Introduction: media and fear—diachronic, intermedia, and transcultural perspectives on a toxic and functional relationship during pandemics, wars, and political crises

The chapter advocates for an intermedia and transnational perspective on the persistent relation between media and fear and demonstrates how the creation or promotion of fear through the media has been a prevalent process used to increase citizens’ perception of threat throughout the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. It argues that one needs to understand the imbricated relationship between fear and threat in order to comprehend the mechanisms of persuasion used by political and various social actors in different media ecologies. Guiding us through the chapters of the volume, the authors argue that media must be reflected in its capacity for weaponizing and downplaying fear to guide public opinion. The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated how using the media to steer fear can sometimes be highly functional and beneficial, but fear can also be used to promote agendas of exclusion and to galvanize against the ‘other’. Last, the chapter also argues that regardless of changing media technologies and historical contexts the media remain a battlefield used by political agents and social movements to spread and counter fear, aiming to impact on people’s perception of reality and their sense of urgency.