History Main / MediaScaremongering

''[[{{Beat}} Fishes blink.]]''\\

* From ''TheSimpsons'':

* Global warming, and by extension general climate change, is going to wipe out civilization any moment now. While issues linked to climate change is serious and shouldn't be ignored, the media and extremists would have you believe that the planet is going to kill everyone within the next year.

* Ra's al Ghul's in ''Film/BatmanBegins''.

* Discussed very briefly in ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'':
-->'''Jackson''': When they tell you not to panic, ''[[GenreSavvy that's when you run]]''!

* Inverted in ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', as the eponymous Guide has "Don't Panic" on the front in "large, friendly letters". [[spoiler:But played straight in the fifth book, ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', as the latest version of the guide has '''PANIC''' in "small, alarming letters".]]
** If you type "don't panic" in [[VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1984 the text adventure game]], it will tell you nice try, but you have every reason to be panicking, and, for once, [[NintendoHard the game isn't lying to you]].
** And if you type 'Panic', its response is, "Not surprised."

* Hawkwind's production of Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''Sonic Attack'', in which a robotic and oddly accented voice describes the lethal and agonising symptoms of sonic attack so you can be better informed about one happening in your neighbourhood. This is punctuated with authoritarian commands of "Do Not Panic!" repeated at intervals, as the voices become even more alien and robotic and the accompanying white noise grows louder...

* WesternAnimation/DangerMouse and Penfold are at the center of the Earth ("Journey to the Earth's 'Cor!") where their car is frozen in midair and a strange craft is firing at them. DM instructs "Do what you were trained to do...'''''Panic!!!"'''''

** Any "tabloid-style" television news, such as that popularized by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Sanchez_(journalist) Rick Sanchez]] (no, not [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty that one]] at Miami station WSVN.

** Any "tabloid-style" television news, such as that popularized by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRick_Sanchez_(journalist) Rick Sanchez]] at Miami station WSVN.

* Pretty much the whole point of ''Film/TheHost'' was satirizing this. Giant tadpole running around Seoul, eating people? It must be carrying A HIDEOUS NEW DISEASE! Let us completely focus on this possibility, and ignore the fact that it's eating people!

* [[http://www.dhmo.org/ DHMO.org]] parodies this. Spoiler:[[spoiler:It's water]].

-->-- '''Announcer on P.A.''', ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants,'' "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E32PressureTheSmokingPeanut The Smoking Peanut]]"

* British newspaper ''The Mirror'' [[CriticalResearchFailure failed to do their research]] on ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' and turned it into a PaedoHunt, as [[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paedophiles-using-online-computer-games-10233554 this article shows]]. However, most [[AdultFear child abuse is carried out by someone who the victim knows]], rather than [[TheSpook a mysterious stranger, like the article purports]]. The article's writers were probably [[ScheduleSlip trying to get it published quickly]].
** Not to mention an image subtitled as "Minecraft" clearly depicted {{VideoGame/Minecraft Story Mode}}, suggesting they did not realize that [[CriticalResearchFailure these are two different games.]] To be clear, Story Mode is actually a Telltale series based off the game, which has no multiplayer feature at all.

* There's been roughly one event a month in 2020 that qualifies.
** Scratch that. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH1Z6Y3feYA There's been roughly one event]] a ''week'' in 2020 that qualifies. Like Murder Hornets.

Compare IfItBleedsItLeads and MonsterOfTheWeek. Not to be confused with FearIsTheAppropriateResponse, which describes a justified reaction to imminent real danger (as opposed to the sensationalized fearmongering described by this trope).

* WesternAnimation/DangerMouse and Penfold are at the center of the Earth ("Journey to the Earth's 'Cor!") where their car is frozen midair and a strange craft is firing at them. DM instructs "Do what you were trained to do...'''''Panic!!!'''''

* WesternAnimation/DangerMouse and Penfold are at the center of the Earth ("Journey to the Earth's 'Cor!") Where their car is frozen midair and strange craft is firing at them. DM instructs "Do what you were trained to do...'''''Panic!!!'''''

[[caption-width-right:348:500pt headline. On a word processor, this setting is called [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed Daily Planet]].]]

** If you type "don't panic" in [[VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy the text adventure game]], it will tell you nice try, but you have every reason to be panicking, and, for once, [[NintendoHard the game isn't lying to you]].

* ''Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America'' was a MadeForTVMovie about Bird Flu [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin coming to America]], while, at that exact same time, suddenly mutating into a form more easily communicable to and between humans. On the inverse side, very few people realize that Swine Flu actually ''is'' a pandemic already, because the definition of pandemic doesn't actually include death toll in the criteria, just how much it's spread and how hard it is to stop it from spreading further. The fact that it's spread just about everywhere but proven no more lethal than the regular flu is probably why a similar movie doesn't exist for it.

* The way a lot of modern news coverage is skewed to AccentuateTheNegative and sometimes outright revel in You Can Panic Now in all but name, has become so pervasive ever since the 20th century, that psychologists and media experts were forced to coin a new, now rather common condition: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome Mean World Syndrome]] (term coined by George Gerbner). This is a psychological condition affecting viewers who take news coverage focusing on tragic, horrible or depressing events ''[[SeriousBusiness a bit too seriously]]''. This results in the viewer adopting a chronic type of MoodDissonance, where [[YourMindMakesItReal he will convince himself]] that the world as a whole is a [[CrapsackWorld terrible, awful place]] where evil and tragedies are omnipresent, and where [[TheEeyore there's no hope]] or that there is [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids hope only for non-compassionate cynics that doubt everything]]. Some scholars studying media and politics have been openly critical of Mean World Syndrome and the "culture of fear" it tends to promote. One example of these critics is Creator/AdamCurtis, who is rather outspoken about the issue in several of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOq1vQIt4UU his short documentaries]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae6vZE-gsAg on the topic]], in which he often mocks various media's love for negativism as hypocritical, or even a display of self-righteous false heroism (mainly due to equating negativistic, sensationalist coverage with proper investigative journalism). As Curtis points out in one of these documentaries, while the media once uncovered and decried paranoid or ConspiracyTheorist thinking among politicians and celebrities, with the growth of confidence and power of news media, some "media experts" have themselves become obsessed with spreading paranoid or irrational fears among the viewers, while pretending that said fears and moral panics are well-founded. Essentially, he does a WhatTheHellHero call out towards declining media standards and the increasingly NotSoDifferent similarities between conventional and mainstream paranoid thinkers.

* ''Literature/StateOfFear'', as [[Quotes/StateOfFear quoted]], manages to make a good point about this despite being mostly an AuthorTract about why Creator/MichaelCrichton thought GlobalWarming was a sham. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And let's just leave it at that.]]

* ''Literature/StateOfFear'', as [[Quotes/StateOfFear quoted]], manages to make a good point about this despite being mostly an AuthorTract about why Creator/MichaelCrichton thought ClimateChange was a sham. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And let's just leave it at that.]]

* Parodied by Website/CollegeHumor [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XTwWqzKeXc&ob=av3e here.]] Set to Music/{{REM}}'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", they showcase basically every ratings-driven media panic frenzy of the past 10-15 years, including [[MillenniumBug Y2K]], [[MayanDoomsday 2012]], [[PostPeakOil Peak Oil]], terrorist attacks, ClimateChange, and the imminent ZombieApocalypse, RobotWar, and AlienInvasion.

-->'''Kent Brockman:''' Hordes of panicky people seem to be evacuating the town for some unknown reason. Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it's time for our viewers to crack each other's heads open and feast on the goo inside?
-->'''Professor:''' Mmm, yes I would, Kent.

* Nicky Case's short game ''We Become What We Behold'' is a criticism of this. [[spoiler:In the last scene before the credits, the TV screen shows the headline "Be scared. Be angry.".]]

* Parodied by Website/CollegeHumor [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XTwWqzKeXc&ob=av3e here.]] Set to Music/{{REM}}'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", they showcase basically every ratings-driven media panic frenzy of the past 10-15 years, including [[MillenniumBug Y2K]], [[MayanDoomsday 2012]], [[PostPeakOil Peak Oil]], terrorist attacks, GlobalWarming, and the imminent ZombieApocalypse, RobotWar, and AlienInvasion.

* ''Literature/StateOfFear'', as [[Quotes/StateOfFear quoted]], manages to make a good point about this despite being mostly an AuthorTract about why Creator/MichaelCrichton thought GlobalWarming was a sham. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And let's just leave it at that.]]

You can panic now! Why? It's the [[TheBlackDeath BLACK]] POLIO AIDS ANTHRAX MONKEY-POX SARS BIRD SWINE ZIKA EBOLA [[UsefulNotes/CovidPandemic CORONAVIRUS]]-19 [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu FLU!]] Wait. It's actually ACID [=RAINing=] [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot AIRBORNE SAR-AIDS-CANCER]] over THE WHOLE OF NORTH AMERICA as a distraction for a SINISTER TERRORIST PLOT to ASSASSINATE UNWED TEENAGE MOTHERS by INNOCENT CHILDREN mind-controlled by [[UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES]] and the [[DrugsAreBad LSD SOLD IN PRESCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS]]... and so on.

You can panic now! Why? It's the [[TheBlackDeath BLACK]] POLIO AIDS ANTHRAX MONKEY-POX SARS BIRD SWINE ZIKA EBOLA [[UsefulNotes/CovidPandemic CORONAVIRUS]] [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu FLU!]] Wait. It's actually ACID [=RAINing=] [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot AIRBORNE SAR-AIDS-CANCER]] over THE WHOLE OF NORTH AMERICA as a distraction for a SINISTER TERRORIST PLOT to ASSASSINATE UNWED TEENAGE MOTHERS by INNOCENT CHILDREN mind-controlled by [[UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES]] and the [[DrugsAreBad LSD SOLD IN PRESCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS]]... and so on.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' After Tai Lung destroys every barrier that Vachir and his men made to prevent him from escaping, the latter finally begins to panic after Zeng asks if they can run before Tai Lung blasts them with the dynamite through the prison gate.
-->'''Zeng:''' Can we run now?\\
'''Vachir:''' ''[whimpering]'' Yes.
''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' After Boo causes chaos in a sushi restaurant, a news report concludes with one of the newscasters declaring, "Now is the time to [[SuddenlyShouting PANIC!!!]]" right before Boo knocks over the TV.
[[/folder]]

* Referenced in one of the chapter quotes of ''Literature/CiaphasCain ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!''')'', which is a joke version of the Catechism of Command:
-->''When in deadly danger''\\
''When beset by doubt''\\
''Run in little circles''\\
''Wave your arms and shout.''

* Kryten of ''Series/RedDwarf'', being an android, does this a lot.
-->'''Kryten:''' ...Oh. Wait a minute. No. My brain is part-organic, and therefore it is entirely possible for the machine to transmogrify my physical condition. Engaging panic circuits. Panic circuits engaged. (Cries)
* In the ''Series/SesameStreet'' special, "Don't Eat the Pictures", while at the Metropolitan Museum, Big Bird wanders off looking for Snuffy (who at the time, the rest of the gang thought was just an imaginary friend) right as the museum is about to close, and while trying to find where Big Bird wandered off to, everyone accidentally gets locked in for the night. When asked what they should do, Oscar chimes in and says, "Well, I have a suggestion: let's panic."

[[folder: Radio]]
* Inverted throughout ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' with its "Don't Panic" philosophy, but most notably in the first fit where the Vogon guard is ushering Ford and Arthur off the Vogon ship.
-->'''Ford:''' (''to an out-of-sorts Arthur'') All right, just stop panicking!\\
'''Arthur:''' Who said anything about panicking? This is still just the culture shock!
[[/folder]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' episode, "[[Recap/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehogS01E42MassTransitTrouble Mass Transit Trouble]]", when Dr. Robotnik first reveals his plan to plant time bombs at the Mobius Intercontinental Airport, Lighthouse One, and Infinite Points Railroad Junction, Sonic insists to Tails that they can't panic. Then Robotnik goes on to explain that the bombs will detonate simultaneously in five minutes, gloating that, as exhausted as he is now from dealing with Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts, even Sonic can't be in three places at once.
-->'''Sonic:''' ''Now'' we panic.

* WesternAnimation/DangerMouse would sometimes tell Penfold when it was time to panic. Two examples:
** In "Journey To The Earth's 'Cor!" the Mk III car is frozen in midair while being attacked by a craft within the Earth's center. When Penfold asks what to do, DM says "Do what you were trained to do...'''''PANIC!!!"'''''
** In "By George, It's A Dragon," a pint-sized dragon kidnaps Penfold and trolls DM, insisting he hasn't broken any laws. DM runs down the charges:
-->1. Breathing fire in a perfectly designated smokeless zone. 2. Causing damage to government property, viz: the hero's car. And 3. Abducting a government employee while going about his lawful panic. To wit, knocking off Penfold.

You can panic now! Why? It's the [[TheBlackDeath BLACK]] POLIO AIDS ANTHRAX MONKEY-POX SARS BIRD SWINE ZIKA EBOLA [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic CORONAVIRUS]] [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu FLU!]] Wait. It's actually ACID [=RAINing=] [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot AIRBORNE SAR-AIDS-CANCER]] over THE WHOLE OF NORTH AMERICA as a distraction for a SINISTER TERRORIST PLOT to ASSASSINATE UNWED TEENAGE MOTHERS by INNOCENT CHILDREN mind-controlled by [[UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES]] and the [[DrugsAreBad LSD SOLD IN PRESCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS]]... and so on.

* Several media outlets treated the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as being the end of civilization as we know it, to the point where the World Health Organization declared the outbreak an "infodemic". There were also similar cases in previous outbreaks involving ebola, SARS, the bird flu, and so on.

** Any "tabloid-style" television news, such as that popularized by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Sanchez Rick Sanchez]] at Miami station WSVN.