Working Paper Series

Abstract: This paper explores how media victimization, which involves institutions and individuals, operates to construct risk and fear in society. A grounded theory analysis was conducted to investigate stories of problem in 130 public services announcements and 399 print newspaper articles in Hong Kong. It was found that, along the temporal dimension of story plot, a strong sense of distress is constructed in the narration of preconstructed future under particular essential and intensifying conditions of media victimization. By depicting fear and constructing risk in media content, media victimization is a socially constructed process of narration that enables individuals to anticipate themselves as potential victims. The politics of media victimization is that both government and nongovernment units are two bipolar forces calling for institutionalization in society for better governance.