FEAR AND LOATHING ON REALITY TELEVISION - AN ANALYSIS OF AMERICA MOST WANTED AND UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

From early newspapers to contemporary television drama, the media demonstrate a continuing fascination with crime. Two recent television programs, ''America's Most Wanted'' and ''Unsolved Mysteries,'' claim to offer a different treatment of crime in that these programs dramatize ''real'' crimes and encourage the television audience to assist in locating fugitives. Content analysis of the programs reveals that depictions of crime are consistent with television crime drama, and that these dramatizations resemble urban legends in which crime symbolizes the uncertainties of modern life. The programs convey an unpredictable world filled with unsafe people and places. This sense of modern danger justifies the programs' solicitation of audience participation through surveillance.