News creation of apprehension

Posted by R. Berg on July 31, 2003

In Reply to: News creation of apprehension and its narrative resolution posted by celia on July 31, 2003

:
: I don't quite understand the bracketed sentences. Could anyone do me a favor?

: Shaping a viewer's engagement with television, it follows, may be a deeply felt need for continuity as a kind of defence against the fears, worries or threats typically associated with an increasingly stressful world. Silverstone suggests that of the various genres of programming on television, it is the news which most clearly demonstrates 'the dialectical articulation of anxiety and security'. (It is precisely this dialectical tension between the televisual new's creation of apprehension and its narrative resolution which encourages the viewer to find in the newscast a sense of reassurance. )

: Thanks a lot.

When you watch the news on TV, first you get scared because some horrible event is described, and then you relax because the announcer says something will be or has been done about the problem. Scare, relax; scare, relax; scare, relax--that's the "dialectical tension" the writer is talking about.