Article Title: Psychological Consequences of Television Coverage of Terrorism among Youth
Author(s): Rizwana Amin and Khizra Iqbal
Institute(s): Department of Applied Psychology, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan
Journal: Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences (PJSS) Vol. 38, No. 2 (2018), pp. 679-686
Abstract:
At present, terrorism affected every aspect of life. As terroristic activities like bomb blast, target killing, security threats to different educational institution (public or private) etc. induced man made trauma among the affectees but also in non-affectees. It may affect physical as well as psychological well-being of an individual. Psychological consequences include stress, anxiety, anger, aggression, fear, post-traumatic stress disorder etc. The present study intended to explore the psychological consequences of television coverage of terroristic activities in Pakistan. For this purpose, 250 secondary school students (Boys=148 & Girls=102) age ranged 15-17 years (Mean age =16.17 & SD= -816) were selected through simple random sampling and further prorated into two groups: Experimental and control. Television news clips related to terroristic activities were displayed to experimental group while control group was being divulged to news irrelevant to terrorism Finding revealed that the psychological consequences (anxiety, anger and disruptive behavior) are more evident in the experimental condition than control condition. Therefore, it can be concluded that media coverage for the terroristic activities affect the mental health of youth. Implications have also been studied.
Keywords: Terroristic activities, Media coverage, Anger, Anxiety, Disruptive behaviour, Youth
