Attitudes and reactions to media coverage of terrorist acts

Presence, Sex, and Bad News: Exploring the Responses of Men and Women to Tragic News Stories in Varying Media

“…1 In particular, research concerning preferred medium under crisis conditions has been inconsistent. For example, a study performed in Israel examining information seeking and terrorism (Keinan, Sadeh, & Rosen, 2003) found that men preferred visual media when seeking information (e.g., television) while women preferred nonvisual media (e.g., newspapers and radio). Other research on general news preferences has indicated that women show less interest in television news (Jensen, 1988;Morley, 1986;Vincent & Basil, 1997), may be less likely to attend to television news (Konig, Renckstorf, & Wester, 1988) and may avoid it as an information source due to its masculine presentation characteristics (Vettehen, Schaap, & Schlosser, 2004).…”

Gender and Age Effects on Information-Seeking after 9/11

“…They list a variety of characteristics that influence people's risk information-seeking. Although there is little literature investigating the subject of sex and information-seeking during crisis events, one study in Israel about information-seeking and terrorism (Keinan, Sadeh, & Rosen, 2003) found that men prefer to get their information from vivid media (e.g., television) while women prefer non-vivid media (e.g., radio). Further, there is a substantial body of research indicating that women find television news relatively uninteresting (Jensen, 1988;Morley, 1986), may be less likely to pay attention to it (Konig, Reckstorf, & Wester, 1988), and may avoid television news because of its masculine presentation characteristics (Vettehen, Schaap, & Schlosser, 2004).…”

“…Keinan, Sadeh, and Rosen (2003) noted that ''[s]ince terrorist acts are by their very nature unexpected, dramatic, exceptionally violent, and extremely distressing, they are perceived by the media as sought-after news items deserving of extensive coverage'' (p. 150). Because terrorist attacks generally attract this extensive coverage, they are considered to be threatening crisis events.…”

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“…Although little research has directly addressed sex differences in mediated learning processes, evidence exists of consistent sex differences in preferred information sources. This research has suggested that women may be drawn to less vivid media for information, especially information that is particularly sensitive or issue relevant (Jensen, 1988;Keinan, Sadeh, & Rosen, 2003;Morley, 1986).…”