RESEARCH SHOWS MEDIA EXPOSURE TO TERROR MAY INCREASE STRESS RELATED SYMPTOMS

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Responding to terror (again): A study of the Boston Marathon bombing
Media exposure to prior tragedies may sensitize people to new disasters

The city of Boston endured one of the worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in April 2013, when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. While emergency workers responded to the chaos and law enforcement agencies began a manhunt for the perpetrators, Americans fixed their attention to television screens, Internet news sites and forums, and Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

In doing so, some of those people may have been raising their acute stress levels, with a corresponding increase in symptoms such as difficulty sleeping, a sense of emotional numbness, or re-experiencing their trauma. Such responses, exhibited shortly after exposure to a trauma, have been linked with long-term negative health effects.

A trio of researchers in psychology and social behavior and nursing science at the University of California (UC), Irvine--supported by the Social Psychology Program in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate--released a paper last year finding that for some individuals, intense exposure to the Boston marathon bombing through media coverage could be associated with more stress symptoms than those who had direct exposure to the attack. Their latest research article, published this month, finds that the likelihood of those symptoms developing also increases with multiple exposures to prior trauma.

In other words, the more hours you spend following disasters and tragedies in the media, the more sensitized you may become.

"Media-based exposure to these large, collective traumas--these community disasters--can have cumulative effects on people," said Dana Rose Garfin, one of the paper's authors. "More prior indirect exposures are associated with higher stress responses following subsequent traumatic events."

Garfin, E. Alison Holman and Roxane Cohen Silver used survey results from residents of metropolitan Boston and New York City collected within weeks of the Marathon bombing to examine the relationship between how they responded to the attack and their media-based exposure to three previous traumatic events: the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Superstorm Sandy and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

"We were able to specifically explore the accumulation of exposure to collective disasters," Silver said. "We looked at three different, collective events to which people on the East Coast--and in particular New York and Boston--have been exposed."

The researchers looked at levels of acute stress in Boston and New York residents within a month after the marathon bombing. The Boston residents were much closer to that act of terrorism, but the researchers did not find that proximity necessarily correlated with higher stress levels. According to their report, New Yorkers already had somewhat heightened stress levels, due to their exposure to Superstorm Sandy, 9/11 and the Sandy Hook shooting, making their responses to the Marathon bombing comparable to those of Bostonians.

These findings do not imply that merely reading one article or watching a single program about a community trauma will necessarily increase stress. The research team's first paper found that acute stress symptoms increased as the number of hours per day of bombing-related media exposure in the week following the bombing increased. People who reported three or more hours per day of media exposure reported higher stress symptoms than those who reported less than one hour per day, and individuals who reported six or more hours a day reported the highest levels of symptoms.

Their latest paper also notes that the effects of cumulative indirect trauma exposure aren't universal.

"There's variability in how this happens," Holman said. "And that's another research question that has to be addressed--to understand what leads to those differences, why some people have sensitivities and others don't."

There are other limits on the findings. The data were correlational--they showed a relationship between increased media exposure to traumatic events and the development of stress symptoms, but they don't provide a direct causal link. Still, based on the evidence the researchers have reviewed thus far, coupled with the findings from a similar study they conducted about exposure to media after the 9/11 attacks, the team members have recommendations for news consumers.

"My recommendation is to turn off the TV and not expose yourself too much through social media or other media sources," Holman said. "Find out what you need to know from the news, but don't overexpose yourself."

Garfin emphasized that overexposure is the key factor.

"I wouldn't say don't stay informed or tune out the news," she said. "It's the repeated exposure to things, which probably isn't giving you new information. We're not saying turn off the TV totally. Stay informed, then go on with your daily life."

The researchers are likely to yield much more in the way of results on the topic. The latest paper represents the first wave of data collection they performed. There are four more following. Their next article, they said, will examine how specific types of media--such as television or social media--are associated with acute stress levels.

-- Robert J. Margetta,
Investigators
Dana Rose Garfin
Ellen Holman
Roxane Silver

SECRETARY KERRY'S STATEMENT ON ANNIVERSARY OF BOSTON TERRORIST BOMBING

Statement on One Year Anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombing

Press Statement

John Kerry
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

April 15, 2014

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I was thousands of miles from home when the bombs went off at the Boston marathon, but even from the glow of the television screen it was a sickening kick to the gut to see those familiar streets turned into a war zone in an instant. The very place where I had once cheered my own daughter on to the finish line became a blood-soaked scene from a war. Steps from Copley Square, perfect strangers bore victims to safety; police shielded downed runners; and doctors mended the injured around the clock. I will never forget the phone calls in the days that followed, hearing friends tell me about grandchildren, husbands and wives, struggling for life itself or fighting to save their limbs. Today, my thoughts and prayers remain with those we lost and those still struggling to recover, and today we give thanks for the grace and grit of so many who defied the odds to walk and even run again on new legs.

The horrors of Patriots’ Day 2013 reminded all of us of the worst and the best that mankind has to offer. It taught everyone exactly what the City of Boston was made of, a backbone of steel that runs through our city. But it also reminded us of a humanity that really is universal. And across the globe, people everywhere closed ranks and paid tribute. In London, a week later, marathon runners wore black ribbons on their bibs. In Toronto black signs printed with “04.15.13” lined the streets. Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa had crossed the finish line on Boylston Street two hours before chaos reigned. I met him months later in Addis Abbas where he vowed to give his medal back in solidarity with the victims. Lelisa was true to his word and returned to Boston that summer, medal in hand. And with 6,000 other triumphant runners, he ran 10K through Boston Commons and along Commonwealth Avenue. In Ethiopia, Lelisa told me that “sport should never be used as a battleground.”

Later this month, as runners once again take their mark in the Boston dawn, we will all be reminded that courage and empathy triumphed. That sports are not a battlefield, but an act of community, and that the bravery of police officers, firefighters, medics, runners, and bystanders turned heroes, made the phrase “Boston Strong” meaningful from Massachusetts to Europe to the Horn of Africa.