The launch of the Iranian missile "Pawa 351"/Iranian News Agency
On Saturday night, April 13, Iran launched its first open attack on Israel, using hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles of various types.
The attack began with an official announcement by the Revolutionary Guards in the early evening and continued until first light the next day. The event was accompanied by high feelings of anxiety in the Israeli public as well as a particularly high consumption of news.
An event of this type is classified as a 'Media Event', due to the preparation and information that preceded the attack as well as the use of the media for the purposes of notification, preparation and commentary in a live broadcast to viewers on the various media channels.
This combination of a historical attack by a country with which we have never been at war, which is covered live in the various media, creates the setting of a horror film and the atmosphere of the end of the world. This situation put many under justified pressure, which continued for many hours after the end of the launches from Iran. Dr. Gal Yabetz from the Department of Information Sciences at Bar-Ilan University in collaboration with the iPanel company conducted a special survey to find out what the feelings of the public were on this very unusual day. These are the data that emerged from the survey:
Anxiety, difficulty breathing and confusion:
over 77% percent of the survey participants in Jewish society in Israel reported anxiety of various levels during that evening. Only 20% reported that they did not feel feelings or symptoms of anxiety during the attack itself and about 3.6% of the general public testified to extreme anxiety, which was accompanied by difficulty breathing, confusion and feelings of terror.
Close to the TV:
the evening itself is always accompanied by a particularly high consumption of news. About 40% of the survey participants stated that they consumed more than three hours of news that evening. About 60% of those surveyed stated that the information they consumed from the media helped them during the hours of the attack.
(almost) complete trust in the army:
about 75% stated that they trusted the official information that arrived at the time (it is the IDF and the Home Front Command, as representatives of the government and the army)
. Fear and anxiety. In a previous study conducted during the fourth and fifth weeks of the 'Iron Swords' war, it was found that about half of the public reported an increased consumption of television with more than three hours a day.
In addition, a similar number of hours of viewing and news consumption was recorded in the evening hours alone
They show that, similar to previous studies conducted during the current war, here too, the IDF spokesman provides a reliable picture of the situation that can be trusted in the eyes of the public, even when it comes to events of historical significance such as the one that occurred on Saturday night.