Newspaper Reading Affects Beliefs About Crime and Terrorism

A study examining media effects by the UNC Asheville Department of Mass Communication was released on May 14 at the American Association for Public Opinion Research annual conference in Phoenix, Ariz. Don Diefenbach, UNC Asheville associate professor of Mass Communication, and Mark West, UNC Asheville professor of Mass Communication, are the study’s authors.

The investigation was based on a survey of 531 residents of Western North Carolina, and found that newspaper consumption was significantly linked to beliefs about personal safety and estimates of crime rates in the community. Regular newspaper readers estimated higher annual murder rates for Asheville than did non- and light readers.

"The daily exposure to headlines sensitizes readers to violent crime in the community," said Diefenbach. "It is not just the crime itself that is reported, but also the subsequent investigations and trials. This may be a factor in newspaper readers providing higher estimates of murder in Asheville."

Newsreaders were also more likely to report that they felt personally safer from crime and terrorism than did non- or light readers. "Newsreaders are given the context of community crime, and issues of global terror. Therefore, while exposure to news stories causes newsreaders to estimate more community crime, the context of the stories gives these readers the information they need to make a judgment that they themselves are not at an elevated risk," said Diefenbach.

The study was conducted as a component of the Western North Carolina Poll of the Asheville Center for Social Research.

For more information, call UNC Asheville’s Mass Communication Department at 828/232-5027.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Don Diefenbach, UNCA Associate Professor of Mass Communication, 828/251-6731
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526