Relationship between the culture of fear as a social control instrument of new capitalism and mass media: The example of news web sites in Turkey

In recent years, becoming prevalent and established of culture of fear at the society have affected behaviours and life styles of people, thus affair of the culture of fear and social function of fears is one of the most topical subjects in our era. Changes in economic system after 1970s have leaded to social disintegration and strong individuation. Also at the society having changed with new capitalism, the fear have become dominant culture. This situation is explained by risk society theorists with development of science/technology and risk awareness. On the other hand, there are also some opinions that associate becoming widespread of the culture of fear with emergence of confidence problem. Features of current social structure suggested in post-industrial society theories provide fairterms for emergence and regeneration of the culture of fear. In this study, these opinions corresponding process causing fear to be dominant culture at the society are discussed and role of mass media in becoming wide spread and effects of the culture of fear is focused on. Since in western societies it is agreed that mass media has a major role in becoming prevalent of the culture of fear through its power of direction, scope of the study is determined as last ten year period in Turkey in terms of relationships between the culture of fear and mass media. It is aimed that evaluation of whether progresses about this subject in western societies are similar to those in Turkey. Based on increasing in usage of Internet at the society headlines and somewords? frequency of use in news web sites are analyzed on yearly basis. Consequently, it is deduced that the relationship between the culture of fear and mass media in Turkey is similar to the situation in western countries.