Media acts as a magic bullet. What we see on television has an impact on the mind. Watching television at length can increase the fear of crime among individuals.
All of us consume television daily, and mostly during prime time. As we know, whatever we see on the screens, has a direct impact on our minds. Be it violent shows, crime shows or happy/comedy shows.
Violent shows will make us violent; crime shows might disturb us, and happy/comedy shows make us happy and cheerful. Probably, many of you here won’t accept my statement mentioned above and say that media doesn’t affect you or control you. However, I would like to communicate the harsh reality of media.
It does affect you. Either consciously or unconsciously, media does impact our minds and our behaviours. And thus, it becomes significant for us to choose wisely what we want to view.
The “Magic Bullet” theory
I stated above that media has an impact on us. I would like to talk about the famous “magic bullet” theory to justify my statement. As per the magic bullet theory, hypothetically, the media uses a “media gun” to fire messages as a bullet in the viewers’ minds.
This means that when a media channel shows any news, it acts as a bullet that is fired straight into the minds of the individuals and in turn, the media message penetrates our minds and impacts us.
Thus, this theory justifies that media can influence our minds and behaviours through the message they wish to communicate.
For example, in the Sushant Singh murder case, the press was able to seep the news into our minds that Rhea Chakraborty attempted to murder Sushant and that he didn’t attempt suicide.
Thus, the media’s message seeped into our minds, and it convinced us that Rhea Chakraborty was guilty even before the Supreme Court gave their statement on the matter.
The fear of crime
Crime shows or crime news, if watched constantly, does have an impact on our minds. Even if the crime rate begins to decrease, the idea that crime exists stays in our minds and results in us believing that crime may happen with us too.
Indian crime shows like CID, Crime Patrol, Saavdhaan India, Pataal Lok and many others showcase crimes that happen and try to resolve them.
However, their motto of showing criminal activities might alert us and make us aware of the crimes happening around us daily. At the same time, these shows get deeply ingrained in our minds, and we start to develop a sense of fear against them.
At times, the fear can be of such a high value that we might panic to even step out of our houses by the thought of getting kidnapped, or that there might be a robbery at our place, or that someone might steal our precious belongings etc.
The news related to criminal activities has surged the public’s fear of the crime. According to a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania a few years back, crime shows might teleport individuals to a fantasy world where they fear crime even more than what usually happens around the world.
Thus, criminal shows or crime news act as a bullet penetrating our minds and developing a fear of crime or illegal activities. It might make us highly protective and cautious, which is good; however, an excess of everything is terrible.
Likewise, excessive protection and caution may turn into hurdles in our development journey, and we might also cause the same for the ones we love.
Published By – Vanshu Mehra
Edited By – Mahi Gupta
