Terrorism, Counterterrorism And The Media

Some terrorism videos are of the terrorists attacking civilians, burning down buildings, shootings or bomb explosions. (Zero Censorship, 2014-2016) These videos can be viewed from most electronic devices and are uncensored. This material inspires, disgust, and frightens people all in one. Terrorists also use digital media to find potential recruits ready to join the life of terrorism. In recruitment videos terrorists put into the minds of their viewers that what they’re doing is good, and whatever they are going against is bad. They spread their ideology and ask people work with them to get a certain point across or just the feeling of accomplishing something. People who watch these videos and feel like it’s their duty to stand up for the movement are willing to die for the cause, join. Mass media capitalizes from terrorists attacks, this kind of news draws the attention of viewers and readers. Terrorists on the other hand use the mass media coverage to send messages to people world wide, showing they’re a force to be reckoned with and taken seriously. Osama bin Laden was the first terrorists that understood the power of media. With the 9/11 attacks Osama captured the undivided attention of people everywhere. He was the first terrorist to do so. Now ISIS has the power of mass media and use it the same way, to send a message to people everywhere. Communicating

Karma is a belief in which if you do good, the world will reward you, and if you do bad, it will punish you. Just like in physics where every action has a reaction, is how it is in real life. If you commit a good deed, then somehow, someway, the universe will repay you. Bad actions lead to consequences which is what the universe will be in charge of.

That call to action can come in many forms of media and to a global audience. “Terrorist recruitment videos, often released online, have been tailored to appeal to various audiences. A propaganda video, which can still be watched on YouTube of captured U.S. soldier, Bowe R. Bergdahl, compares what seems to be his good treatment under al-Qaeda, to those of U.S.-run prisoner of war camps” (Philipp).

Arguably the most famous event that made people aware of the terrorism acts emerging from the Middle East was the infamous 9/11 terrorists attacks carried out by al-Qaeda, which included over 3000 people killed in New York City and Washington D.C. That attracted a substantial amount of media coverage and stimulated the war on terrorism regarding the U.S. and Middle Eastern threats. In late March of last year, ISIS supporters released a list of about 100 names and pictures of U.S. military personnel, and their goal was to kill them and their families. News outlets immediately jumped on the story, even though the author of the list was anonymous. When writing about the threat, news stations informed readers about the common goals of an ultra terrorist group, not knowing that they may have accidentally fueled a “propaganda campaign” help ISIS further carry out their mission of recruitment. Fathali Moghaddam, a terrorism expert and professor of psychology at Georgetown University supports the idea that the coverage of the media has aided in the evolution of ISIS’ “Hollywoody” image (Fryer-Biggs). ISIS isn’t necessarily complaining about the amount of exposure they receive because the media’s news could be considered “add on” almost to their own forms of propaganda in which they are highly skilled with. “It has its own 24-hour channel [with attractive special

Their whole purpose is to scare people, and the media is fueling that fear. They are feeding off of our media-driven society, using it to their advantage in order to scare an increasing number of people. This leads you to realize that the media’s over-reporting of terrorist attacks just drives on the terrorists, making them realize that their tactics are working, so they’ll continue doing it. The Editorial Board calls these terrorist attacks “cowardly,” reemphasizing that although they believe that the media overcovers terrorism, they still don’t agree with the terrorists themselves. They don’t agree with the attacks, but simply think that it is given more attention than it’s

the similitudes are in their internet use, for information gathering, resembling the uses made of the medium by traditional political organizations, for example, raising funds and disseminating propaganda. And also to hide instructions, manuals, and directions in coded messages or encrypted files. Today, almost all active terrorist organizations maintain websites, and many maintain more than one. Many terrorist organizations are held together through their worldwide network of communities, both cybernetic and physical. The internet has been one significant enabler, which permits anonymous communication, aids recruitment, encourages the sharing of

Different types of terrorist activity were found to have different media impacts. Jetter’s paper, to be presented at the annual European Economic Association congress in Mannheim, Germany, later this month, found that suicide missions receive significantly more media coverage, which he believes could explain their increased popularity among terrorist groups.

“If the media were not there to report terrorist acts and to explain their political and social significance...terrorism as such would cease to exist” said John O'Sullivan, an editor of the Times of London.1 This is also the way many other people feel about the recent increase in terrorist activity; they feel that the media is causing it. The media is doing this by fulfilling the terrorists' need for publicity.2 Terrorists need media publicity in order to get their views spread to the public.3 Because of this need for publicity, terrorists are committing their acts of terrorism in areas where a lot of publicity will be gained; the United States and Western Europe are the most recent targets. The bombings of the federal building in

The media plays the strongest role in the public’s perception of terrorism. A person the news as informative. It informs the public on any social, political, or economic issues. Many believe the output of information that comes from the news is accurate. It feels the primary source and a means of communication to alert the public of any devastating news. “Studies have shown that the media emphasize on certain crimes that leads the public to believe that such crimes are most likely to be committed” (Maras, 2013, p.97). When a tragedy occurs, the news focuses its attention of that specific factor. For example, the terrorist group called ISIS is still surfing through many different media outlets and newspapers.

I would say that the media plays the stronger role in the public’s perception of terrorism, because they give them all the attention they desire and a huge platform whenever an attack occurs. This motivate them to continue to engage in more terrorist events. John Kerry suggested that the media cover acts of terrorism less often, and perhaps people might not "know what's going on." I completely understand where he is coming from; however being an American citizen I would like to know what is going on when it comes to an terrorist attack. The terrorists uses the media to broadcast their evil acts to a bigger audience hoping to instill fear within us. Honestly, I cannot say that media need to not report because I would not want to be in the dark

“…al-Qaeda has established itself as a virtual state that communicates with its “citizens” and cultivates an even larger audience through masterful use of the media, with heavy reliance on the internet” (Seib, 2008). Philip Seib writes in his article, The Al-Qaeda Media Machine, "By using new media to communicate with the rest of the world, al-Qaeda stakes a claim to being an exponent of modernity” (2008). What this does is create a superficial implication of legitimacy, and possibly giving them terrorist groups a form of

The study concluded how media reports are instigated prior to potential future attacks serving as a warning tool. The research investigated 60,000 terrorist attacks between 1970 and 2012, in attempt to identify the causes for the exponential increases in terrorist attack across the world. According to the Global Terrorism Database there have been 8,441 listed terrorist attacks in 2012 a staggering increase of 7,046 from the figure recorded in 1998 (Doward, 2015).As terrorist groups seek to expand their agendas through media , causalities approximately in the past 15 years have soared from 3,387 to 15,396. The aim of terrorist organisation is to attract mass media attention, and with graphic videos persistently released by such groups, it has

Attacks receive more coverage when they harm or kill victims, involve hijackings or aircraft, have known perpetrators, and select targets associated with Western countries. A study of transnational terrorism shows that attacks that inflict injuries are twice as likely to attract media attention as those that do not. The attacks in which the perpetrator can be identified are four times as likely to be reported in a newspaper and ten times as likely to be reported on television (The Media’s Role in International Terrorsim). Attacks in the Middle East or Europe are twice as likely to receive media attention as attacks perpetrated in Latin America (The Media’s Role in International Terrorism). There are very similar factors that influence media coverage of attacks that take place within the United States.

One example of terrorists using the media to leverage their position is mentioned in Boaz Ganor’s contribution to. In Chapter 16 of “The Routledge History of Terrorism”, Boaz Ganor describes a

It is no doubt that terrorism is on the rise again and that the results have been more and more devastating. With a dramatic increase in casualties due to terrorism spiking in 2014, it is inevitable that there will be media coverage. With an increase of media and globalisation, acculturation has become more prevalent in our society. These impacts are sometimes received poorly in western countries through news media; “the news has such a control over what we think and what they feed us that we almost have to see it their way due to what they report”1, indicating that the media has an influence in what we are conditioned to think. After big terrorist attacks like ‘the 1993 world trade centre bombing, the 9/11 bombings, 2009 killings at Fort Hood Army base, and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing’, secondary sources report a 17% increase in the responses saying that Islam promoted and encourages violence. This supports ideas that terrorist attacks increase the fear of the religion through the religions portrayal in the media. In a focus group conducted with a group of Millennials, they agreed with the influence of the media; “At first, [when you see the niqarb] you go, ‘oh god’ because that’s what is what we’re used to and those things are told to be bad in the media”1. This expresses how the media tells us what to think because it’s seen as reliable. Media coverage has played a part in their views and how they perceive Muslims in traditional dress, “The media has a strong grip…