Understanding Terrorism – Six Lectures

2017

The concept of globalization or internationalization of certain wars, which were result of terrorist activities worldwide, as well as the high attention of terrorism coverage worldwide broadcasting might open up better opportunities to journalists – particularly to those who work in democratic countries like U.S.A and India – to improve their coverage. The context is the key: the context of the operation methodology, follow of regulatory bodies guidelines, the journalistic culture and the global environment. It is very important how media presents consequences of terrorist acts, how information is transmitted to public. Television and press have had a significant impact on how public receives terrorist acts and their consequences. As a result, nearly each public survey indicates that responders almost anywhere put fear of terrorist acts on the top of their priority list. In order to reach out a conclusion on this paper, a researcher has gone through number of books related to terro...

Media and Journalism in an Age of Terrorism, 2019

This book is not a litany of the many terrorist attacks that have occurred over the last five years, nor is it a value judgement on how the media have reported on these events. Its ambition is to question the issues at stake in emerging journalistic practices and to raise a number of subsequent ethical questions. In 2017 Linnaeus University took the initiative to organize an international conference focusing on journalism in a world of terrorism – terrorism in the world of journalism. Our aim was to understand what it means in 2018 to report on terrorism in different national contexts. The conference (held 9-10 May, Kalmar) offered a unique opportunity for academics and journalists to come together in order to share experiences, discuss and reflect on the numerous dilemmas journalism in the world of terrorism has to cope with. Accordingly, this book depicts the wide diversity of approaches as well as reports the richness of the dialogue between practitioners and researchers – which constitutes the overall originality of this joint venture project between the Department of Media and Journalism and the Media Institute Fojo. Indeed, conflicts and terrorism nowadays constitute a field of study particularly conducive to assessing the role of media in contemporary democratic societies. The same also applies for societies engaged in transition and democratic consolidation processes, which are simultaneously facing the threat of terrorism (as is, for example, the case of Tunisia, Niger, Algeria and Morocco – countries from which some of the participants came). Some key issues were particularly under scrutiny: How does terrorism affect the media and their coverage of these events? Are the media an integral part of the strategy of terror deployed by the main actors (lately almost exclusively from Islamist extremist groups)? To answer these crucial questions, academics and professionals certainly had to examine all facets of the existing links and interrelations between the terrorist phenomenon and the media. A common experience articulated by researchers and journalists alike is that conflicting crises, as well as terrorist attacks, will necessarily affect reporting because of their sensational manifestations – it is impossible to not tell the story even if it might add to the pain of victim countries.

E-International Relations, 2012

In the past decade, there has been a growing research interest in both media and terrorism studies, as the impacts of acts of terror have been felt in almost every corner of the globe through the media. Recent history has provided plenty of examples of the mutually beneficial relationship between terrorist organizations and the media; however, this symbiosis was largely overlooked among both academics and policy-makers. This concise study aims to address both theoretical and practical, particularly policy-making aspect of this issue. In this regard, this study examines how and why the architects of terrorism exploit the media for their operational efficiency, and how and why the media covers acts of terrorism and benefits from huge audiences. Finally, as the policy-making aspect of the issue is as important as its theoretical significance, a set of policy recommendations will be discussed to help the formulation of better media-related counter-terrorism policies.

2005

During the past 40 years there have been many instances in which media coverage of terrorist events was problematic and irresponsible, evoking public criticism and antagonizing the authorities. This article aims to shed light on the intricate relationships between government, media, and terrorists. Through close scrutiny of irresponsible actions of some media outlets in crisis situations in the U.S., the U.K., Israel, Canada, and Germany, it argues that important lessons should be learned, indicating the need to develop a set of guidelines for responsible media coverage of terror. One might think that in this triangle of government, media, and terrorists the media would side with the government in the fight against terror. This study shows that this was not always the case.

Social Communication

Although the goals of the press and terrorists are not the same, the two groups engage in a mutually beneficial relationship that often appears confusing to scholars and the public. Both the press and the terrorists need and crave the attention of the public. In this paper the authors examine the motives and the methods that the media and the terrorists attempt to achieve their goals. The terrorists need the attention to create terror and spread their propaganda to further their political causes. The media needs the sensationalism created by the terrorists to attract viewers or readers and to positively effect ratings. The study found that the stories about terrorism increased media ratings while unintentionally benefiting the terrorist by publicizing the terrorist cause.

Australian Journal of Political Science, 2012

Scholars of terrorism studies have never really played nicely in the school yard of geopolitical and socio-cultural affairs. Many are at least a little defensive in the face of critical and alternative perspectives in a field in which, prior to 9/11, traditionalists-orthodox folk-enjoyed a mostly unchallenged monopoly. All that changed in the aftermath of 11 September 2001 when the imaginations of scholars from diverse academic backgrounds were captured by low-tech terrorists and their brazen attacks on global power. Derogatory criticisms and nasty debates were to follow. After hearing a presentation at a major counterterrorism conference from a terrorism academic with a sociological and cultural studies background, a well-known terrorism expert turned to me and said, 'Has he ever been in the military? What are his credentials? Does he work in intelligence?' The suggestion was that terrorism studies should only be practised by traditional intellectuals-white males, conservative, with in this case military backgrounds or credentials. It would be a little convenient to simply blame the traditionalists; the orthodox practitioners of terrorism studies. Some of the new-school academics have been just as antisocial in the playground. The admirable formative aspirations of critical studies 'on' terror have, unfortunately, spiralled into mostly repetition and problematic 'Eureka!'-type moments. Critical terror studies has become well known for thinking that something that is not all that new is new. Some scholars in this field 'discover' things of which traditionalists were already well aware. Some are effectively neo-Wilkinsonians, yet I am not certain they are all that familiar with his work. Freedman and Thussu's Media and Terrorism: Global Perspectives is among the best works that I have encountered for negotiating this terrain. This edited collection is mostly unpretentious, aware and respectful of key moments in an ageing discipline, whilst remaining critically aware of social theory, the world and-importantly-themselves. The book's title is itself informative. Media and Terrorism establishes the order of analysisthis book is first and foremost about the media. The contributors are media studies academics of various persuasions. Despite this, the authors as a collective do an amazing job of accounting for the meanings and consequences of terrorism across social, cultural, geographical and psychological boundaries. Whilst being about 'the media' this book captures the post-9/11 multi-disciplinarity of terrorism studies. The chapters are incredibly diverse and a full account of each is beyond the space available here, but I will highlight a few that seem especially significant. Toby Miller's chapter 'Terrorism and Global Popular Culture' steals the show. I chose to read it alongside Mike Davis' searching account of Californian universities in City of Quartz (2006). Miller's analysis is far reaching and leaves the reader feeling uneasy (which I think he intends). My PlayStation now reminds me of global structures of imperial domination that implicate not only the military-industrial complex but also Hollywood and the computer gaming industry. I'd rather not think about how far this imperialism might stretch into other parts of my life. David Miller and Rizwaan Sabir's chapter, 'Propaganda and Terrorism', is an important contribution to empirical terrorism studies. In the Herman and Chomsky tradition, media discourses about terrorism are also about propaganda. The post-9/11 world has opened up a chasm from which 'propaganda' has effortlessly emerged. I too have long been interested in the types of thinking and writing that terrorism makes possible (and impossible). But propaganda, as the authors point out, is not simply accidental or opportunistic. It requires planning. I have long been a fan of Danny Schechter and his News Dissector blog. I subscribed as a PhD student and spent many hours sifting through the content that Schechter shared with the blogosphere. It was about time that he achieved the status of a terrorism expert (terror academicus). In 'Challenging the Media War' he deploys the skill and creativity of Michael Moore, but with only some of the notoriety. Schechter reminds us of the price of collusion between seats of power in the media and government. Among his targets is apologist-turnedcritic, newsreader Dan Rather. Rather helped highlight the news media's complicity in framing media coverage of post-9/11 wars in the ways that the Bush administration wanted, but it should BOOK REVIEWS 737

The primary focus of this paper is to offer an in-depth analysis of the media as it relates to terrorism, specifically the promotion of and counter-tactics for terrorism. Marshall McLuhan, shortly after the advent of the 24/7 news cycle said, “The satellite will distribute terrorist paranoia around the world in living color to match each extracting disruptive event.” It was McLuhan’s work that also set forth the dictum of “the medium is the message.” This means that it is the medium that dictates the message. The press is a tool unlike any other; it shaped the way people are able to communicate and express ideas. What was once relegated to small regional distribution has evolved into a vast network of instant communication and information distribution. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the now technological giant Alphabet owned the company “Google” and set their page on the World Wide Web to display a message that told visitors that to find information about the events unfolding on that day they must turn on their television or radio. The reason for this, as stated by Google, was that the Internet was unable to keep up the speed of the latest information. Almost 20 years later, this idea seems absurd, as the most real-time updates in news and events are executed in the World Wide Web.

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, violent or destructive acts committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands." All the developed, developing nations have confronted the horrors of Terrorism. It is one of him devastating threats for the whole world. Due to the advent of Terrorism in humane life, we have been confined to in destruction. To live the life of a common man becomes unendurable. Further the role of media and science is very much evident in Terrorism. "Terror" means disastrous fear. It becomes highly destructive and leading us towards the "Holocaust".

Advances in Human and Social Aspects of Technology, 2014

Scholars interested in communication technologies and security issues, including terrorism and the mass media, may have never heard of the term "terroredia"-that is, until they read Mahmoud Eid's Exchanging Terrorism Oxygen for Media Airwaves: The Age of Terroredia. In this edited volume, Eid navigates a complex and contentious area of scholarship to offer a cogent analysis of the relationship between media and terrorism. The renewed salience of terrorism in the public imagination, world public opinion, and international policy agendas is occurring not only in the wake of Al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks on the U.S., but also in the context of increasing global attention directed at the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) after it beheaded Western hostages and broadcast the killings online. How "old" and "new" media outlets and terrorist organizations co-depend on one another is the main thrust of the book. Specifically, this book aims to provide a comprehensive account of "the phenomenal relationship between terrorists and media personnel for achieving goals of both parties" (p. xvi). But what is "terroredia"? Eid argues that the traditional assumption of the "symbiotic" relationship between the media and terrorists needs to be reconsidered to transcend the traditional "culpable media" and "vulnerable media" (p. 3) models, in which the media are either accused of inciting terrorism or absolving them of such transgression. Instead of "symbiosis," the book proposes an inquiry into the interactive relationship between the media and terrorism-one that underscores both the symmetrical and asymmetrical dimensions of that "codependency." This is the essence of "terroredia," which is The interactive, codependent, and inseparable relationship between terrorism and the media, in which acts of terrorism and their media coverage are essentially exchanged to achieve the ultimate aims of both parties-exchanging terrorism's wide-ranging publicity and public attention (i.e. oxygen) for media's wide-ranging reach and influence (e.g. airwaves). (p. 4) "Terroredia" emphasizes the ultimate mediatization of terrorism and the mutually beneficial relationship that binds terrorists and media personnel. While terrorists indeed court media exposure to influence the public and policymakers through intimidating acts of violence, terrorism offers media outlets an emotionally gripping story that attracts massive audiences. Moreover, "a vicious cycle of violence, media attention, and public fear" (p. 5) fuels the phenomenon of "terroredia." The book's diverse contributions illustrate both the complicated and interdisciplinary enterprise of studying terrorism, including definitional and methodological questions. Eid's second chapter of the volume begins the task of untangling the complexity of this project in a comprehensive review of previous terrorism research, revis