Emily Carter focuses on cultural narratives, media framing, and how public perception is shaped around controversial events.
I explore how repeated crisis narratives tire the public, how mainstream and alternative outlets frame fear, and why we grow numb to the messages.
I have spent years watching how warnings move from urgent to background noise. Our team looks at the psychological mechanisms that turn acute alarm into weary acceptance. We ask who benefits when a story is repeated until it loses its sting. Can you believe I found that messages intended to protect can sometimes do the opposite? In this piece I trace the research on habituation, fear appeals, and risk perception, and compare official communications with the alternative framings that circulate in online communities.
Why fear stops working
Fear is a blunt tool. Media scholar Paul Slovic has shown how risk is felt more than calculated, and repeated exposure to alarming details can reduce emotional response over time. Psychologists call this habituation. Health communication researcher Kim Witte captured part of the mechanism in the Extended Parallel Process Model. Witte argued that fear will motivate action only if people also feel able to respond. If not, the fear message breeds avoidance not action. I keep asking myself, can you believe I found that the same broadcast that began by mobilising people later left them exhausted?
Mainstream framing versus alternative narratives
Mainstream editors and broadcasters often adopt a rhythm of escalation. Early coverage highlights novelty and threat. Later pieces shift to guidance and then to data. BBC reporters and editors, for example, play a public service role by repeating guidance. That repetition can be necessary. It can also become background noise. Alternative outlets and message boards interpret the shift differently. Some argue that the repetition is deliberate softening or gaslighting. Others read it as evidence of institutional failure. I do not accept a single truth here. My job is to map the tensions and credit journalists and broadcasters for the information they provide while still asking hard questions.
Fatigue in practice
The World Health Organization warned about pandemic fatigue early in 2020. Their guidance explains that prolonged restrictions and alarm lower compliance and trust. I find that plausible. Media scholars like George Gerbner discussed cultivation effects where long term exposure to particular frames reshapes worldviews. Add in sensational headlines and rapid news cycles and you get a public that alternates between hypervigilance and weary scepticism.
Desensitisation and its consequences
Desensitisation is not just a theoretical worry. Research into media violence and public health messaging shows blunted physiological responses and reduced behavioural change when messages are overused. The American Psychological Association and independent studies document that repeated high arousal content produces dampened responses over time. We need to credit the academics who measured this and the journalists who report on it.
How to communicate under strain
I believe effective crisis messaging should pair candid assessment of risk with clear, achievable steps. That echoes Witte and WHO recommendations. It must avoid endless repetition of the worst case scenario without routes to agency. Editors and media scholars can help by varying frames and emphasising actionable guidance. Alternative media often tap into real frustrations by highlighting perceived inconsistencies. Some of those critiques help point to blind spots. They should be debated, not dismissed.
In closing I do not offer absolute answers. I do urge caution about repeating fear for fear's sake and I thank the journalists, broadcasters, editors, and media scholars who have chronicled this issue so we can interrogate it. Sign up to our newsletter for daily briefs.
References and sources
- World Health Organization. Pandemic fatigue: Reinvigorating the public to prevent COVID-19.
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/pandemic-fatigue-reinvigorating-the-public-to-prevent-covid-19
- Paul Slovic, Risk perception research and commentary.
https://psych.colorado.edu/~slovic/
- Kim Witte. Extended Parallel Process Model summaries and critiques. See academic summaries and public health applications.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/Health_Behavior.html
- George Gerbner and cultivation theory overview.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Gerbner
- The Guardian reporting on pandemic fatigue and public response.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/02/pandemic-fatigue-why-people-are-getting-tired-of-rules-covid
- American Psychological Association coverage on desensitisation and media effects.
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/11/media-violence
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