Terrorism and the Mass Media After Al Qaeda: a Change of Course?

Social and cultural aspects play a significant role in the media’s unflattering depiction of Islamic extremists, which correlates directly to military spending and relations with the Middle East. Since 9/11, when Arabs attacked the U.S. on behalf of Afghan Islamic extremists, relations with the Middle East have been tense, according to Thomas Kean and others in "National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States” from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Kean and others report that repercussions of the 9/11 attacks included homeland security improvements. Dov S. Zakheim, former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense and Chief Financial Officer, similarly discussed that relations worsened after 9/11 in "September 11: A Decade Later What 9/11 Has Wrought”, which details the effects

Many Americans do not understand the implication and role of terrorism in the modern world. Terrorism is not a something that can be measured or held in hand. It is a theoretical idea that has many different meanings to many different people (Aziz, 2014). U.S. Citizens in general need to understand the full effect of modern terrorism. Blinded by media coverage and dramatized by slow-motion video replay of terrorist attacks,

There are many intelligent candidates that will be running for presidency in the next election. All of them come from a different back ground and have a different goal to achieve while they are in the president’s seat. However, I believe Ted Cruz would be a great candidate to the white house seat. Ted Cruz is a senator from Texas and his gifted talent in public speaking has given him a great opportunity to defeat his fellow competitors. He graduated at Houston's Second Baptist High School as a valedictorian of his class. He used his talent and further his education at Princeton University. He graduated in 1992; however, he is not yet

For instance, documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis argues that the so called “war on terror” is just another Cold War, where there is a good guy and a bad guy. This time however, instead of the bad guy being the Soviet Union, the bad guy is a “phantom enemy” that we assumed to be the worldwide terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. Curtis also does not believe in the description of Al-Qaeda as being a worldwide terrorist organization, centered around one man, Osama bin Laden. Thus, he believes that Al-Qaeda “is more of a world view, a set of ideas around which to inspire a diverse range of political and/or militant, Islamic groups from Africa, the Middle East and Asia” (McLaughlin 193). The propaganda created by the attacks of 9/11, proposed by George Bush and expanded upon by the media, was supported by the suspicion of the rise of Al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the security measures taken around the world in order to defend against these organizations (McLaughlin 194). The media, by covering the “war on terror” in such detail, had actually been doing exactly what these organizations want, because they feed on the attention given by the nations affected by these

Firstly, the “war on terror” had reduced the humanitarian concerns down, and the foreign policy. Furthermore, media coverage had become more deferential and constrained: therefore, reducing the chances of media influencing policy. The “war on terror” most importantly provided journalists with a guide in which they could understand global events and policy makers with the ability to justify a more aggressive foreign policy plan. At last, the “war on terror” had constructed an ideological bond between journalist and policy makers which created stronger media management. Techniques developed to display coverage of certain issues over others to frame stories that support official

As a growing majority of middle class families fall victim to the economic devastation of the Great Recession, suffering from prolonged unemployment, depleted job markets and a rising cost of living, the threat of potential terrorist attacks striking America and its interests seems to have faded into the proverbial background of our collective consciousness. With a transfer of power from the hawkish Bush Administration to President Obama and his more diplomatic approach, major media outlets in print, on television and in the blogosphere, which just a few years ago regaled with patriotic fervor while espousing the possible peril awaiting the nation, have all but abandoned their coverage of terrorist activity. This reversal in focus by both individuals and institutions may simply be a natural response to the reduced capabilities of al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks, as confirmed by the leading authority on terrorism and its effects, and national security analyst for the CNN network, Peter Bergen, who observed recently that "the Obama administration has played a large role in reducing terrorist threats by continuing and scaling up many of former President George W. Bush's counter-terrorist methods" (Bennetch 1).

Robert Denton’s Language, Symbols, and Media article depicts the terrible events that happened on September 11, 2001 that will forever be held and regarded as a day of infamy in America’s history. These terrorist attacks corrupted hundreds of families and murdered thousands of individuals. Terrorism has been a major national and international problem for hundreds of years.

Write an original posting reflecting on the lecture/s you have viewed. Briefly describe the main points of the lecture and its implications for teaching immigrants.

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).

During the Cold War and the War on Terror, the United States of America used the media to depict Soviet and Middle Eastern people as foreign enemies that posed a threat to U.S. national security. The bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 changed the lives of millions of Muslims forever because they began to be targeted by U.S. media corporations. Media corporations started to depict Muslims in the Middle East as terrorists to persuade the American public to wage the War on Terror in the Middle East in order to stop the spread of terrorism and homeland threats, like 9/11, from occurring again. However, even though media corporations portrayed the War on Terror as a justification to defeat terrorism and to protect the

hat do you think when you look at a Muslim? A person of faith? An expert? Maybe even a friend. Or oppressed, brainwashed, a terrorist? Undeniably mass media has developed the primary source of information and communication for the majority of, if not all, members of modern societies. Amid the revolution mass media is causing, what is less discussed is the drastic impact it is having on the misrepresentation of Muslims in society worldwide. Modern society today, segregate and single out all Muslims as terrorists due to a minority of extremist’s organizations initiating terrorism in the name of Islam, the whole Muslim community is blamed for it.

“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

September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and profit-driven espousal to round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute coverage, demonstrated an obsession with the attacks, by broadcasting almost nothing but the latest developments in the search and rescue efforts and investigations

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.

Besides friends using social media to connect with other friends or families keeping in touch with other relatives who are at a distance, in the recent years, terrorists have taken advantage of social media and used it as a platform to threaten and send jaw dropping messages to some of the most popular outlets across the nation. For this paper, I will examine how terrorists have used social media as propaganda. I will also analyze the trends in media and terrorism, and how it has provided access for the promotion of the violent messages as well as allowing the news of terrorist attacks and assassinations to reach many parts of the world within a matter of minutes.