Final answer:
The phenomenon where more Americans fear dying of bird flu than in a car crash due to media coverage is known as the availability heuristic, which is influenced by media salience, cultivation theory, and media framing.
Step-by-step explanation:
If research demonstrated that more Americans feared dying of bird flu than dying in a car crash, it would likely be due to the extensive media coverage of the bird flu epidemic. This demonstrates what psychologists refer to as availability heuristic.
The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a person’s mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method or decision. The reason this occurs is because individuals tend to overestimate the importance of the information that is available to them. For example, if the media extensively covers the bird flu, people start to believe it is a common cause of death due to its media salience. However, this perception might not align with statistical facts, such as the likelihood of dying from a car accident, which is statistically higher but less sensationalized in the media.
The effect of media on the public's perception can also be related to the cultivation theory, which suggests that long-term exposure to media content shapes the audience’s perceptions of reality. Similarly, media framing can influence the public, by the way the news is presented, which can highlight certain aspects and downplay others, affecting how an event or statistic is perceived by the audience.