Media Influence on Fear of Crime: Differences among Various Race and Gender Intersection

• In Event: Media and the Internet

Abstract

Recent studies have found that media affects individual's fear of crime, and this influence varies by different intersections of race and gender. However, data used in previous analyses all have major limitations. First, all existed studies fail to include information on Internet and social media. Internet and social media have emerged to be the primary source of crime-related information, and the different censorship system allows news websites and social media users to produce further sensationalistic content than traditional media. Theoretically, exposure to more visual presentation on crime-related information deepens individual's anxiety about crime. Using data that includes usage of both social media and various types of traditional mass media, this study will investigate how this change of usage pattern affects fear of crime. In addition, existed findings on race/ethnicity difference on fear of crime do not include information of Asian-Americans. Using the national survey data that oversamples African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Latinos, the study will compare how media affects Asian-American's fear of crime differently from other races. In sum, by including social media consumption and Asian-Americans, this study seeks to present a more complete picture of media influence on fear of crime by different races and gender.

Author

• Kevin Weng, Kent State University