Özet:

This study examined children’s fear responses to everyday TV news with regards to the following: a) the consistency between mothers’ observations and children’s reports on TV induced fears, b) the relationships between TV news contents that frighten children with regards to their age and gender, and c) the most common fearful coverage of TV news for children. Television News Induced Fright Scale (TNIFS) and a demographic information form were administered to 186 mothers and their 186 children (ages from 8 to 13). Findings revealed inconsistency between responses of mothers and their children about children’s TV news induced fears. Mothers overestimate their children’s TV news induced fears regarding in terms of news coverage of interpersonal violence, war and suffering, fires and accidents and fantasy characters. Gender but not age differences were found. “Children and animals who get hurt”, “kidnapped children”, and “starving children in poor countries” were reported by children as some of the most fearful news coverages.

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