The fear of terrorist attacks in the Southwestern United States: A cross sectional analysis

The potential for negative consequences from an overreaction to terrorism raises important questions about the nexus between news media, a socially conservative political identity, and the fear of terrorist attacks. A meta-theoretical argument here contends that the news media is complicit in spreading collective fear, which is an essential catalyst making solidarity and adherence to hegemonic social control more effective. Four hundred twenty six respondents were chosen through random cluster sampling techniques in three US states: Arizona, California, and Nevada. Selected respondents completed a paper survey in 2009. Multiple regression analysis revealed that news media consumption frequency, social conservatism, biological sex, Whiteness, and identifying Protestantism or Agnosticism as religious preferences were related to the fear of terrorist attacks. Age, religious service attendance, annual income, education, and other racial or religious group identities were not related to this fear, however. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) testing for news media preferences found that people who trusted USA Today were more fearful of terrorism than individuals that trusted the New York Times, or those who did not trust any newspapers. Further ANCOVA results indicated that Internet news sources and television channel preferences did not affect this fear when controlling for news media consumption frequency, social conservatism, and biological sex. Definitional content analysis confirmed that popular meanings for the term are highly contested and usually focus on quasi-legal interpretations. Despite some limitations, these findings support previous research on the fear of terrorism.