Roundtable: Media and the Dissemination of Fear

Photo: Roundtable organised by the History Section

This roundtable organised by the History section for IAMCR 2020, looks into how the media play a role in disseminating fear in contexts of war and crises, and how sometimes fear aims to destabilize audiences. It also discusses how fear can be used in some cases through the media to save lives, for example during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

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See a complete list of all the section and working group video sessions or all of the online papers.


Chair: Nelson Ribeiro (Universidade Católica Portuguesa)

The Birth of Media coverage of Epidemics in Palestine

(03:13 - 09:37)

Ouzi Elyada (University of Haifa)

Media’s role in fuelling the fear of credulity and the courage of knowledge

(10:20 - 18:25)

Ruth Teer-Tomaselli (University of KwaZulu -Natal)

The US media in HUAC's anti-communism: the nexus of popular libertarianism with religious anti-intellectualism. A theory

(19:24 - 28:18)

Marcus Breen (Boston College)

Memory controversies in Brazilian media today: the political uses of the 1960's and the 1970's dictatorship

(29:20 - 34:32)

Rachel Bertol (University Federal Fluminense) and Ana Paula Ribeiro (University Federal Rio de Janeiro)

Terror, Fear, Disbelief and Complacency in the Face of Evil: The reactions of the Hebrew Press in Palestine to the First News on the Extermination of the European Jewry by the Nazis (1939-1942)

(35:10 - 41:22)

Gideon Kouts (University Paris 8)