Professors explain media effects

By Sarah Szczepanski
Assistant Features Editor

Kelly McQueen grew up watching the news, and it became a habit for her to catch the news when she could. But after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, she says her eyes were glued to the television more than ever.

The TV was on all the time, said McQueen, a junior in the School of Science.

McQueen always wanted to know what was going on; this is an example of how some people, called "monitors," deal with stressful events, according to Glenn Sparks, a professor in the department of communication.

Sparks completed a study after the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded in 1987, and he found that monitors were people who wanted to watch the coverage over and over again. They wanted to see the emotional expressions of people responding the event.

"They want to glue themselves to the TV screen; they find it easier to cope if they have the most information available," Sparks said.

Witnessing traumatic events — even on television — can be a problem for people. During the World War II there was little actual television coverage, and during the Vietnam War, there were only three major networks, said Michael Morrison, an associate professor of history.

Compared with those atrocities, the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon received more television coverage than any one event in either war.

"Because it's everywhere, it’s a bit overwhelming," Morrison said.

Sparks said this kind of immense and constant coverage has a general emotional effect on viewers ranging from sudden shock and trauma and to a deep sort of sadness.

"Depending upon who you are and how much you consume, you can take on symptoms of depression," Sparks said. "There's also capability in some viewers to suffer a very intense emotional reaction that affects sleep. Some people have nightmares over the horror."

Sparks said there are also blunters, the opposite of monitors, who don’t want to hear any bad news.

"Blunters want to blunt the impact of the stressor," Sparks said. "They want to avoid the information. They say, 'don’t tell me, let me ignore it, let me get away from it.' People who use the blunting style have more difficulty in times like this."

But Sparks said it's hard to not want to avoid the news sometimes, even for monitors.

"All of us, even those who want the information, have difficulty because the emotional load overwhelms you. People reach a point where they say, 'that’s enough.' It's been so negative, they pull away."

As television stations continue to show images of rescue workers in New York searching for survivors in the rubble thousands of Americans will continue to be absorbed with the news.

And McQueen will be one of them.

"I really think it takes people a long time to realize something this large to sink in," she said.

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