Relationship between Terrorism and the Media - Essay Example

Media and Terrorism Sattam Almutairi Introduction: Since the attack in New York on 09/11, terrorism has become one of the most manipulated issues in media. All media outlets, such as televisions, radios, newspapers and magazines have been discussing continuously terrorist incidents around the world by depicting their impact on our daily life. Consequently terrorism and media are intrinsically connected in presenting each other to the public. Terrorism has been a controversial term due to the many unresolved issues that are associated to it. People’s consideration and interpretation of terrorism differ according to their political and social affiliation and their vision to the act. Terrorists depend solely on propaganda to send out their message; therefore, they work hard to give spectacular forms to their acts. Hence media is an important vehicle in this respect in bringing out these pictures to the public. Furthermore, the existence of each one of the two in the public mind depends on each other and the way it sends out its message. This paper aims at providing detailed information on the relationship between terrorism and the media. It will also expound on how terrorism and media depend on each other in sending out messages to the public. Definition of terrorism and media According to Eubank and Weinberg, terrorism is any act of violence that results to the massive loss of lives and property (Eubank, 2006). In most occasions, it involves the killing of the unprepared individuals in unexpected areas. Unfortunately, the motives of the persons responsible for it weary; majority of them indulge in it for economic purposes whereas others are driven into it by their crazy thoughts (suicide bombers). Additionally, some attackers also portray their political motives via terrorist attacks. On the other hand, media constitute devices such as magazines, televisions and radios that pass the message to a large group of people in a short span of time. As the title of the study is Media and Terrorism, the most suitable definition for it in this regard is the media’s definition of the term. CNN once defines terrorism as “the commission of violent acts to cause fear, terror and disruption of normal life, all in the hope of gaining attention for a cause” (Rather, 2012). This definition, though, it is simple, it sets a threshold of the discussion that will be presented in this paper. Three important elements should be singled out for discussion of media relation with terrorism. First, the act should be a violent act. Second, it should be veered to disrupt life. Lastly, it should have an objective that further both political and social agenda. Types and Motivations of terrorists Terrorists differ in their causes and nature. Some of them are fighting to promote religious causes such as Al-Qaeda in the Middle East, while others are fighting to facilitate illegal business, such as drug and people trafficking cartels in South America. The USA Government and the law enforcement departments divide terrorist acts broadly into two types. Domestic terrorism and international terrorism, where domestic terrorism means acts of violence committed by citizen to further local agendas such as the Oklahoma bombings, while international terrorism refers to terrorism perpetrated by organizations across borders in support of international issues, such as Alqaeeda’s activities Terrorist acts are also divided according to the term of their motivations. As I mentioned above terrorist organizations work to further particular issues and agendas; some of these issues are political, and other are social and economic. In either side, these organizations always try to carry out spectacular acts of violence to draw people’s attention to their cause, which sometimes is very devastating, especially, in harming innocent victims. For example, in any conflict between the government and a terrorist organization usually we see most of the victims are civilians. These violent groups use terrorism to convince and to coerce the public and the authorities alike, as it is highlighted by James Igoe Walsh, “some use terrorism to convince opponents to concedes to their demands. Other terrorist groups seek to provoke authorities into engaging in indiscriminate repression that will undermine support for the government and justify the use of terrorist violence.” This is what exactly happened after the attacks of 9/11 in New York. People involved in studying terrorism think the targets in these attacks area not always the civilian victims. However, the outcome propaganda of the attack creates unstable situations of fears and anxiety among the public. “There is a considerable evidence that coverage of terrorism increases fear and anxiety and that emotional changes influence the presence of some members of the public for counter terrorism policy that rely on force” (Walsh, 2010). The creation of violent counterterrorism policy is the real intention of the terrorist groups, and they achieve it through skillful tactics and strategy of manipulating the Media. Symbiotic relationship between Media and Terrorism As human beings that rely on the heart for survival, terrorism also has a heart; it depends entirely on publicity and psychology for its survival. To achieve this, however, terrorism has to work hand in hand with the media. As introduced above, media is the main means of mass communication that involves devices such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet. Media outlets work hard to inform the public about the impact of terror acts committed around the globe. In doing so, they bring voices, images and manuscript closer to us, and help us understand them better. It is also through media that terrorists manage to trigger political violence; majority of the people take part in sending unsatisfactory messages via media. In this respect, many experts believe that terrorism and media have much in common with propaganda. They depend on communication to spread their message. Both of them are forms of expression verbal or non-verbal. Throughout the recent history of terrorism, it has depended intrinsically on the media for it is an existence. Some terrorist attacks receive great attention, while others go without been even mentioned. The selection of broadcasting a particular terrorist act, not the other by the media, depends on two factors, as it is elaborated here by Walsh, “the features of the attack themselves” and “the goals and environment of media outlets” (Walsh, 2010). Terrorism has benefitted greatly from the media. Without media’s help terrorist’s attacks would be without an audience, therefore, “media attention is an important vehicle by which terrorist communicate with their audience, and thus a central goal of many terrorist groups is to influence the scale and tone of the media attention to their attacks” (Walsh, 2010). A good example of a terrorist attack that achieved its goals via use of media is the recent Boston bombings. Immediately after the attack, television media alerted the Americans on what had happened. By the end of the day, the televisions had spread lots of information about the updates of the terror attack and the opinions of the Americans about the bombings. CNN website was not exceptional in meeting the goals of the terrorists. The way it outlined its stories and portrayed the terror attack pictures evidenced that there is a close association between media and terrorism. Most of its pictures and stories appeared as an interactive video game to the viewers. Dealing with terrorist attacks information has become at the front of the media outlets. Media corporations and news agencies are ferociously competing to have the right of precedence of a piece of news. In achieving this goal, sometimes they trespass the normal boundaries of the ethical journalism professionalism. Moreover, some Media outlets deliberately endeavor to create a situation of horror among the public in order to gain prestige and prevalence over others. CNN, Fox News, NBC and Aljazeera have been the focus of terrorism to convey their message, while these media outlets have been the unconscious vehicle of the terrorism groups to assert their presence. Through their fiery articles, appalling pictures and horrific, gruesome images the public has been introduced to a form of life that is full of fear and anxiety. Images that are carried to viewers by the media are the most vivid pictures that never leave human memories. Watching the burning two towers of the World Trade Center, Listening to the news about London attacks in 2005, or reading about Bombay bombing in 2008, would leave everybody quiver with fear and unending anxiety. This situation of fear and anxiety is the main objective of terrorist groups, and they find the media very handy to pass it to the public. Critics differ in their consideration to media. Some accuse the media of providing the terrorists with free means of furthering their causes. Majority of the terrorists have been found to spread their agenda via use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Wasp. Others also accuse the media of siding with governments and pushing them to commit violence against their people in the name of fighting terrorism, such as the communication interception by spying on people. Thus, many people believe that terrorism has succeeded in creating a situation of verbal war between authorities and freedom fighters, to the extent it has started to question the eligibility of the government to intervene in issues considered extremely private in the past. Two incidents are worth to be mentioned here, the WikiLeaks and Snowden cases, who got in confrontation by exposing government strategy to combat terrorism through listening to people’ phone calls. Journalists always defend their profession, emphasizing that their sole mission is to bring the fact to the public. “Each article we write and each television segments we produce is the result of dozens of editorial decisions, which images should appear in printer and which shouldn’t” (Rather, 2012). Terrorists also use the media as their psychological weapons. They create a conflicting environment that fails to accommodate both the security forces and the media. For instance, they lead to governments coming up with policies that will affect the rights of media. “In all reporting, context is the key. The best in our profession do not just gather and regulate raw information; they pass it through a tumbler of those critical questions” (Rather, 2012). Despite these sifting of information by the media, neither governments nor terrorist groups are in good term with it. However, many among us believe “conventional news frames of terrorism are important because they furnish consistent, predictable, simple, and powerful narrative that is embedded in the social construction of reality” (Rather, 2012). Without these conventional news frames, many facts would be lost in the fight between terrorist groups and governments. However, giving much attention to the terrorists via media escalate their wrong acts. For instance, it leads to the recruitment of more terrorists from all over the world. Additionally, the publicity encourages the terrorists; it makes them appreciate their success in meeting their objectives. Technological advancement has also led to most terrorists abusing the use of media. For instance, devices have been introduced that enable people to access messages and entertainment immediately from any place. Unfortunately, the more we access messages and entertainment via these devices the more the media works in order to capture the attention of the public. In order to out-compete other media groups, some media groups are enforced to search for terror attack news for public consumption. Confronting Terrorism The best way of confronting terrorism is by affirming the values that terrorists want to do away with in the society. On the other hand, the worst way of handling it, is by employing the old methods of fighting terror by violating the basic human rights. For instance, the handing over the suspects to Muammar el-Qaddafi’s torturers by the U.S. and Britain was not a good way of handling security issues. Confronting terrorism means combating all the ways used by terrorists in advocating their practices. For instance, controlling the activities and the information presented by the media will aid significantly in controlling terrorism. Additionally, involving the media in preaching peace among Muslim minorities will aid significantly in combating this problem. Additionally, nations need to support the spirit of democracy. Democracy will enable the states to come up with amicable measures that will enable them control the messages aired by the media. Additionally, it will be crucial for the states to control the amount of information provided by the media concerning terrorist acts. In doing so, they will manage to discourage terrorists who rely entirely on their successes. Sorry to say, there are always conflicts between media, politics and justice as the mission of journalism lies in it is ability to meet “journalistic standards of balance, truth and objectivities in cases of extreme political conflicts” (Rather, 2012). Often, politicians are distressed by some media behaviors in dealing with terrorist information. Majority end up coming up with the principles that may results to more problems than prevention. For example, former president Bush once threatened to bomb Al-Jazeera for its irresponsible behavior in handling terrorism news and broadcasting AlQaeeda leaders’ tapes. This statement had once created an out roar in the media circles and accused the president of committing violence against peaceful, free institution of public opinions. The uneasiness of many governments, particularly in the west, has been depicted through the definition of the term terrorism. Often they try to discredit the groups that have committed these types of violent acts and blame the media of giving them more than they deserve. The fight against terrorism has become a very controversial issue all over the world. As the term is emotionally and politically charged, it is not easy to set clear boundaries of dealing with terrorism. As I mentioned above the definition of the term varies depending on the perception of the opposing groups. What certain authorities consider terrorist, is considered by their supporters as freedom fighters. Illustrating this position is the comment of the Egyptian government in the 70s after the attack perpetrated by the Palestinian Liberation organization against the Israeli team in Germany that is considered a terrorist act by all western countries while the Egyptian government considers it a heroic job. The Federal German Government rejects terrorism we also reject it. The difference in our opinions is that terrorism, in it is a view, is what the Fadyeen carry out to draw the attention of the world to a cause that has not enjoyed any political support so far. We, on the other hand, consider that the situation cannot be dealt with except at the source, that is, by putting an end to the Israeli Nazi terrorism (Walsh, 2010). Terrorism and Justice In most occasions, many suspects of terroristic acts find their way out of court rooms unpunished because of either close association they have with the justice system or their position in their respective countries (U.S. Department of Justice, 2013). Additionally, it is evident that the majority of the innocent people find themselves behind bars for the wrong seasons. All these are because of poor judicial systems in most states. Governments’ decision in regard to curbing terrorism is sometimes considered by some as irrational; thus the intervention of the judicial system has happened several times to put things in order (Valdeck, 2011). In Feb 2013 US today reported that the Supreme Court ruled “in 5-4 decision the court conservative justice ruled that lawyers, journalists, human rights activists and others lacked standing to challenge the government ability to intercept international communication” (Wolf, 2010). More over the Court has intervened in many occasions such as Hamdi V. Rumsfeld 542. U.S 507 (2004). In this case, the court gives the government the right to detain foreign combatants in Guantanamo for indefinite times, exception Yasser Esam Hamdi, who was deported to Saudi Arabia after renouncing his USA citizenship. Conclusion In conclusion, terrorism is any act of violence that results to the massive loss of lives and property. In most occasions, it propagated by the use of media because of the symbiotic relationship they have. Terrorism depends entirely on publicity and psychology for its survival. It achieves this by allowing the media to bring voices, images and manuscript closer to us. Media also gain from airing the acts of terrorists; the airing enables them to overcome completion from other technological devices such as smart-phones. The best way of confronting terrorism is by affirming the values that terrorists want to do away with in the society; for instance, controlling the information that is likely to divide citizens. Practice of democracy by the states is also effective; it will enable the states to come up with amicable measures for controlling the messages aired by the media. Intervention of the judicial system should also be avoided in order for justice to be provided to the victims of terrorism and terrorists. References Eubank, W., & Weinberg, L. (2006). What Is Terrorism? New York: Infobase Publishing. Rather, D. (2012). Media’s balancing act with terrorism. CNN Opinion. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/11/opinion. U.S. Department of Justice. (2013). National Institute of Justice: Research in Brief. Retrieved from http://www. nij.gov Valdeck, S. (2011). The Supreme Court, the War on Terrorism and the Separation of Power. American Bar Association. Retrieved from http://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/human_right s_vol38_2011/human_rights_winter2011/supreme_court_war_on_terrorism_separation_ of_powers.html Walsh, J. (2010). Media Attention to Terrorist Attacks: Causes and consequenses. Institue for Homeland Security Solution. http:// duke.edu. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/02/26/supreme-court-wiretapping- surveillance-foreign-intelligence/1948569/ Wolf, R (2013). Supreme Court blocks challenge of anti terrorism law. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com.story.new Read More