Terrorism And The Media

Terrorism and the Media

Terrorism has played a role affecting civilization for a hundred of years. The acts of violence have aims and objectives which intend on being achieved by the perpetrators themselves, or by the organizations that support these acts. With the aid of the present day media, acts of terrorism are now becoming designed to grasp the attention of the entire world and compel a terrorist organization's message into the spotlight for the whole world to look at. Reasons and purpose for attacks are often derived from the news so what better way for a terrorists organization to relay there message than the news.

Most recently affecting the U.S were the events occurring on September 11th. People have interest in the events occurring all over the world, and the media will portray the message however they can. Within minutes of the first tower being struck, the devastation spread around the world, and was on every television channel for days. Around the world newspapers had front page news coverage of the attacks. The Twin Towers had been destroyed by an unknown enemy and its effects were broadcasted globally. The mass media are basically the spokesmen of the terrorists, the transmitters of information globally to a world audience. The September 11 attacks were designed for the media, and the achievement of the terrorists activities were announced for them to see through the misery and suffering of those affected by the attacks.

Albert Bandura stated: "Terrorists try to exercise influence over targeted officials on nations through intimidation of the public and arousal of sympathy for the social and political causes they expose. Without widespread publicity, terrorist acts can achieve neither of these effects." (Bandura, Albert qtd. In Nacos 1). Terrorists need the news media to get the publicity, and the media is a willing to get their message across. The news media is a crucial component to terrorism. In knowing that, a set of standards should be issued so that a terrorist's ability to portray their message to a large audience during terrorist situations should be limited. The media point out mistakes without over emphasizing and give equal coverage to both sides of the issue.

Terrorism is the use of violence against innocent's victim to bring about political change through fear. The relationship between terrorism and the media is symbiotic (Lockyer1). In 1980 the New York Times, printed a total of 916 articles on terrorist events. This means that terrorists were getting their message out nearly three times a day to the American public (Miller 60). Terrorists have usually used the media for four main reasons. The first reason is to have their message heard and to strike fear into their target group. The second is to win over the public's support for their cause, by highlighting themes like, the righteousness of their cause, and the assuredness of their victory. Third they use media to disrupt government and security responses. By suggesting that they are overreacting and their efforts are counterproductive. Finally, the fourth is to raise the moral of their current members, raise recruitment, and encourage more attacks (Alexander 30-31).

Censorship of media's coverage of terrorist events is a solution to the new strong relationship between the media and terrorists. During many terrorist incidents the police do not want all the information released, in fear of the public's safety, and the security of their future actions. Swaying the public's belief in police forces dealing with the terrorist incident is a motive of terrorists. An example of the media needing restraint occurred on April 30, 1980, when a group of Arab secessionists captured the Iranian embassy in London. As the SWAT teams began to move in their biggest advantage was surprise. But, that was basically destroyed by a camera man from British Independent Television who got past the police barricade and broadcasted a live assault on the embassy. Complete and total censorship is not the answer. According to Schmid on Violence as Communication: In many countries it is likely that the level of terrorism will increase rather than decrease after the introduction of terrorism. The increase is due to the fact that groups feel a sense freedom to engage in terrorist acts since they can count on not being exposed and criticized by the media.

If the media changes its procedure for covering terrorist activities there should be no problems. A leader in the movement of self-censorship is CBS. CBS has set up a list of guidelines that all the reporters must follow during terrorist situations. One option for the media to take is that a consensus of standards for covering terrorism stories should be in affect. The parts to this consensus are: don't over exaggerate events that are already sensational; the media should paraphrase terrorist demands so they do not get all their political messages out; and they should not broadcast live coverage of terrorist situations unless the head of the news department allows it. News reporters should also have permission to talk with terrorists, and if there is permission these interviews should not interfere with the ongoing negotiations. The reporters should also be attentive to the warnings and orders of law enforcement officials on the scene (Paletz 108). When all the media can follow the standards of media coverage events like the British Media should not be a problem. Many believe if media coverage of terrorist acts are banned events will go unreported to the public and to the proper authorities.

There are mistakes the police forces make that need to be known to the public and the courts, so proper actions can be taken. Liberal democrats believe that the police are responsible for the public's scrutiny through the news media. It is believed by most of the media that they should not make accusations that the police can not respond to for legal reasons. Police agencies feel that reporting, exaggerations, and the threat of due dates should not drive the content of news stories. The police require support of society and to get it they need support by the media. The media aids them in counterattacking of terrorism. The police are a small part of the picture to resolve the problem. However, both the police and the media are committed to the maintenance of democracy, and how they act reflects that commitment (Alexander 36). An example of when the police agencies bounced