ABSTRACT
Films and news programs, especially those that portray danger, mutilations, or fearful protagonists, can provoke intense fear reactions in children. This chapter focuses on children’s fear responses to audiovisual news and entertainment. The chapter consists of four sections, the first of which deals with the development of childhood fears in general. What are specific features of childhood fears and how do these develop as children mature? The second section discusses the role of audiovisual media in the development of fears, and examines which particular media contents evoke fear reactions and why. It also deals with the question of how viewers (children and adults) become afraid of particular media contents, even as they know that there is no direct danger to themselves from what they see. The third section reviews several important theories on the attraction of violent entertainment, such as the Excitation-transfer theory and the Snuggle theory. The final section concentrates on the strategies that children use to reassure themselves when they are frightened by media content, and the strategies that adults use to comfort children of different ages when they become fearful of news and entertainment media.
