...Are the media the “terrorists’ best friends”? (Laqueur, 1976) This essay will propose that the media coverage of acts of terror occurs for the main purpose of reporting on the news, it heightens the public’s awareness of such incidents and aids in counterterrorism, thus having a detrimental effect on the terrorists and their cause. Laqueur’s statement that the media are the terrorists’ best friends implies that their coverage of terrorism aids the terrorists. We will examine and disprove the hypotheses that coverage of terrorism in the media, and the publicity and attention terrorists gain through media reporting of their acts of terror are beneficial to their cause. For the purposes of this essay media will be used as a “…generic term meaning all the methods or channels of information and entertainment” (P.Wilkinson, 1997:51) and as found within majority of the theories and concepts discussed, the term terrorism, and therefore terrorist, is used to describe violence carried out in the name of a political, ideological or racial cause by a person who wishes to influence the government and, or, intimidate the public. (www.mi5.gov.uk) Terrorism is a psychological weapon (P.Wilkinson, 1997:54), which is dependent upon communication of its threat. The easiest way terrorists can disseminate their messages of threat is through the manipulation of the media. When using the media, the terrorists’ have four core objectives; communicate propaganda; mobilise support from the public...
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...Terrorism Scapegoating Islam for Terrorism Name: Maryam Khalil Class: Social Science HSP3U1 Date: May 30, 2014 Essay Most of the westerners today see Islam as a religion of hate and violence. This is due to the events of the terrorist attacks that have been happening around the world. Islam has been associated with terrorism more and more often due to few extremists who are doing terrible crimes in the name of Islam (Islam Way). The whole world knows what has been happening to Muslims in America after 9/11, but blaming 1.6 billion Muslims for the crimes of less than 10,000 people is not ethical. Those people who have never read the Quran and know nothing about Islam says that Islam teaches to kill people and to commit act of terrorism. The purpose of this essay is to resolve the misconception that Islam teaches terrorism. Islam teaches us to practice peace in every area of our daily life. The real reason why people really become terrorists is hidden from most of the people in world. Today’s media is also misrepresenting Islam and Muslims. Tragic events such as attack on World Trade Centre in New York and bombing of London and Madrid are supposed to be justified by Islam in the minds of some people (Islam Way). The actual origin of terrorism was from the Cold War between Russia and America and the place of its origin was Afghanistan. Islam is a religion of peace. To understand Islam’s point of view on terrorism one must refer to its original source which is definitely...
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...The Broadcasting Effects of Terrorist Attacks Vernon T. Branson HSM435: Psychology of Disaster Instructor: Sandra Rebeor February 20, 2012 Over the years terrorism and homeland security represent a challenge to American journalism. Broadcast journalism bears and extra burden because it is on the front lines of all breaking news and plays a special real-time role in informing the public during a crisis. Since September 11th, new grim realities have confronted the media and redefined the responsibilities of the media as providers of information and holders of public interest. Reporting in an emergency is not merely a matter of getting the story right or beating the competition, it is a matter of saving lives, conveying vital information and contributing to an orderly response. Those who work in and with the media must understand and navigate in an uncertain landscape (Kamien, D. 2006) In today’s current society the new methods of technology can also affect the way the information is disseminated to the public. This technology intensifies immediacy and emotion as disturbing events can hit airwaves before official news media sites even get a hold of the information. Cell phones, PDA’s, camcorders all make the many citizens potential news reporters now. Eyewitness accounts and “man on the street” interviews can give voice to fears and cause more chaos before news officials are given a chance to assess the situation. The most important goal of any news agency...
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...The term terrorism invokes a wide range of concepts in that it also entails numerous definitions that are randomly applied given the type of terrorist attack, the intended target, and the overall goals of the terrorist group. This generalization also allows for the term terrorism to be associated with a number of political and civil rights movements that are inconsistent with the social norms or political goals of the government bodies. Such associations can frequently cause confusion between progression and terrorism. This is especially true in cases of domestic terrorism as these occurrences continue to rise and the media spins various connections between the actions and the message that the attacker is attempting to send or promote. This...
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...Terrorism, by definition, is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. Many people in the United States of America love to link terrorism with Islam or Radical Islam but refuse to acknowledge that there is such thing as Radical Christianity. I did a survey at Fort Bend Christian Academy to all the sophomores students asking them about Terrorism in Christianity and Islam, and the results I got, I was expecting to get. I gave them a few people/groups, asked them to identify the people/groups and tell me what those people/groups are known for. Again, I got the answers I was expecting to get. I asked them if they knew who ISIS, a radical Islamic group, and Osama...
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...Geography 206 Sec.15 4/2/2016 War on Terrorism Introduction Terrorism was dated back all the way to the first century, were a Jewish group called the Sicarii were willing to kill their enemies and their enemies associates in order to drive out the Roman Ruler from Judea. There was also the Hashhashin who was an Islamic sect who were located in Iran and Syria from the 11th to the 13th century. Though these groups were not consider terrorist in the modern sense, the use of violence to affect politics was a clear sign of terrorism. The word terrorism comes from the Reign of Terror which was started by Maxmilien Robespierre in 1793, following the French revolution. The definition of terrorism is an illegitimate use of force or violence against people and their property and is used to intimidate or persuade a government and its civilian population to advance their interest of political or social objectives. It is very effective tactic for the weaker side of a battle and can change flow or pace of a war. The act of terrorism has been used throughout history to prove dominance to a certain group of people. The war on terrorism affects people and the countries these people live in all around the world in many ways, for example, the war on terrorism effect the economy globally. According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, the cost of terrorism to the world was 52.9 billion in 2014, and it was the highest amount since 2001. Not only that the war on terrorism affect the economy, has it also...
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...Eco Terrorism Eco-terrorism is the term used to describe the violence in the interests of environmentalists. There have been cases when environmentalists have inflicted damage to the industrial factories, due to the fact that, they cause pollution and other environmental problems. According to Manning (2012), “Eco-terrorism can be defined as the act of violence or sabotage against person and property commits and support animal right activist.” There are some organizations that participate in it, such as, Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF). These organizations managed to burn down a ski resort and blow up a laboratory among other things. On the other hand, some groups such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are labeled as eco-terrorists although they do not commit such acts of violence against humans- they do not attempt to injure or kill people, but only provoke people through property. This has led to a debate that touches on whether or not to classify these actions as "terrorist" or not. The FBI has given the environmentalists a definition ‘the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally-oriented, sub national group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature.’ John Lewis, a top FBI official says, ‘The number one domestic terrorism threat is the eco-terrorism, animal-rights movement.” Eco-Terrorists...
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...Chapter 1 – Media’s Perception of Terrorism and Influence over the Audience By principle, the media should be impartial, unbiased and independent while illustrating their duties. The main aim and task of the media is to give accurate information to the public which should be based on the truth. During times of war the western media has become a place where the opinion of the audience at home is of vital importance to the success and failure of the war being fought against terrorism. In today’s time, the media is the main means of expression through which people receive information on terrorism or any other conflict, which then enlighten us about the unfolding events. Since the western media undisputedly is the most powerful, it has the means to present government actions in a supportive way, expose atrocities on either side and raise issues to the public which assist their governmental agenda. Here the question that comes to mind is whether the western media portrays terrorism, Muslims and Arabs in an accurate aspect. The western media uses certain techniques to depict terrorists in their own view which have had disastrous effects on Arabs as well as Americans all over the world. It is very unfortunate that despite all the recent terrorist attacks, weather they were significant or minor, the media still has not come up with a definitive definition of “terrorism” and “who is a terrorist”. The main issue with western media reporting on terrorism is their flaw of having discrepancies...
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...Abstract The research is aimed at solving a problem in Media and how it reports. The Problem which this study wishes to study is how is the handling of the Media Landscape in the fields of Terrorism Crime and the Violence in Mindanao and how did it affect Muslim Communities attitudes and Behavior towards the institution of Media. The hypotheses is the there is a significant effect on the behavior of the community and their views on the institution of Media. To gather data and to analyze this problem the researchers used a descriptive status analysis which seeks to answer questions to real facts relating to existing conditions in group of cases that is chosen for study. The sample is determined using a simple random sampling which aimed at a minimum target of 300 respondents which is the 10% of the population of the area which is 3,000. The respondents where chosen out of the 19 Muslim Communities found in Metro Manila, the number of ethnic groups in the area is more diverse than most other Muslim Communities in the Metro Manila area. The subjects aged 15- 40 years regardless of educational background and social status. The study did not put too much stress on the quality of the respondents because it is important that a more honest response and to measure their knowledge of issues, this is done to observe their experiences outside of the Muslim Community. The researchers opted to use a survey method to gather the data needed for this research. The study employed a Likert...
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...News Media and Terrorism: Changing Relationship, Changing Definitions Zohar Kampf Department of Communication Hebrew University In this article I discuss two aspects that are important for understanding the relationship between Western news media and terrorism: the changing representation of terrorists and terrorist attacks in the media, and with it, the changing definition of terrorism. By calling attention to evolving news media practices in times of terrorism, I argue that advanced communication technologies and the emergence of global media ecology since the 1990s has made terrorism more visible in both national and international media landscapes. One consequence is that the more the news media expose terrorism to global audiences via the "front-door", the more controversial the use of the terms terrorism and terrorist become in social, political, and scholarly discourse. The paper addresses the new journalistic practices and their consequences as documented in previous studies on media reporting of terrorism in several national contexts, mostly the UK, the US and Israel. Terrorism, media, and the nation (or, reading about terrorists in the next day's newspaper) Classic definitions of terrorism evolved in a world in which a modernist view reigned supreme. Despite constant debates about how to define the term (Schmid 1983; Schlesinger 1981; Gibbs 1989; Nacos 2007), one conventional definition, at least under U.S. law, characterizing a nationalistic perception...
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...Islam and Human Rights Course Islam and Terrorism April 2016 Introduction: Terrorism has become one of the outstanding features that marked the twenty-first century, as its acts and threats have been in existence for millennia, and because it acts as a real danger facing the human existence. Terrorists have widened their activities and increased their practices in many regions of the world in recent times, such as Turkey, France and Belgium. Terrorist groups have used violence as a mean to achieve their goals and they did not adhere to any religious principles or moral, and they have showed us how they have used advanced weapons and equipment’s in their attacks. The core principle of terrorists is that the aims justify the means, which carries with it the destruction of human civilizations. Muslims are being exposed by campaigns of slander and distortion, waged by western countries, politicians and media, and these campaigns have seen an increase of ferocity after the emergence of the (ISIS) terrorist group in the Arab countries, and specially after the terrorist attacks on some Western countries. Some Arab and Islamic countries participated in awareness campaigns about the thought of the new emerged terrorist group (ISIS) extremist on the Islamic religion, but violence and extremism is no longer mentioned in Western countries, but they became attributed to Muslims, Arabs. Extremism and terrorism has become Islamist, and all this is linked to Islamist groups. I...
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...The representation of terrorism, Islam and Muslim identities on popular US series Homeland Introduction Images of Muslim and Islam have dramatically increased in the media coverage as well as popular culture ever since we have entered the “post-9/11 era”, as Elizabeth Poole observed. (2008:81) The shocking real life images from the horrifying terrorist attack in September 2011 has triggered various interpretation on the discourse of what it means to be Muslim and the image of Islam and its culture in the western media, and still have profound influence even after more than a decade and ongoing. Apart from the coverage on news media, TV entertainment, especially TV dramas also provide a powerful outlet for the popular prevailing discourses on Muslim and Islamic culture, which compare to news reports, leaves a more vivid and graphic impression on audience with its discourse and narratives. The proposed subject I am going to study is revolved around the representation of Islam and Muslim identity in the popular US TV drama Homeland. (Showtime, 2011) Homeland (Showtime, 2011) has been arguably the most successful TV series focusing on the theme of counter-terrorism and national security across the Atlantic since 2011, following its predecessor 24 (Fox, 2001) developed by the same producers. When asked what made the show distinctive compared to its predecessors, Damian Lewis, who played as Sgt Nicholas Brody, the male lead in Homeland replied, “We feel a bit differently...
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...Abstract Global terrorism would appear to be the curse of our modern society. Turn on any television and world news will be reporting on an act of terror or its consequences. Prime examples of this include the destruction of the World Trade Centre, the bombing of the Underground system in London, the Mumbai nightclub bombings to name but a few of the more prominent events over the last decade. These acts have crystallized the focus of public attention to ensure that the topic of terrorism will remain high on the global political agenda for many years to come. However, terrorism is not a new phenomenon. On a global scale, terrorism has been alive and well for many decades. What has changed is the emergence of the global financial market and the modus operendi of the modern day terrorist groups. A terrorist act of sinking a crude oil carrier in the Straits of Hormuz for example, could have a direct impact on the price of crude oil and petroleum on the world market, to say nothing of shipping carrier prices and maritime insurance. Like ripples in a pond, the act would have far reaching consequences. Quantifying terrorism has now become an important tool both for the financial sectors 9who use it predominantly for insurance based risk analysis and also for government bodies who could use it for spotting emerging trends in terrorism and therefore investing in anti and counter terror procedures. So why might it be difficult to quantify terrorism? This paper attempts to answer...
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...towel on his head. This image comes from how the media depicts what they believe a terrorist look like. This could not be more from the truth of the image of a terrorist. It is nearly impossible to point out a terrorist merely just on gender, nationality or skin color. Women are a stereotype that are generally not viewed to hold any type of position of leadership in a terrorist organization. This stereotype is the product of television. Women, in fact, have played significant roles in modern terrorism and have frequently assumed positions of leadership. (White Pg. 95) It is important to understand the historical and current role that women assume...
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...1. According to the 9/11 Commission Report (Chapter 11 – Foresight and Hindsight) “the 9/11 attacks revealed four kinds of failures: in imagination, policy, capabilities, and management.” Choose one of these categories and discuss how the U.S. government failed and what can be done in the future to avoid a similar failure. Although I feel that all of these categories can apply in some way or another, the category I choose to develop my question on is the failure of the management- both operational and institutional. From reading Chapter 11 Foresight and Hindsight in the 9/11 Commission Report, we can see how the management missed numerous opportunities in upsetting the 9/11 plot. According to the Commission’s Report the reasoning behind this is because “Information was not shared, sometimes inadvertently or because of legal misunderstandings. Analysis was not pooled. Effective operations were not launched. Often the handoffs of information were lost across the divide separating the foreign and domestic agencies of the government.” (The 9/11 Commission Report-Pg. 353) Al Qaeda adapted to the failure of our management operations to gain entrance into the United States. Presented in the chapter is an illustration of how operational management failed in protecting our homeland with the case of Mihdhar, Hazmi, and Salem and their trip to Kuala Lumpur. In brief summary, here are the operational opportunities that the United States missed in this case: “1. January 2000: The...
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