The Scare Center

Sleeping in was one of my favorite things to do on spring break. However, on Friday March 11, 2011 I slept through some serious seismic activity and a serious natural disaster in Japan.  The damage was catastrophic and as I woke up and shuffled past the TV I was confronted with a press conference on the disaster. Trying to catch up on what happened while I slept I read the headline: "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH JAPAN'S NUKES?"

Oh no. Another person is threatening to use nuclear weapons now!?

I froze in fear and immediately asked my Dad what was going on.  He explained to me that Japan experienced as 9.0 earthquake off its coast, and that a tsunami with 33ft waves followed shortly after and damaged their nuclear power facilities.  The news was tragic, but my fear slightly subsided.  The news agency had grasped my attention by appealing to my fears through the way they displayed their information.

The headline, "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH JAPAN'S NUKES?" is vague an alarming for a person who has not received the information to put this headline into context. (Not to mention someone who had just woken up 10 minutes before seeing the news.) First, the text is completely capitalized and was written on the screen in an alarming bold yellow color.  The text is meant to grab its audiences attention in an alarming nature. Secondly, it is written in the form of a question and creates uncertainty in its audience that can only be dispelled by watching the news and receiving more information on the issue. Finally this question provides no other details placing it into context, and therefore, it is clearly appealing to the audience's pathos, specifically their emotion of fear.  The audience will only find comfort after receiving more information and tuning in for the entire press conference.

The context in which this headline is placed also proves that the news station was appealing to the audience's emotion of fear.  Many news stations are broadcast on mute in doctor's offices and gyms.  Therefore the vague and alarming text would be the only medium available to these viewers, giving them a skewed and fearful understanding of current events. However, the lack of detail would make many viewers want to follow up on the story through that news station.  Finally, the headline contained the word "nukes", a word which carries a connotation of fear for most Americans. Ever since the Cold War most Americans have consciously feared the  prospect of engaging in a nuclear war or being victim to a nuclear attack. The fear has run so deep in our culture that even the word "nuke" instills fear in its audience. The news station knows this and used this abbreviation to evoke fear in its audience and grasp their attention.

This news headline scared me out of my slippers on Friday morning and I sat down and watched the press conference after seeing that headline.  However, the headline scared me for all of the wrong reasons. It was vague providing few details on the issue being discussed. Its text and context appealed to my fear and I was hooked to their station for the next half hour.  This was the goal of their alarming message, to scare the audience and appeal to their fear of uncertainty and make them want to acquire more information on the issue from their station.