Media Exposure and Fear About Crime: An Application of Mediated Fear Model

Muhammad Awais, Sohail Abbas, Farahat Ali and Ali Ashraf
Additional contact information
Muhammad Awais: Department of Media and Communication, University of Management and Technology, Sialkot Campus, Pakistan
Sohail Abbas: Department of Media and Communication, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
Farahat Ali: Faculty of Media and Communication Studies, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
Ali Ashraf: Faculty of Media and Communication Studies, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

The Journal of Social Sciences Research, 2020, vol. 6, issue 7, 720-726

Abstract: Social behavior can be troubled by the constant concern of crime. Research on the relationship between traditional media crime exposure, social media crime videos, and fear about the crime is scarce. The present study is designed to investigate whether social media exposure, TV news crime viewing, crime drama exposure is directly or indirectly associated to fear about crime. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the mediated fear model and cultivation theory. A sample of 371 university students was selected through a convenience sampling technique. SPSS 25 was used to analyze the data and Model 4 of Process Macro was used to examine the mediating role of the cognitive component of fear of crime (perceived seriousness, perceived risk, and perceived control). The results show that television news crime viewing, crime drama, and social media crime video exposure is positively associated with fear about crime. Moreover, three cognitive components of fear of crime played a mediatory role between traditional media exposure and fear of crime. In addition to this, the relationship between social media crime video exposure and fear about crime was mediated by the cognitive component of fear of crime.

Keywords: Crime news; Television; Social media; Fear; Mediated fear model. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.arpgweb.com/pdf-files/jssr6(7)720-726.pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.arpgweb.com/journal/7/archive/07-2020/7/6 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arp:tjssrr:2020:p:720-726

Access Statistics for this article

The Journal of Social Sciences Research is currently edited by Dr. Paola Magnano

More articles in The Journal of Social Sciences Research from Academic Research Publishing Group Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Punjab, Pakistan.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Managing Editor ().