This work pretends to investigate which is the type of mass media to w
hich the inhabitants of Mexico City are most exposed in terms of news,
and whether there is a casual relation between this type of exposure
and being afraid of personal and property victimization, considering t
he experience of having been victimized and the insecurity prevailing
in different situations. Therefore, a survey was made in Mexico City w
ith the participation of 600 inhabitants of two communities of differe
nt socioeconomic level: 300 of medium-low level and 300 of medium-high
level. The results show that they had been more frequently exposed to
T.V. news (51 %), followed by radio news (34 %). They seldom watched
T.V. police series or read police news in the newspaper (6.3 and 10.4
%, respectively). Women were more afraid than men of being personally
victimized as well as in their property. We made a step by step regres
sion analysis in men and women. The regression model of fear of person
al victimization in men, was an R=.35, R(2)=.12 and standard error of
.54 with an F=19.53 (2,266) p<.001. The predicting variables were inse
curity in public places and having read the newspaper during the previ
ous week. The regression model in women was an R=.39, R(2)=.15 and sta
ndard error of .47 with an F=28.55 (2,303) p<.001 was obtained. The mo
re determinant Variables were in this case the insecurity in public pl
aces and an older age. As for fear of property victimization in men, a
regression model was obtained with an R=.32, R(2)=.10 and standard er
ror of .55, which showed an F=10.83 (3,269) p<.001. Insecurity in publ
ic places, having read the newspaper more frequently during the last w
eek, and in a lesser grade, insecurity in familiar places, were the si
gnificant predicting variables. The regression model in women obtained
an R=.40, R(2)=.16 and standard error of .59, an F=30.48 (2,307) p<.0
01 was obtained. insecurity in public places and having read more freq
uently the police news in the newspaper were the most determinant vari
ables. These findings are discussed stressing the need to carry out mo
re studies on newspaper information contents in order to find out whic
h aspects are influencing fear.