How Has the Media Coverage on Terrorism Changed between the 9-11 Attack and Invasion of Iraq 2003 - Research Paper Example

The Media of Terror Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Research Question 4 Aim of the Project 4 Objective of the Project 4 CriticalAssessment of the Aims and Objectives 4 Research Methodology 6 Findings and Planning To Move Forward 7 Gaps in Literature 8 Conclusion 8 Introduction There exists a close interrelation between the coverage of media and terrorism. Since the past four decades there are various scenarios, where coverage of terrorist events by the media seemed to be irresponsible and problematic that evoked the public criticism. Terrorism is considered as the most attractive boon for the media for news coverage. This is because the terrorist attack coverage increases the TRP of the News channel as well as maximizes the profit. However, covering the terrorist activities is not an offence but the way media represents the exact scenario leads to a negative impact on the common people. Media are highly biased towards certain groups, religions and countries as they try to portray a completely different representation of the exact facts. For example, the Western media channels are highly biased towards their countries and during their coverage of attacks with any Islamic countries, they always try to safeguard their country and put blame on the Islamic countries. Moreover, the way of representation of certain incidents by the media provokes common people to enter into a war with the opponent country (Kellner, 2007). The media coverage of the 9/11 attacks were represented by the media in such a way that the Islamic countries were held responsible for the attack, which provoked the civilians of both the countries to enter into a war with each other. In realty, the terrorists were responsible for the war rather than the Islamic nations. In the similar way, the US media coverage of the Iraq war in 2003 was also misrepresented in which Iraq was alleged to support Al-Qaida, which was not true in reality. In this context, it is vital to state that the portrayal of media is of great significance (Reese & Lewis, 2009). However, there has been a change in the media coverage in the government policies on terrorism in between the Invasion of Iraq on 2003 and the 9/11 attack, which would be discussed in the paper. Research Question “How has the media coverage of the government policy on terrorism changed in between 9/11 attack and the invasion on Iraq 2003?” Aim of the Project The project aims at analysing change in the media coverage of government policy on terrorism in between the Iraq war and 9/11 attack. Objective of the Project The objectives of the project are: Analysing the impact of media coverage of 9/11 attack Analysing the impact of media coverage of the Iraq war in 2003 Identifying the reason for the commencement of war in Iraq Analysing the extent to which the media coverage is responsible for the decision of invading Iraq Critical Assessment of the Aims and Objectives The attitude towards the Islamic countries and Islamic religion completely changed after the attack of 9/11 in the United States. According to the report of Federal Bureau of Investigation, there has been an increase of about 1700 percent in the hate crimes against the Muslim Americans during the year 2000-2001 (Reese & Lewis, 2009). However, for this negative attitude of the Americans towards the Muslims, the media was held responsible to a great extent. With a view of increasing the TRP of the news channel and maximise profit, the media tried to enhance the facts of the news through making the Muslim countries and the Muslim community responsible for the attack. Moreover, immediately after the attack, there was huge media coverage of the attack in which the Muslims were portrayed negatively before the Americans, which is responsible for the established prejudice towards this group. Being heard of the fact that the Muslim communities are responsible for the 9/11 attack, the civilians of both the communities were provoked and therefore entered into a war in which thousands of civilians lost their lives. However, the terrorists were responsible for the attack but not the Muslim community. As majority of the terrorist groups are Muslim, therefore the Muslim community was being stereotyped as terrorists and were deprived from the society (Kellner, 2007). Similarly, in case of Iraq Invasion in the year 2003, the media coverage by the Western news channels represented a pro-war attitude. Among the media channels, the coverage of Fox News, which is a Western News channel, was alleged of creating pro war biasness. The news channel owned by Rupert Murdoch supported the war strongly (Reese & Lewis, 2009). During the live coverage of the war, the news channel used to show an animated weaving flag at the top left corner of the screen and a headline at the bottom of the screen named “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. However, during the coverage of the war three Western reporters were killed. Among the reporters, a correspondent of National geographic was shot while interviewing the Iraqi officials. The question was asked to the Iraqi officials regarding the role of the United States in the war. The killing of the reporters showed the lack of governance, which changed considerably (Kellner, 2007). According to a research study, it has been found that there have been various media biases. The media coverage of the war was totally in support and Iraq itself was held responsible for the war. More than 57 percent of the American media viewers are of the opinion that Iraq provides support to Al Qaida for the terror attacks all over the world and even Iraq is responsible for the 9/11 terror attack in the US. More than 69 percent of the Americans believed that for the 9/11, attack Saddam Husain was solely responsible and 22 percent people believe that the mass destruction weapons were manufactured in Iraq. Media in this context played a major role in influencing the behaviour and attitude of people. Even during the Iraq invasion in 2003, it is believed that Iraq has used the harmful weapons and tools against the soldiers of the United States. However, the media coverage is completely responsible for the allegations that have been made against the Iraq (Khan, 2012). Research Methodology The methodological process undertaken in this particular research is to draw a clear discourse analysis with an easily understandable semiotic mechanism while interpreting relevant facts and ideas about the key subject issues. In order to explore the findings of the research, the discourse analysis of the study was incorporated suitable data collection process to determine the relevance of facts and research studies relating to the changes that have been taken place by the governmental policies in media coverage after the terror event of 9/11 and Iraq invasion in 2003. In order to obtain appropriate and relevant data relating to the key research question, the methodology incorporates a qualitative research method by gathering information from different secondary data sources. In this regard, the research study mainly focuses on the governmental policies that led the media to change their coverage procedures after the war events of 9/11and Iraq invasion in 2003. In addition, the data collection process of the research also incorporates collecting relevant information from different online sources including research articles, online peer-reviewed journal articles, books and news articles to critically disclose the facts associated with the key subject area of the research. The qualitative methodology used in this research centrally focused on critically analyzing the collected data into a narrative and counter narrative process with the aim of determining postulated objectives of the research study. Additionally the results retrieved from the data analysis process provided a major discourse in order to address the key research aims and objectives. Findings and Planning To Move Forward However, in context to the literature provided for the research topic it can be observed that the media is highly responsible for creating an impression in the minds of the viewers. The media always aims at increasing their TRP by providing news that might negatively affect the emotions of two communities or even two countries. It is found that the media coverage of the 9/11 attack has led the Muslim community to be responsible for the attack and therefore the Islamic countries are considered as the main culprit of the terrorist attacks. Similarly, during the Invasion of Iraq in the year 2003, the media coverage was also supporting the war and the media highly focused on the facts that Iraq was solely responsible for the war. However, in between the Invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the 9/11 attack, there were certain changes made in the government policy of the countries. There were remarkable changes in the immigration system of the countries. Moreover, the security system in the countries has also been made strong in order to prevent the terrorist attacks (ABC News Internet Ventures, 2015). Moreover, various policies regarding the foreign policies changed after the massive event for the benefit of the media and the related countries. In addition, the reporters were provided better security globally for their activities and portrayal of facts. Gaps in Literature The research question and aims developed in this particular study encompasses a broad area of research with abundant data relating to the changes in media coverage policies in the US on terrorism between the invasion on Iraq 2003 and terror event of 9/11. In this regard, the study incorporates wide-ranging information, mainly the changes that have undertaken in the governmental policy on terrorism for media. Especially in terms of broadcasting and performing adequate coverage of any terrorism activities. In this regard, the evaluation section of the study provides discoursing in both narrative and counter narrative aspects relating to the major changes undertaken in the governmental policies in between the event of 2003 and 9/11. However, the literatures merely focus on the major changes and their implications that brought significant alteration for the media broadcaster. In this regard, a significant gap can be identified in terms of overlooking various other influences that further led the governmental policies to bring major changes in its terrorism coverage activities. Nevertheless, the literatures undertaken to discourse the media practices aftermath the changes in media coverage policy also incorporates few major cases, which can also be a major limitation of the research. Conclusion With due regards to an overall understanding of the study, the literatures undertaken in the study critically explored that the amendment in the governmental policies have realised major changes for the media agencies to cover terrorism activities. According to the observation, it has been identified that the coverage associated with foreign policies and affairs along with major changes in the broadcasting processes have been critically identified after bringing significant changes in the US media coverage policies by the government during the period of Iraq invasions in 2003 to 9/11. Moreover, the media coverage policy also extended the media coverage process by involving various social media sites and broadcasting online news coverage activities. References ABC News Internet Ventures, 2015. Five Ways Immigration System Changed After 9/11. Article. [Online] Available at: http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/ways-immigration-system-changed-911/story?id=17231590 [Accessed February 23, 2015]. Gowan, W. M., 2003. Postscript 9/11: Media Coverage of Terrorism and Immigration. Article. [Online] Available at: http://cis.org/MediaCoverage-Terrorism%2526Immigration [Accessed February 23, 2015]. Kellner, D., 2007. The Media In and After 9/11. International Journal of Communication, Vol. 1, pp. 123-142. Khan, M., 2012. Attitudes toward Muslim Americans Post-9/11. Journal of Muslim Mental Health, Vol. 7, No.1. Reese, S. D. & Lewis, S. C., 2009. Framing the War on Terror. The Internalization of Policy in the US Press, Vol. 10, No.6, pp. 778-797. Read More