The difficult daily bulletin
I get the news I need on the weather report
I can gather all the news I need on the weather report
Simon and Garfunkel, The Only Living Boy in New York
But of course we can’t gather all the news we need from the weather report. Ignorance may indeed be bliss, but surely not a highly desirable kind. Tuning in to the nightly news only for Tim Bailey’s cheerfully bumbling weather segment can provide only a very incomplete representation of reality. And yet, like Simon and Garfunkel writing these lines during the Vietnam War, it certainly might be less frightening and less sad to do just that.
Though often troubling, the news helps us to be informed citizens, to comprehend the world on a larger scale, and to be aware of the dangers in society so that we might adequately guard ourselves. But are we now overprotecting ourselves against the violence we hear about each day? Are we living in a climate of fear, and is this affecting our mental wellbeing?
The Twin Towers came thundering down in 2001and ever since, a looming uncertainty has hung over us, as if we are bracing for something sudden and devastating. To watch or read the media in 2008 is mostly to be shown a world both frightening and unpredictable. Each night we are confronted with a new litany of bad news via the cool round vowels of a news anchor: murder, peadophilia, high school shootings, suicide bombs, drink spiking, date rape, domestic violence, global warming, environmental catastrophe—the list goes on.
The effects of fear on daily life
These days, parents are loath to let their children roam the streets, and it’s a rare household that does not keep the front door locked. Now, particularly in the wake of local and international events such as September 11, the Cronulla Riots, the disappearance of Madeline McCann, the Peter Falconio outback murder, and the Bali Bombings, people think twice about the everyday decisions they make, the places they go, how they raise their children, where to travel to, and who they communicate with.
According to the Queensland Police Service, a fear of crime can have ‘devastating effects on a person's lifestyle and quality of life’. Psychological effects include ‘restriction of lifestyle’, ‘decreased confidence’, and ‘disempowerment’. According to the Sutherland Shire Council’s Public Services Manager, David Ackroyd, quoted in a report about crime in the community, fear can ‘hold people hostages in their homes’. In short, it can be debilitating and depressing.
Even more worrying are the implications that fear can have on race relations. In 2005, The Age reported that in the aftermath of the London bombings, Arab and Muslims in Victoria reported a considerable increase in racial slurs and xenophobia, resulting from the uneasy political climate, and the way it was translated in the media. In the case of the Cronulla Riots, talkback radio hosts fuelled a growing sense of distrust of the Arab and Lebanese community, which resulted in shameful displays of racially-motivated violence. The effects of such a thing leave a scar and are not soon forgotten.
A solution: peaceful journalism
According to an Australian Institute of Criminology report on trends in violent crime, ‘fear of crime is higher today than in recent memory’. However, current statistics from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research show that crime rates have in fact dropped in recent years:
’In the twenty-four months to March 2008 none of the seventeen major offence categories were trending upward, two were trending downward and the remaining fifteen were stable…In the sixty months (five years) to March 2008 two of the seventeen major offences were trending upward, nine were trending downward and the remaining six were stable.’
This provides persuasive evidence that our heightened sense of living in a more violent world is disproportionate to reality. We can therefore begin to think about where our fears are coming from, and how to overcome them.
According to former BBC journalist and Director of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, Jake Lynch, there is a way to reframe the media’s reporting of conflict so as not to promote or encourage fear and violence. He calls this Peace Journalism.
‘We used to be told at the BBC that the classic news story went thus: on the one hand, on the other hand, in the end, only time will tell,’ says Lynch. ‘If you structure a conflict in this way, you will elevate it.’ This kind of reporting, he explains, is war journalism, and is practiced because violence sells stories. Peace Journalism, on the other hand, seeks to ‘pick up ideas for non-violent change’. It is not only designed for journalists but can be used by everyone to recognise sensationalism in the news, assess real risks, and hopefully spread the old adage (with thanks to Franklin Delano Roosevelt) that there is nothing to fear but fear itself.
This opinion piece, exploring issues relating to mental health and wellbeing, was commissioned by ActNow as part of Margins 2 Mainstream: 5th World Conference on the Promotion of Mental Health and the Prevention of Mental and Behavioural Disorders. We are grateful for the support of VicHealth and the Victorian Government in undertaking this initiative.
How do I know this?
Ackroyd, David, in Crime in the Community: Victims, Offenders and Fear of Crime, Volume 1, Chapter 2: Fear of Crime, the Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs,
11 August 2004.
Available: http://www.aph.gov.au/House/committee/laca/
crimeinthecommunity/report/chapter2.pdf
viewed 20 August 2008
Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/
ll_bocsar.nsf/pages/bocsar_mr_1stqtr08
Viewed 15 August 2008.
Graycar, Adam, ‘Introduction’ in David Indermaur 'No. 61 – Violent Crime in Australia: Interpreting the Trends’, in Trends and Issues in crime and criminal justice, Australian Insitute of Criminology, p1.
Ellingson, Peter, ‘Ethnic groups tell of ‘climate of fear’’, The Age, 28 August 2005 [online] http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ethnic-groups-tell-of-climate-of
Marr, David, ‘Alan Jones: I’m the person that’s led this charge’, The Age, 13 December 2005 [online]. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/alan-jones-i-led-this charge/2005/12/12/1134236003153.html
Viewed 24 August
Queensland Police Service, http://www.police.qld.gov.au/programs/personal
Safety/violence/fear.htm Viewed 15 August, 2008
Interview conducted with Jake Lynch, Director of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney ,12 April 2008
