0663 - When I was a kid, I thought quicksand was going to be a bigger problem than it is: How Popular Culture Shapes Our Fears About Risk

Course Description

Many of us first learn about risks not through direct experience, but through what sociologist Ulrich Beck called “second-hand non-experience.” In other words, most of what we know about risks—whether nuclear war, pandemics, or new technologies—comes from news, film, television, books, and, today, social media. Communication scholars describe this as the mediation of risk: stories about danger are filtered through familiar narratives and repeated storylines. The way these stories are framed shapes how we interpret them and how seriously we take them. Media can even “pre-mediate” our expectations, priming us to anticipate certain threats and amplifying our fears. In this talk, I will focus on how popular stories both reflect and help create what cultural theorists call a “structure of feeling”: the shared mood or emotional atmosphere of a particular period. Looking back to the mid-20th century and moving forward to today, popular culture provides an archive of these changing emotional climates. For example, alien invasion films echoed of the 1950s and 60s reflected then-new Cold War fears. Disaster movies and strange phenomena books popular in the 1970s captured anxieties about environmental and technological breakdown. More recent popular culture reflects shifting concerns about climate change, pandemics, geopolitics, societal breakdown, and artificial intelligence, among other concerns. By examining popular cultural texts, my talk will illustrate the ways we can better understand how media shape our sense of what is risky—and why certain dangers feel especially urgent at particular moments in time.

Instructor

Dr. Penelope Ironstone is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she teaches and conducts research on risk communication, health and science communication, and the cultural dimensions of how societies understand and respond to hazards. Her academic work draws on cultural studies and media analysis to explore how pandemics, scientific knowledge, public health messaging, misinformation, and other risk-related narratives circulate through popular media and public discourse. Her research includes culturally grounded examinations of popular understandings of microbes —from influenza to COVID-19 to the human microbiome—and investigations into how media and cultural texts shape public perceptions of risk and uncertainty. A past recipient of the Laurier Award for Teaching Excellence, Dr. Ironstone offers courses that engage students with the production and interpretation of risk communication across historical and contemporary contexts, helping them critically assess how media and culture frame what we understand as danger and safety.

Location

Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex, Community Pavilion (101 Father David Bauer Drive, Waterloo, ON)

Parking is free.
Download the facility map (PDF) to find facilities and parking lots.

Notes

Lecture Time : 130-300 pm
Lecture Cost: $16.00 + HST

Participants must register before the day of the lecture.
Laurier’s online registration system accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Visa Debit, and MasterCard Debit.
You will only be able to purchase 1 seat at the time of registration. If looking to register more than 1 person, each registrant will require their own account to complete the registration.
Lectures are non-refundable

Contact

If you have any questions please email lifelonglearning@wlu.ca.