NAME: AGEDAH DORCAS

MATRIC NO: 13BE014736

COURSE: MAC 213
LECTURER: DR. ADA PETER
DATE: 23/09/2014

TERRORISM AND THE MEDIA

INTRODUCTION

Terrorism and the media, this points out how the media has helped in
propagating terrorism and how terrorist groups use the media to create
awareness. Terrorist groups have discovered that violence alone is not the
best way of creating awareness and gaining the overall victory. They now
believe that the media is an essential tool in instilling fear in the hearts of
citizens which can lead to emotional destabilization. Terrorist attacks are
designed to create an atmosphere of fear or a sense of threat, they need
media publicity and they hope to draw attention through the media which
broadcasts their violent activities across the country and across the globe.
The minister of information in Nigeria, Mr. labaran Maku, has charged
the media to be mindful of its reports, especially in conflict and terrorism
situations, stating that activities of the terrorists have refused to take the
exit door because the media offer them free space and coverage. He said
terrorism is still much around because the media was constantly granting
free space for the extremists to sell their ideologies. He stated that antidemocrats exploit the media to manipulate them into reporting what they
want them to report. Terrorist depend solely on the media, for example Boko
Haram terrorist group gained publicity through the adoption of over 200 girls
in Chibok and the media gravely helped in their publicity. All over the world
all the media agencies kept on reporting on this incidence giving this terrorist
group fame and power, this action prompted them to commit more attacks
causing the citizens devastating psychological effects.
The media believes that their job is to inform their audience on
important issues happening around but when it comes to terrorist attack
they should not be too precise, they should sieve the news in a way it will not
arouse fear and crisis. Terrorists need publicity, they believe any publicity
surrounding a terrorist act alerts the world that a problem exists that cannot
be ignored and must be addressed. In hostage situations terrorists need to
have details on identity, number and value of hostages, as well as details
about pending rescue attempts, and details on the public exposure of their
operation. Terrorist depend so much on the media, they want the media to
amplify panic, spread fear, to facilitate economic loss to make populations
loose faith in their governments ability to protect them and to trigger
government and popular overreaction to specific incidents and the overall
threat of terrorism.

Paletz, D. L. & Schmid, P. A. (1992). Terrorism and the Media.

California: SAGE publications.
Terrorism and the Media talks about the achievements and failures of
terrorism. It also talks about how the media addresses media related issues
such as freedom of the press, codes of ethics, intimidation, victimization,
technology and censorship. It also points on how the media is involved in and
affected by insurgent terrorism. This book is talking about the activities of
the media towards terrorism whether the media is a helping hand or whether
the media is against terrorism or whether the media is just doing its rightful
function.

Cohen-Almagor, R. (2005). Media Coverage of Acts of Terrorism:

Troubling Episodes and suggested Guidelines. Canadian
Journal of Communication, 30(3).
This journal talks about that activities of the media towards terrorism,
it goes deep to tell us how the media operates in terms of terrorism. This
journal talks about there being guidelines for the media when writing news
about terrorism. These guidelines include Media professionals should have
background information about the terrorists they are required to cover. They
should do research prior to their coverage. We should learn from the Hanafi
incident, which luckily did not end with the murder of a hostage just because
one reporter was ill-informed and did not do his homework as he should
have.
This journal goes on to explain the dos and donts of the media, it
concentrates on my research topic which is terrorism and the media. It gives
us a clear understanding of why the media is subjective to terrorism and how
terrorist cannot do without the media.

Adesina, L. A. (2009). The Role of the Media in Reporting Terrorism: A

Personal Viewpoint. The Journal of Communication and Media Research,
1(1), 1-15.
This journal talks about the major function of the media which is
information and this information is received by the audience. Reporting on
terrorism presents a number of dilemmas and paradoxes to journalists whose

responsibility is to inform the public objectively, fairly and accurately. It is a

dilemma to them because one of the main objectives of a terrorist act is to
maximize publicity in order to create a psychological effect on the public.
This leads to some questions concerning the role of the media in reporting
terrorism, For example, : is the media acting as an accomplice to the aims
of the terrorists, who crave cheap publicity; is the media not magnifying the
threat and fear in the way they report terrorism instead of allaying the fear.
This journal also points out the relationship between the media and terrorist.
This journals lays emphasis on the topic terrorism and the media
because it points out how the media operates in terms of terrorist and how
news stories are delivered during terrorist attacks, whether it is for publicity
of the terrorist or information to the masses.

Martin, J. L. (2008). The Medias role in International Terrorism.

Terrorism, 8(2), 127-146.
This paper looks at the symbiotic relationship that exists between
terrorism and mass media. Each exploits the other and terrorism has no
meaning without media coverage in this age of mass communication.
Terrorists use mass media for both tactical and strategic purposes.
While the mass media do, generally, cover terrorism at a rate of at
least nine incidents per day worldwide, according to a pilot study undertaken
for this paper, the press uses the term terrorist sparingly, preferring such
neutral terms as guerrilla, rebel, and paramilitary, or using no valueladen
adjectives at all. (Each country in the study, except Egypt, did, however,
have its pet terrorists.) This raises the question of the effectiveness of
terrorism. The press gives terrorists publicity but often omits the propaganda
message that terrorists would like to see accompanying reports of their
exploits, thus reducing terrorism to mere crime or sabotage.

Slone, M. (2000). Responses to the Media Coverage of Terrorism. The Journal

of Conflict Resolution, 44(4), 508-522.
Differential anxiety responses to television coverage of national threat
situations and terrorism in Israel were examined. A total of 237 participants
were evenly divided into two groups, each exposed to an experimental or
control condition. The experimental condition involved exposure to television

news clips of terrorism and threats to national security. The control condition
involved equivalent-length exposure to news clips unrelated to national
danger situations. Results supported the anxiety-inducing effect of the
experimental condition and indicated differential demographic and
dispositional responses to the footage according to gender, religiousness,
and level of dogmatism. These results support the powerful effect of the
mass media and advocate further exploration of links between media
broadcasting of political violence and psychological processes.
This journal centers on the effect of terrorism on the media how the
media has helped in propagating terrorism and helping them gain fame and
publicity which is their major goal.
Wilkinson, P. (2007). The Media and Terrorism: A Reassessment. Terrorism
and Political Violence, 9(2), 51-64.
This journal article begins with a claim that there is a symbiotic
relationship between terrorism and the media. It talks of how terrorists
manipulate and explore the media for their own benefit. This article closed
with an argument concerning voluntary self-restraint and self-regulation by
the media and how they are the best policy options for a democratic society
in regard to the medias response to terrorism. The media needs to work
harder on self- restraint. This article not saying that the media is at fault for
terrorist publicity but all this article is emphasizing on is that there is a deep
relation between terrorism and the media. It talks about how one feeds on
the other like their life depends on it, It means that terrorist cannot do
without the media and that they need the media to create awareness on the
attacks theyve done in order to instill fear in the masses.

Weimann, G. & Winn, C. (1994). Theater of Terror: Mass Media and

International Terrorism. USA: Longman Publishing Group.
This book uses an empirical approach to investigate the relationship
between international terrorism and the mass media and to document the
emergence of media-oriented terrorism within the conceptual framework of
symbolic communication. It explores terrorist incidents as symbolic events,
staged to attract international media attention in an attempt to affect
agendas, attitudes, and perceptions of audiences worldwide. They compile
statistical and anecdotal information to demonstrate the symbiotic
relationship between terrorist organizations and the mass media in various
countries.

The statistical analysis is based on data from the Rand Corporation

that characterize international terrorist incidents between 1968 and 1986 in
terms of operational mode, incident location and timing, victim occupation
and nationality, and target type. The book concentrates on international acts
of violence by no state terrorists and the influence of mass communications.
The analysis reflects growing public and scholarly concern about the
behavior of the mass media and about issues related to freedom of the
press. The authors suggest that the media need to become as sensitive in
their international reporting as they sometimes are in their coverage of local
and national affairs.

Schlesinger, P. (1981). Terrorism, the Media and the Liberal-Democratic

State: A Critique of the Orthodoxy. Social Research, 48(1), 74-99.
This journal talks about a conference succeeded in bringing about a
better understanding of the respective problems faced by media personnels
and government officials in dealing with terrorism. Most of the people
present in the conference agreed that a postponement of information for a
few days was acceptable if either human life or national security were at
stake. The government were trying to put a test on how important terrorist
news are and if they can be avoided without causing any harm to the country
or if they are putting their citizens at stake.

Miller, A. H. (1982). Terrorism- The Media and the Law. United States of
America: Transnational Publisher Inc.
This book examines the nature of the problem of the media coverage
of terrorists incidents, it notes that the symbiotic relationship between
terrorists and the media often places the media and legal authorities in
conflict when dealing with a hostage incident, but the conflict can be relieved
through journalistic guidelines that give priority to the lives of the hostages.
It also analyzes media coverage of the hostage seizure in Iran, nothing that
the television coverage of the incident dramatized a violation of international
law.

Altheide, L. D. (2007). The Mass Media and terrorism. Discourse &

Communication, 1(3), 287-308
This talks about how the mass media promotes violence by stressing
fear and an uncertain future. Major changes in US foreign and domestic
policy essentially went unreported and unchallenged by the dominant news
organizations. Notwithstanding the long relationship in the United States
between fear and crime, the role of the mass media in promoting fear has
become more pronounced in the United States. Extensive media analysis
shows that political decision-makers quickly adjusted propaganda passages,
prepared as part of the project for the New American century.

Stouter, E. (2010). Understanding the Media/ terrorism relationship: An

analysis of ideology and the news in time magazine. Political
Communication, 7(4), 257-278.
Conservative terrorism scholars have made the claim that the media
have become a propaganda tool for terrorists and sympathetically portray
terrorist activities. This article provides quantitative and qualitative data from
Time magazine in 1986 suggesting that this view is mistaken. News
production is treated as a social process that both informs and obscures,
rather than as a neutral process that simply provides objective facts. The
results of the investigation reveal seven ways in which ideology is
manifested in the terrorism news: semantics, language, headlines, social and
historical context, treatment of objectives, trivialization, and amplification of
violence. The ideological uniformity and lack of diversity apparent in
terrorism news suggests that this kind of treatment results in a lack of
understanding of the media/terrorism relationship and serves to support
conservative views about the nature of terrorism and appropriate responses
to it.

Schmid, A. P. (1989). Terrorism and the Media: The ethics of publicity.

Terrorism and Political violence, 1(4), 539-565.
After distinguishing three main purposes of terrorism (intimidation,
blackmail and propaganda), the author maintains that the revolution in
communication technology since the 1870s has favored the emergence of
terroristic propaganda by the deed. Such terrorism aims at gaining access
to the news system through the creation of violent pseudoevents. The
implications for the media's code of ethics are illustrated by a case study on
the coverage of the hijacking of TWA flight #847 in June 1985. The use of
terrorists by the media turns out to be as crucial as the use of the media by

the terrorists. Media principles and news practices are compared and the
agendasetting power of the media is detailed. Dilemmas arising from the
fact that news is a commercial product as well as a social product are
identified. Existing codes of ethics are found to be insufficient and it is
suggested that it is time for a new professional journalistic code and rules of
enforcement be formulated by the media themselves to prevent a further
rise in violent pseudoevents.

Nacos, B. L. (1994). Terrorism and the Media: from the Iran hostage crisis to
the world trade center bombing. United States: Columbia University
Press.
Nacos's (The Press, Presidents, and Crises) modest study explores how
the news media, public opinion and presidential decision-making in the U.S.
have responded to major acts of anti-American terrorism during the past 15
years. With the exception of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the most
dramatic terrorist strikes have been staged outside the U.S. against
American citizens by what the author calls ``Mid-Eastern groups.'' These
include the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81, the ordeal of hostages in
Lebanon in the '80s and early '90s and the downing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Nacos's argument-that terrorists seek attention through news coverage, and
that their propaganda successes have been enhanced by television-seems
almost too obvious to need utterance; likewise her point that media
coverage for terrorists is ``merely the means to the more important end of
affecting the general public and decision makers.'' Her conclusion seems to
be that decision-makers need to better understand their vulnerability to
media manipulation.

Slone, M., Shoshani, A. & Baumgarten-kartz, I. (2008). The relationship

between actual exposure to political violence and preparatory
intervention for exposure to media coverage of terrorism. Political
Violence and Media of Terrorism, 21(3), 243-261.
This laboratory study examined differential effects of television
broadcasts of terrorism on viewers anxiety according to their actual
exposure history, and differential efficacy of a preparatory intervention in
moderating elevated anxiety for high or low actual exposure. Participants
were 80 young Israeli adults, randomly allocated to a terrorism or nonterrorism media broadcast, and for each type of exposure, to a preparatory
or control intervention. Actual political violence and terrorism exposure
history was assessed, and anxiety measured explicitly and indirectly prior

and subsequent to the intervention and media exposure manipulation.

Results showed that in the terrorism media exposure, participants with high
more than low actual political life events (PLE) exposure showed higher posttest levels of indirectly measured anxiety. Clinical intervention before the
terrorism media exposure moderated indirectly measured anxiety among
participants with high PLE exposure, but increased anxiety for low PLE.
Findings outline preparatory measures that could maximize coping for the
high PLE actual exposure at-risk sector.

Shoshani, A. & slone, M. (2008). The Drama of Media coverage of Terrorism;

emotional and attitudinal impact on the Audience. Studies on conflict
& Terrorism, 31, 627-640.
This research enabled a glance into the theater of terror from the
perspective of the audience. The intertwined nature of terrorism and its
media portrayal produces an inescapable invasion into the lives of a
multitude of people, far beyond the direct victims of the attack. The
structured signaling game of the orchestrated attack aimed at creating an
illusory effect of magnified strength draws the audience into the web of fear
that so serves the terrorists purposes. The findings of the study reported
here indicate that, given the right conditions, the terrorists signaling game
can be powerfully successful. In the present study, the significant emotional
and attitudinal modifications, even to the briefest exposure, reinforce the
power held by the media to effect significant change among viewers.
This power possibly attains even greater weight with repeated media
coverage of terrorism in a conflict environment, in influencing viewers
emotional state and general public discourse about the conflict. In an
elevated state of alert, even failed or foiled terrorist attempts reported
repeatedly in the media, can produce a strong alarming effect on a wide
audience. Implications of these findings emphasize the importance of the
role of the media and the audience in self-management and coping with the
message of terrorism. It may be possible to conquer illusion with awareness
of the orchestrated mechanism of terrorism and, thereby, constrain some
part of its formidable power.

Silverman, J. & Thomas, L. (2012). I feel your pain: Terrorism, the media and
the politics of response. Crime Media Culture, 8(3), 279-295.
This paper focuses on the interaction between a rapidly changing
media and the policy responses of UK governments, faced with terrorist
violence which has evolved in form and intent. New Labors final term in

office was dominated by the tension between the competing claims of liberty
and security, expressed in Tony Blairs declaration after the 7/7 attacks, Let
no-one be in any doubt, the rules of the game are changing. We argue that
insofar as crime, justice and civil rights are governed by a normative set of
rules, they were subverted by New Labor in the mid-1990s for party political
reasons. Thus, after 9/11, they needed little reshaping to meet the challenge
of 21st-century terrorism. Our thesis is based partly on primary interviews
and partly on analyses of media coverage, parliamentary debates and
government responses in the form of press releases and speeches. The
purpose of the interviews with insider figures from the world of politics,
the police and civil society was to triangulate the known policy responses
to 9/11 with the views and perceptions of these figures to assess whether
some of the assumptions about the impact of that event on the UK need to
be rethought.

Hoffman, A., Shelton, C. & Cleven, E. (2013). Press Freedom, Publicity, and
the cross-national incidence of Transitional Terrorism. Political Research
Quarterly, 66(4), 896-909.
Publicity is central to terrorism, but demonstrating a link between press
freedom and the targeting of attacks is challenging. There are several
reasons for this: studies do not distinguish between press freedom and press
attention; perpetrators use press freedom to weed out unacceptable targets
rather than to determine which targets to attack; only foreign, not domestic,
perpetrators depend on press attention; and foreign terrorists satisfy their
desire for press attention by attacking powerful states. Our models confirm
this argument about press freedom and national power even after controlling
for executive constraints, polity, and foreign policy activity.

Nelson, S. & Scott, J. (1992). Terrorism and the Media. An Empirical analysis.
Defense and peace Economics, 3(4), 329-339.
The conventional wisdom is that media attention causes terrorism, yet
empirical investigation of this widely held belief has been sparse. This
research uses a terrorism micro data set with media variables to explore the
link between terrorism and media attention. Using coverage of terrorist
incidents in the New York Times as a proxy for media attention, we determine
which specific characteristics of terrorist events attract notice by the media
and measure the effects that these characteristics have on media coverage.
We also investigate whether media coverage empirically causes terrorism.
Results indicate that media attention does not Granger cause terrorism.

Manuel, R. Soranio, T. (2008). Terrorism and the Mass Media after Al Qaeda: A
Change of Course? Athena Intelligence Journal, 3(1), 1-20.
Soranio begins his exploration of the relationship between the media
and terrorism with the words of Marshall McLuham, whose statement that
without communication, terrorism would not exist is taken by Soranio to be
relatively precocious, but essentially correct. Though terrorism existed
prior to mass media, Soranio argues that it was always about making a
public statement, and that new technologies have simply allowed the
dissemination of terrorist messages to reach a broader audience with more
concise message.

Thussa, D. Freedman D. (2011). Media and Terrorism: Global Perspectives.

France: Sage Publications.
This book gives an insightful addition to the discussion about how we
define legitimate and illegitimate targets in war. It examines how the media
of many forms disseminates information about wars, most recently and
marked about the war on terror, and how in the self-feeding loop of politics,
power and the media, the channels that the media operates through not only
make the media an information sharer, but a developing key player that can
shape and alter the actual lived realities of war.

Mongensen, K. (2008). Television journalism during terror attacks. Media War

& Conflict, 1(1), 31-49
This article views television news coverage of ongoing terrorist attacks
and their immediate aftermath as a special genre with journalism, and
describes norms connected with the genre. This article focuses more on the
relationship between broadcasting media and terrorism, how terrorist dwell
on the media for publicity