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Psychological Impact of Media Exposure to Mass Trauma
Mass traumatic events, such as natural disasters, mass shootings, and acts of terrorism, are widely covered by a variety of media platforms. Many individuals turn to the media to stay informed about current events, especially events that are shocking and traumatic in nature. Mass media coverage of large-scale traumatic events has the potential to adversely impact one’s psychological wellbeing. Although direct exposure to traumatic events has a larger effect on psychological outcomes, research indicates that individuals who are indirectly exposed to a traumatic event through the media reported psychological distress. Current research on media exposure to mass trauma and associated psychological outcomes focuses primarily on post-traumatic and acute stress.

DSM-5 PTSD Criteria on Media Exposure to Mass Exposure
In the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), individuals who witness mass trauma through media platforms do not meet diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) unless the exposure is work-related. It is unclear why the DSM-5 has excluded indirect exposure to trauma through the media. Some argue that the rates of PTSD will be overestimated if non-professional media exposure to a traumatic event is included in the DSM-5. However, others argue that existing research suggests that individuals who were exposed to traumatic events through the media have met PTSD criteria. While media exposure to mass trauma has been associated with increased psychological distress, post-traumatic symptoms are often minimal, brief, and short of meeting diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

Uncertainty Hypothesis
The potential psychological impact of mass media coverage on large-scale traumatic events is often understood within the context of the uncertainty hypothesis. This hypothesis states that individuals may feel uncertain after a community traumatic event, which might induce anxiety. In this current day and age, many individuals seek information from media sources in order to minimize uncertainty and associated worries. However, media platforms often circulate distressing content of the traumatic event, which can actually increase psychological distress. Participants from one study, who experienced post-traumatic stress (PTS) six months after viewing media content on the Boston Marathon bombings, reported anxiety about future mass traumatic events at the second anniversary of the event. When the Pulse nightclub massacre occurred several years after the marathon bombings, this same sample reported higher rates of acute stress and media consumption of the massacre.

Emotional Contagion
Emotional contagion theory is another mechanism that might explain the association between media exposure to mass trauma and negative psychological outcomes. This theory states that individuals mimic the emotional expression of others, which creates a genuine feeling of that emotion. Since the media portrays the emotional suffering of individuals present during mass trauma, it is natural for viewers to experience empathy, which can potentially evoke feelings of anxiety and stress similar to those personally affected by the trauma.

Psychological Impact
Indirect exposure to mass trauma through media platforms is associated with adverse psychological outcomes. The majority of research studies have measured psychological outcomes in terms of PTS. One study suggests that individuals who were exposed to mass trauma through television viewing experienced increased rates of PTS and PTSD caseness. Research also suggests that there is a significant, albeit small, effect of media coverage of disaster events on PTS in youths and adults. Individuals who view media content of large-scale traumatic events might also experience anxiety, depressive symptoms, anger, fear, and a heightened sense of threat. Individuals indirectly exposed to mass trauma through the media may also experience insomnia well after the date of the traumatic event. It is important to note that insomnia still occurs even when PTS symptoms are controlled for.

Media-Related Risk Factors
There are certain media-related factors that put individuals at risk of developing adverse psychological outcomes after a large-scale traumatic event. First, the amount of time spent viewing media coverage of traumatic events increases one’s risk of developing negative psychological outcomes. In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombings, individuals who consumed six or more hours of trauma-related media each day over the course of a week experienced significantly higher rates of acute stress than those who consumed less media coverage of the event.

Relatedly, increased media exposure to images of the traumatic event can result in higher rates of psychological distress. Distressing media content might include bloody images, emotional distress of witnesses, or live footage of the traumatic event taking place. For example, increased media exposure to images of 9/11, such as individuals jumping from the World Trade Center, predicted acute distress. One study found that there is no relationship between the type of media platform used and PTS, which suggests that media content, not media type, is a risk factor for psychological distress.

An individual’s subjective experience of a large-scale traumatic event might be another possible explanation for media-induced posttraumatic distress. One research study found that adolescents’ perceived endangerment of terrorism, rather than the amount of media consumption, predicted negative psychological distress. Physical proximity to a traumatic event is another potential risk factor for adverse psychological outcomes in individuals indirectly exposed to a trauma through the media. Relatedly, communities that experienced previous traumatic events show larger adverse psychological reactions when exposed to future disaster-related media coverage.

It is possible that survivors of mass trauma are approached by media outlets to participate in interviews immediately after the traumatic event took place. Survivors who were interviewed during the aftermath of the Norwegian Utøya terroristic attack experienced greater PTS when they perceived their media participation as distressing. Similarly, directly traumatized youth who were approached by media interviewers after the Jokela school shooting experienced higher PTS scores.