Role of Media in Reporting Terrorism: Terrorist

¶ … Role of Media in Reporting Terrorism:

Terrorist attacks have developed to become part of an indirect strategy to achieve political objectives through their impacts on an audience. In this process, the attention of the media has also served as an important channel that terrorists communicate with their audiences. Consequently, one of the major objectives of terrorist groups is to affect the degree and tone of media attention to their specific acts and attacks (Walsh, 2010). In the past decade, recent history has demonstrated numerous examples of the mutually beneficial relationship between terrorist groups and the media. Some of the recent terrorist attacks indicate that the perpetrators of terrorism use the media for various purposes such as propaganda schemes, operational efficiency, recruitment, collecting information, and fund raising. Moreover, this history also indicates that the media has had a positive impact in lessening the effectiveness of terrorists.

Media as a Force Multiplier for Terror Groups:

Media plays a crucial role in terrorism either as a force multiplier for terror organizations or as a channel for lessening terrorist effectiveness. With regards to the role of the media as a force multiplier for these groups, terrorist acts are seemingly wasted without the media's coverage of the incidents (Bilgen, 2012). This is primarily because the acts will remain restricted to the immediate victims instead of reaching the wider audience that the terror violence is targeted. Moreover, terror acts are relatively wasted without media coverage because terrorists are primarily interested in audience rather than victims since how the audience responds is equally important to them as carrying the act itself. Therefore, terrorists carry out their acts to win the attention of the media, national and international publics, and government officials.

In light of this consideration, one past incident where the media has served as a force multiplier for terrorist organizations is the 9/11 attacks. Terrorists carefully selected their target for these attacks in order to generate the best and wide media coverage that would in turn significantly affect the target audience. The 9/11 attacks was characterized by huge media attention, which terrorists used as a channel to publicize their political objectives, justify their acts, reach huge audiences across the globe, and create an atmosphere of suspicion and fear. In essence, the media served as a force multiplier of terror groups in this incident because it provided free publicity of the groups' cause and communicated their message.

The main way through which the media benefitted the terror organization and promoted the desired effect by the terror group is through providing free publicity of the organization's cause and creating an atmosphere of fear and suspicion. Through this coverage, the terrorist organization publicized their cause of being an enemy of the United States. The media benefited the group by changing public perceptions, changing government and public discourse, and changing the way people view events and their attitudes towards ethnic or racial groups considered to be threats (Bilgen, 2012).

Media's Positive Effect in Minimizing Terrorist Effectiveness:

Despite serving as a force multiplier for terror groups in various incidents, the media has also had a positive effect in lessening terrorist effectiveness. The media has attempted to lessen the terrorist effectiveness through consistently longer coverage of counterterrorism measures than the coverage of terrorist acts (Walsh, 2010). Actually, the media has continued to devote more resources to providing information demonstrating government positions and actions instead of providing information on more detailed aspects of a specific attack.

While 9/11 attacks act as an incident where the media served as a force multiplier, it is also an incident that the media acted as a platform for minimizing terrorist effectiveness. The media not only highlighted the vulnerability of the United States to terror attacks but also used the incident to show counterterrorism measures that were adopted by the government in the aftermath of the violence. Generally, through 9/11 attacks the media had a positive effect in minimizing terrorist effectiveness since it created awareness of the dangers and/or threats to national security and the need for every citizen to be vigilant and play their role in enhancing homeland security. The media also served as a platform for communication the myriad of crime-prevention efforts related to terrorism, which have helped in thwarting several terrorist incidents.

Role of Social Networking in Promoting and Thwarting Terrorist Activity:

Social networking has become new and emerging media that has been used to either promote or thwart terrorist activities in the recent past. With regards to promoting terrorist activity, social networking provides a platform for terrorist organizations to devise and execute their plans with relative ease. Actually, terrorists use these networks to publicize their messages to a broader audience in a precise manner. In essence, terrorists are no longer in need of official media to convey their messages because social networks are easier to use, much faster, and more effective (Bilgen, 2012). However, these networks also provide easy ways for security agencies and officials to thwart terrorist activities. With the increased use of social networks by terrorists to propagate their agendas, spy agencies can also use these networks to monitor the activities of terrorist groups. Social networks provide platforms for real-time intelligence monitoring that provides clues regarding terrorist activities and violence.