
Just that things were just as dangerous 10 and 20 years ago as they are today, and perception had changed. And I think a large part of that change is due to media, and how today there are hundreds of news sources vying for the public's attention while 20 years ago there may have been a handful. So as they all fight for ratings, average people are barraged with stories about child abduction, murder, crimes of all sorts, and it feels like the world is scarier than ever. But when you step back and actually take a look you see that crime rates haven't gone up and in fact over the past 30 years they have been generally falling.
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Not to mention that for a large portion of time from the advent of TV, there was a 'big bad enemy' for the news to focus on ... until recently-ish:
post-World War II - Commies
more recently (less so currently) - Muslims
Now, there's no central enemy for the news to focus Joe Everybody on ... there has to be something to get people in (as a conservative, 'even minded' person - not conspiracy theorist) or to use to incite fear in the general public as a way to control them (conspiracy theorist) ...
In addition to your point about the number of news sources, we also have to look at the sheer volume of news available to us ... even if you just look at local newscasts, I remember a time when the only news in the dinner hours on CTV was from 6-7 ... now there is 2 hours of news at that time of day, not to mention additional local TV networks, multiple 24-hour news stations (that's a LOT of news), and of course the internet and such.
For the evening news ... there has to be some kind of hook to get people to watch, and if it can't be "OMG TEH COMMIEZ", then it has to be "OMG LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT KID".
My quality of life has increased a significant amount since I stopped paying attention to local newscasts and newspapers ...