History Main / MediaScaremongering

* The way a lot of modern news coverage is skewed to AccentuateTheNegative and sometimes outright revel in YouCanPanicNow in all but name, has become so pervasive ever since the 20th century, that psychologists and media experts were forced to coin a new, now rather common condition: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome Mean World Syndrome]] (term coined by George Gerbner). This is a psychological condition affecting viewers who take news coverage focusing on tragic, horrible or depressing events ''[[SeriousBusiness a bit too seriously]]''. This results in the viewer adopting a chronic type of MoodDissonance, where [[YourMindMakesItReal he will convince himself]] that [[TheEeyore the world as a whole is a terrible, awful place where evil and tragedies are omnipresent, and where there's no hope]] or that there is [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids hope only for non-compassionate cynics that doubt everything]]. Some scholars studying media and politics have been openly critical of Mean World Syndrome and the "culture of fear" it tends to promote. One example of these critics is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis Adam Curtis]], who is rather outspokenabout the issue in several of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOq1vQIt4UU his short documentaries]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae6vZE-gsAg on the topic]], in which he often mocks various media's love for negativism as hypocritical, or even a display of self-righteous false heroism (mainly due to equating negativistic, sensationalist coverage with proper investigative journalism). As Curtis points out in one of these documentaries, while the media once uncovered and decried paranoid or ConspiracyTheorist thinking among politicians and celebrities, with the growth of confidence and power of news media, some "media experts" have themselves become obsessed with spreading paranoid or irrational fears among the viewers, while pretending that said fears and moral panics are well-founded. Essentially, he does a WhatTheHellHero call out towards declining media standards and the increasingly NotSoDifferent similarities between conventional and mainstream paranoid thinkers.

* {{Roseanne}} episode, ''Toto, We're Not in Kansas Anymore'', when Lanford is under a [[MassOhCrap threat of a tornado]], Becky tells Roseanne that there was no time for jokes… promptly clue this sarcastic response by the titular character:

* * {{Roseanne}} episode, ''Toto, We're Not in Kansas Anymore'', when Lanford is under a [[MassOhCrap threat of a tornado]], Becky tells Roseanne that there was no time for jokes… promptly clue this sarcastic response by the titular character:

** The absolute worst may come from a guy named Porter Stansberry, a supposed financial analyst who has been disciplined by the SEC for fraud. He's spent the past year flooding the internet, TV and radio waves with ads suggesting the that one of the most important dates in US history is coming and directing people to a website (whose URL is constantly changing). The site features a video with text and voiceovers only, explaining that the US dollar and economy will definitely collapse within the next year because all other nations are on the verge of agreeing to refuse US dollars (even though doing so would voluntarily ravage those countries' economies) and that the US government will respond by taking away everyone's money and sealing off all entry/exit to the country, so you need to get your money out of the country NOW (but then how will you get to it if the government is going to shut off access to other countries?). What's more, the narrator keeps saying that you MUST believe him because he correctly predicted the collapse of General Motors, Freddie Mac and Fannie May (news flash - a lot of people did). Oh, and did we tell you he knows the one thing that will not only save you but actually make money when this occurs, and he'll send you the booklet about it for free - IF you sign up for his $50 a month newsletter? (Spoiler alert - it's "buy a farm.")

* [[OmnipresentTropes This is such a common advertising trope]] that listing each occurrence would eat up an entire page of its own. In fact, one of the most basic ploys in advertising is to convince people that the lack of their product/failure to vote for their person/etcetra will RUIN YOUR LIFE FOREVER and lead to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt THE END OF THE WORLD]]!!! Subversions, aversions, and/or deconstructions are much less common and far more interesting, so please post only them or the most extreme examples of this trope.
* Played straight: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkWAhuXtalw Vote for me or you'll get nuked!]]. The ad was only aired once and his campaign got critized for it, but it helped LyndonBJohnson get re-elected.

''You can panic... '''now!''' Why? It's the ... [[strike: CONSUMPTION POLIO AIDS ANTHRAX MONKEY-POX SARS BIRD]] [=SWINE FLU=]! Wait. No, we meant ... [=GLOBAL WARMING=]!'' ...[- too gradual to be scary, you say? But it's only, like, fifty years 'til we're all fu-...ah, well, never mind... -] ''It's actually [=ACID RAIN=]ing AIRBORNE [=SARS=]-AIDS-CANCER over THE WHOLE OF NORTH AMERICA as distraction for a SINISTER [=TERRORIST PLOT=] to ASSASSINATE [=UNWED TEENAGE MOTHERS=] with INNOCENT CHILDREN mind-controlled with [=VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES=] AND [=LSD SOLD IN SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS=] AND [=CHILD ABDUCTION/CONDITIONING=], [=JENKEM=], [[OverlyLongGag did we mention they were GODLESS SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST/ANARCHIST REVOLUTIONARY TERRORISTS...?]]''

This one goes hand-in-hand with the MadeForTVMovie. '''Whatever the latest media-induced paranoia is from [[RippedFromTheHeadlines crime]] to [[DisasterMovie typhoons]], we're going to get a show or special report about it.''' Think EverythingTryingToKillYou applied to RealLife and you have the idea.

* Campus rape scares.

** It is joked that a Democrat in the White House is the gun seller's best friend, as his existance ensures heightened demand for guns.

* In ''{{Airplane}} II: The Sequel'', when Elaine announces to the passengers of the shuttle that they're out of coffee and a riot breaks out, the sign changes from "Don't Panic" to "OK, Panic."

* Ever since '''SNOWPOCALYPSE''' (the moniker given to the unusually-harsh winter in the US in 2010), The Weather Channel has been naming winter storms like hurricanes and giving them almost as much weight in their reports. It's no longer enough to just say, "Heavy snow will be coming through over the next couple days." Now it's, "[[http://www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/winter-storm-gandolf-20130109 WINTER STORM GANDOLF]]!!" They seem to have pop culture naming conventions ([[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Khan]], [[WesternAnimation/FindingNemo Nemo]], {{Rocky}}, etc.), which only makes it that much harder to take seriously. The government-run National Weather Service (whereas The Weather Channel is privately-owned) pointedly refuses to use those names.

* Pretty much the whole point of Film/TheHost was satirizing this. Giant tadpole running around Seoul, eating people? It must be carrying A HIDEOUS NEW DISEASE! Let us completely focus on this possibility, and ignore the fact that it's eating people!

* Every few months, some major media network gets hold of a controversial scene[=/=]level[=/=]mechanic in a video game and rages a huge stink about it, claiming it's turning people into psychopathic serial murderers or basement dwelling losers.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In the ending for the ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' DLC, [=GLaDOS=], upon seeing that the invader is in fact the bird, starts panicking and tells her robots to forget their training and flee.
* In ''VideoGame/CrashTwinsanity'', after removing Dr. Neo Cortex's brain and using it as a ball, Victor said that "This is the part where you run away screaming." Also cue Moritz doing a "go away" gesture to Cortex, before he did just so.
[[/folder]]

* ''TheSimpsons'' features a hidden media conspiracy to actually release a disease and do reports on it blaming the imminent outbreak on cats.
** In "Homer the Vigilante", Kent Brockman's initial report on the string of cat burglaries ends with him asking a professor if the town should panic. He says yes...

* Homophobia and transphobia carry shades of this when they are used as "culture war" issues. Specifically, the AllGaysArePedophiles canard or "guys in dresses in girls bathrooms" being paired with PaedoHunt are very nasty variants, or AllGaysArePromiscuous being used to start a moral panic about promiscuity (never mind that heterosexuals can be just as promiscuous).

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism Anti-Semitic blood libels and conspiracy theories]].

* In RobertAsprin's humorous fantasy novel ''[[MythAdventures Myth Conception]]'', as more and more horrible details come pouring in concerning the supposedly cushy job they've finagled, Aahz finally breaks down and invokes this trope with his apprentice Skeeve.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Trial", the villains are about to unmask Batman, when the attorney uses a batarang she took from him earlier to smash the light fixture. Two-Face shouts, [[ThisIsNoTimeToPanic "Nobody panic!"]] and then flicks a cigarette lighter... Revealing that Batman has already freed himself, grabbed and tied up Harley, and gotten his utility belt back (not to mention that with the lights out, Batman is in ''his'' element, and practically invincible). At this point, the Joker says, "Okay... Start panicking..."

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Trial", the villains are about to unmask Batman, when the attorney uses a batarang she took from him earlier to smash the light fixture. Two-Face shouts, [[ThisIsNoTimeToPanic "Nobody panic!"]] and then flicks a cigarette lighter... Revealing that Batman has already freed himself, grabbed and tied up Harley, and gotten his utility belt back. At which point, the Joker says, "Okay... Start panicking..."

* In ''HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', when spiders announce the truce is over, Ron asks whether they may panic now.

* Invoked by Pinkie Pie in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode ""[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E20ItsAboutTime It's About Time]]," when Cerberus shows up in Ponyville.

* Played straight: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkWAhuXtalw Vote for me or you'll get nuked!]]

* Ever since '''SNOWPOCALYPSE''' (the moniker given to the unusually-harsh winter of 2010), winter storms have been named like hurricanes and given almost as much weight in the news. It's no longer enough to just say, "Heavy snow will be coming through over the next couple days." Now it's, "[[http://www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/winter-storm-gandolf-20130109 WINTER STORM GANDOLF]]!!" They seem to have pop culture naming conventions ([[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Khan]], [[WesternAnimation/FindingNemo Nemo]], {{Rocky}}, etc.), which only makes it that much harder to take seriously.
** No one outside The Weather Channel (a private TV channel) does, especially not the National Weather Service (which pointedly refuses to use those names).