Stuck on a hw question..Please help?

Question

What types of situations might cause a contemporary American town to become afflicted by a general hysteria?

I need to write half a page yet i can't think of anything to write about it. Please help.

Answer 1

Any situation where there are a lot of people with a big unknown.

Examples:

A massive hurricane and how to escape is unknown...jammed roads etc. Think Katrina.

A poisoned water supply...how will we get water?

A killer on the loose...will I be next? Think DC sniper.

A rapidly spreading, uncurable disease. Think avian bird flu or SARS.

Those will all cause hysteria.

Regards,

Mysstere

Answer 2

Any event misreported by the media could cause a panic . So could deliberate disinformation. (It was days before the government and Edison Electric let the folks at 3 mile island know there was a problem...national news was blocked out.) Bird Flu which is a very real threat would throw the US into total panic because we still do not have the resources to fight it. Bird Flu could kill millions in a matter of days. Think that might start a panic. I sure do.
Well, check the article below out. This really happened over a Halloween trick!


Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact
Many Flee Homes to Escape 'Gas Raid From Mars'--Phone Calls Swamp Police at Broadcast of Wells Fantasy

This article appeared in the New York Times on Oct. 31, 1938.

A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o'clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of H. G. Wells's fantasy, "The War of the Worlds," led thousands to believe that invading Martians were spreading death and destruction in New Jersey and New York.

The broadcast disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems. At least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria.

In Newark, in a single block , more than twenty families rushed out of their houses with wet handkerchiefs and towels over their faces to flee from what they believed was to be a gas raid.
Throughout New York families left their homes. Thousands of persons called the police, newspapers and radio stations here and in other cities of the United States and Canada seeking advice on protective measures against the raids.

The program was produced by Mr. Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air over station WABC and the Columbia Broadcasting System's coast-to-coast network, from 8 to 9 o'clock.

The radio play was to simulate a regular radio program with a "break-in" for the material of the play. Radio listeners, apparently, missed or did not listen to the introduction and they ignored three additional announcements made during the broadcast emphasizing its fictional nature.
Mr. Welles opened the program with a description of the series of which it is a part. The simulated program began. A weather report was given. An announcer remarked that the program would be continued from a hotel, with dance music. For a few moments a dance program was given in the usual manner. Then there was a "break-in" with a "flash" about a professor at an observatory noting a series of gas explosions on the planet Mars.

News bulletins and scene broadcasts followed, reporting the landing of a "meteor" near Princeton N. J., "killing" 1,500 persons and the discovery that the "meteor" was a "metal cylinder" containing strange creatures from Mars armed with "death rays" to open hostilities against the inhabitants of the earth.
Despite the fantastic nature of the reported "occurrences," the program caused fright and panic throughout the area of the broadcast.

Telephone lines were tied up with calls from listeners or persons who had heard of the broadcasts. Many sought first to verify the reports. But large numbers, obviously in a state of terror, asked how they could follow the broadcast's advice and flee from the city, whether they would be safer in the "gas raid" in the cellar or on the roof, how they could safeguard their children.

So many calls came to newspapers and so many newspapers found it advisable to check on the reports despite their fantastic content that The Associated Press sent out the following at 8:48 P. M.:

"Note to Editors: Queries to newspapers from radio listeners throughout the United States tonight, regarding a reported meteor fall which killed a number of New Jerseyites, are the result of a studio dramatization. The A. P."

Similarly police teletype systems carried notices to all stationhouses, and police short-wave radio stations notified police radio cars that the event was imaginary.

Message From the Police

The New York police sent out the following:

"To all receivers: Station WABC informs us that the broadcast just concluded over that station was a dramatization of a play. No cause for alarm."

All this over a Halloween radio show.
More info at the website if you wish to cite this. You could get half a page from this easily. I hope this is helpful to you.

Answer 3

two come to mind quickly. The bombing in Oklahoma and the columbine killings. But anything that people would not believe could happen is a good place to start. The crashes into the twin towers that were not suppose to collapse.

Answer 4

a million. D-widespread appraisal is the preliminary assessment of no remember if the form a million) is irrelevent to you, 2) relevent, yet not threatning, and 3) stressful 2. A-keeping off and retreating isn't an decision, and there is not any could desire to be alarmed. having intense materials is the main 3. C-secondary appraisal is once you evaluate your coping materials and ideas for coping with the strain.

Answer 5

There might be the alleged citing of a flying saucer.

There could be a terrorist attack or talk of an impending one.

How about the threat of a plague.

A dam that was about to break.

The discovery that the town was radioactive.

A hurricane that was about to hit.

Answer 6

The threat of an atomic bomb being dropped on their city.

If all the electricity went off and no one had any way to get it fixed for a week.

If everyone's computer suddenly crashed.

Answer 7

Some terrorist organization claiming to have released a biological weapon within the city limits

Answer 8

Think sci-fi...

War of the Worlds
Outbreak
Jericho
Resident Evil

Answer 9

My first thought was the building of a Wal-Mart ...ha ha
A few others...
A devastating weather occurrence (tornado, hurricane)
A serial killer

Answer 10

Illegal immigration
Terrorism
Child abduction
Multiple rapes
Natural disasters such as hurricanes