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Culture of fear is the term used by some sociologists, anthropologists, media critics and intellectuals in general to refer to a culture in which the feelings of fear and anxiety are carefully and repeatedly created and fed by the mass media - through the manipulation of words, facts, news, sources or data - allegedly in order to induce certain personal behaviors, justify governmental actions or policies (at home or abroad), keep people consumming, ellect demagogic politicians, and/or deviate the public´s attention from social issues like poverty, social security, unemployment, gun control or pollution.

According to some authors like linguist Noam Chomsky, sociologist Barry Glassner or writer/filmmaker Michael Moore, these manipulations would be carried out through the following techniques, among others :

• the careful selection and omission of news (some relevant facts are showed and some are not);

• the distortion of statistics or numbers;

• the transformation of single events into social epidemics;

• the deliberate corruption and distortion of words or terminology according to specific goals;

• the "ellection" of disqualified people as experts or "reknowned" specialists;

• the stigmatization of minorities, especially when associated with criminal acts or degrading behaviors;

• the generalization of complex and multifaceted situations;

• the causal inversion (turning a cause into an effect or vice-versa).