ABSTRACT
This chapter is about fear and its role in contemporary society. It is also a personal story about modest attempts to understand how the mass media and popular culture are shaping our social world. Fear becomes a matter of discourse when it "expands" beyond a specific referent to use as a more general orientation. The fear "market" has also spawned an extensive cottage industry that promotes new fears and an expanding array of "victims. Fear promotes shared markets and identities for these products. Social narratives reflect social order and communication processes. Prior to the mass media's routine acceptance in everyday life, narratives reflected other cultural experiences and meanings. Fear is part of social control. There are many definitions of social control, but a basic one is the process by which people behave in ways that meet the expectations of others. The promotions of fear and attendant “solutions” have been a staple of social control efforts throughout history.
