Homework #2 Response Paper

Homework #2 Response Paper

Name of the writer

Name of the University

HOMEWORK #2 RESPONSE PAPER

INTRODUCTION

In the ‘Narrative Techniques of Fear Mongering,' Barry Glassner explores the methods by which fear is inducted into the society. He also described the role of media in creating this societal fear of issues to a greater degree. This paper will provide a complete response to the article by Glassner.

DISCUSSION

Summary

This article is about the fear in American society related to the issues and problems of society. This according to him arises due to the money and power which overtook the moral insecurities of America just for own good. These fear mongers use the narrative technique for normalizing the genuine errors in objectivity. This all started after the 1990s when youth delinquency took a toll on the country. There were homicides done by young kids, and many other horrific incidents were reported in these years. Misdirection occurred from the political and social sides, i.e., media pertaining to fear mongering. The actual fear mongering occurred after Columbian shooting and 9/11 (Glassner 2004:820). The writer talked about the three techniques of fear-mongering, as compared to the relative risk, fear-mongering was the newer technique. The writer stated that print, electronic and social media were the ultimate causes for fear-mongering, by treating these issues as trends and misleading. Homicides, child kidnapping, and all such societal issues were reported by media in the limelight. These fear mongers mislead the attention from serious problems of the legislation and financial commodities of the country.

Relevancy 

As studied in the course about social crimes and controls, this article relates to the conformity and obedience to the crime which also includes the deviance from social norms and trends. This article explored the types of crimes and the justice system of the US, such that the response to the crime is based on due process. Moreover, through conformity, these media channels influenced the mechanism of social control as it is responsible for creating a particular order of society. The professional and occupational groups were investigated in this article, i.e., sociologists, reporters, journalists, politicians, law enforcing authorities, etc.

Analysis

The understanding of the society in this article at micro, meso and macro level indicates that the author thoroughly explored the individuals, population and the criminal and media institutes while covering for this article. The lengthy list of professional occupational gatherings or groups, i.e., politicians, social scientists, policymakers, criminologists, ethicists, etc. are held by Glassner in his article.

CritiqueThe article is a plethora of fears which underlie the questioning perception of Glassner very critically, and he particularly scrutinized specific fears, i.e., political correctness, juvenile criminals, violence and crime, child abduction, teen gambling, television violence, missing children, and post 9/11 fears (Glassner 2004:820). He uncovered the neglected truths of society related to building fear. His article raises my questions to inquisitive minds; for instance, the proper definition of fear, cause and effect relationship of some variables and concerning some issues what is the level of fear in public. These things inevitably cross every reader's mind.

CONCLUSION

Concluding this article and the findings of this paper, the writer explained very genuinely about the ways fear is being a sale in our society on the name of law and justice. A brief summary tells about the theme and idea of an article by Glassner. Furthermore, the relevance of this article to the course can be seen by the fact that it is about societal control and crimes. Media is controlling the buy and sell off social crimes. The analysis levels indicate that the author has explored the individuals, population and the criminal and media institutes while covering for this article.

REFERENCES

Glassner, Barry. 2004. Narrative techniques of fear mongering. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 71(4), pp.819-826.