Recession Anxiety Seeps Into Everyday Lives

This article discusses people who have an increase in panic attacks due to anxiety about the recession. Some people who are not actually having any financial troubles become debilitatingly anxious if they think too much about the economic situation. The media's focus on economic issues has led to many people feeling anxious about things to which they would normally not pay any attention. The media using scary phrases like "economic crisis" leads to a general public feeling of fear. In our class discussions of the media, we talked about the ways in which journalists are responsible for creating realities. Today's media has created a reality of economic uncertainty of which we are all a part. This reality is causing people to become anxious and panic despite the fact that their own economic situations are stable. In the case of the people quoted in this article, the reality presented by the media has overwhelmed and obscured these individual's personal realities.