Media and war on Terror - Essay Example

Teacher What do you believe the role of the media is in the “War on Terror?” Why? Do you believe that terrorism and the media have asymbiotic relationship (they benefit from each other)? Why or why not? The role of media on the war on terror is more than reporting the events that transpired during the war on terror. Media as an active agent in dispensing mass information inadvertently became an instrument of the interests of the warring parties. For the terrorist group, media becomes a propaganda mechanism for them to gain public support as they propagate hate, violence and other terroristic activities.

Media can become an unwitting instrument to spread fear among the population or to gain support from the public. One of the recent examples we can infer is the terrorist threat in the Olympic Games at Sochi . The government on the other hand used the media to counter the information and claims distributed by terrorists. Through the media, governments also wages a war of winning the hearts and minds of the people by letting the public know how terrorist organizations are causing havoc in our society.

In so doing, they erode public sympathy from the terrorist potential supported. Having said this, media inadvertently becomes an instrument of the tugging parties on the war on terror. Media and terrorism will always have a symbiotic relationship because media will feed on the news created by terrorists. The “juicy” news that terrorists will provide increases the news agency’s rating while terrorist organization gained media exposure to win public sympathy and support. This kind of set-up inadvertently forms a symbiotic relationship whereby each entity thrives on the existence of the other.

Media benefits in either way. When terrorists organization issues a threat, media increases its ratings by sensationalizing it and when government counters to continue our way of life so as to deprive the terrorist of their victory, the media again has something “juicy” to report to increase its ratings.