Abstract
The following document will look at the definition of terrorism, the forms that it takes as well as the media’s influence on it. There is a relationship that exists between terrorism and mass media. This is because there would not be terrorism without the media. Terrorism was existent even before the media did. An example how terrorism promoted anarchy and there were a lot of assassinations that took place during the wars of the world. There were also killings of very important world figures and there were hundreds of witnesses and this was a strategy to make it known during the time that the government was in control over all media houses and the information that they were allowed to show.
In the recent days, there have been some technological developments that have allowed terrorist attacks to be published and it has been carried out in a way that was thought to be imaginable. Terrorists have been able to find an ally that is very powerful and that is the media and they use them in order to have public attention and have their demands met. According to Adams, James 1987, terrorists usually commit the act of terrorism to achieve three known objectives: for attention; recognition and to achieve respect in a certain degree. Those who make it have the opportunity to make others join in the influence. Terrorists carry out some calculations on the effect that they will have through their actions through the use of the media and this gives them a chance to fit in the circle of political communication.
When they achieve this media is the only source that acts as the channel of communication between the groups that they are targeting and the government that they want to get involved. This is because terrorists isolate themselves from the society and the government so as not to get caught. The image that is gotten from this is that personal and to contact them is impossible and the media is given the chance to take over. This makes the terrorists to get involved in decision making and gets them closer to the democracy of the society.
Introduction
There are some acts of violence that cannot be categorized as terrorism. Terrorism variably referred to as construction that is said to be social and once an action has been labeled it is difficult for the action to be treated in a manner that is of neutral-value. There have been groups that have said that care should be taken when defining terrorism. This is because the people who carry out these acts are terrorists are theoretically impossible; terrorism the act of individual actions. Terrorism is said to undermine the effectiveness of research. According to United Nations they defined terrorism as acts that are criminal and are intended to cause fear to the public and is usually carried out for political, racial, religious, ideological and philosophical reasons.
The common phrase that one mans terrorism is another mans freedom fighter is usually applied in then case of terrorism and is used to apply to the actions that the terrorist implement. This is because the terrorists use their power to implement unfair acts and also oppress others that do not have the power to protect or defend themselves. These people often do not have access to the media and no military force to protect them. The study of any relationship between terrorism and the media would not be complete if the principal peculiarities and the mass medium communication are not mentioned.
Forms of Terrorism
Terrorism takes various forms. The definition of terrorism has become comprehensive because of the separation of terrorism types. One is pure state-sponsored. This includes people sponsoring the implementation of the attacks. Involves buying of tools that are going to be used, bombing buildings and jets as well as any other properties and people. Another form is provocateur. This involves intelligence agencies such as defense intelligence and the FBI looking for a known group of Muslim or other terrorist gang and providing funds to them. This makes these leaders to organize themselves and implement terrorism. The terrorists also use these intelligent agencies in order not to get caught and the fact that these agencies cannot make bombs and build weapons as the terrorists.
Another form is terror that was not supposed to occur or happen and is usually referred to as stillbirth-terror. This occurs when the group uses innocent people to cause terror to the public. The terrorists go for the unfortunate in the society like the homeless and the retarded and provide them with food and drugs and in return they tell them to record a video tape that tells the public to be ware that the terrorist are going to bomb a particular place. This causes terror to the public. Another form is the real terrorism and this is a form of resistance that is in the form of desperation. This is the form of terrorism that does not require skills as it involves suicide bombings and the intelligent agencies are not usually aware of it.
Other types of terrorism involve ecoterrorism and narcoterrorism. They emerge over time. Ecoterrorism is said to have taken a place that is prominent in the media. This is because it involves fire bombings and arson. The forms of violence that are carried out such as sabotage, threats against people and property are said to be committed in the name of environmentalism. The ecoterrists targets vary from one place to another from private companies to automobile companies to hospitals and many other places.
The history of ecoterrorism began in the 1960s when the advocates in England that belonged to a group of animal rights and they formed an association that is referred to as Hunt Saboteurs Association. They are said to have spent most time and money on fox hunts sabotage. In 1972, they were known as Band of Money and were a violent activist group that destroyed most property and their meetings became frequent in places that were rich. In 1975, a book was written and it had the title Animal Liberation. The book covered the rights of animals and is said that the book was the most influential and was the source of motivation for some groups to become active than violence.
This is because according to the book, any being that is living and had a face has to have a soul and the ability to feel pain as well as sadness. To this date the organizations that are active have their own have their own websites where they outline their tactics and is acts of violence such as arson, graffiti and their targets is usually big companies and they cause a lot of damage.
Narcoterrorism is a term that is used to describe many of the activities that are associated with the terrorist group like the Al-Qaeda Hezbollah AUC as well as FARC. The term is said to have originated in the 1980s and it came about as the president of Peru used it to describe the attacks that were carried out against his anti-narcotics police. It was said that the terrorist organizations were funded by narcotraffic and this had enabled the group to implement the acts of violence.
The Media and their influence on Terrorism
The language in which the message of the terrorists is portrayed about their organizations and actions that they commit is very important. This is because it is that language that will set the parameters that the public will discourse. Insurgent terrorist terminology and the officials of the government are said to be at the odds and this forces the media to adopt a strategy that will lead to expression of terrorism in a way that is accepted to the public.
This means that if the terrorism group induces the media to accept what they want to be featured they will have emerged victorious in a psychological manner. According to studies there exists a relationship between terrorism and the media and it mainly focuses on the response that they these terrorist incidences. The relationship is agreed to be symbiotic and the terrorist use the media to fulfill their political ambitions and their messages to be heard by the groups that they are targeting. Research carried out show that there exists a relationship between the media and terrorism on political, legal and psychological grounds.
Other methods that are existent are said to be ignored and this is said to be dangerous. There is a language that is said to make its way to the media about terrorism. It is also said that the terrorist have a language that the journalists cannot resist as the language is said to be romantic. This is not to say that the media has adopted the language that the terrorist use. The media is said to have adapted to the language that the government allows. This is because the government has intimidated the way that the media displays such information about terrorism. When the terrorist release a video tape the journalists have to look for a language that they will use to broadcast the message of the terrorist. This is because the government does not want the public to become terrified.
The media in some cases are said to be collaborators with terrorists. This is the case as there is fierce competition in the media houses and many top executives are not mainly journalists but people who are from the cooperate world. The most widely used form of media that the terrorist prefer is the television. This is because the television is the leading medium and the newspapers are a supplementary of the televisions. The other reason is that the information displayed on the television can be simplified, transformed into pictures and this is referred to as emotional intelligence.
Terrorism has been a practice that has been going out since history and has taken recent characteristics in some of the decades that have passed. According to Adams, James. 1987, terrorism is a product o f freedom and specifically that of the press. Terrorism is said to be on the increase because of the media and the acts of violence are increasingly terrible. It is also said that the media is the best friend of the terrorism. There is a controversy between the relationship between the media and terrorism. This is because their relationship is said to be symbiotic but researchers disagree with this and they say that no evidence is clear that the publicity they give to terrorism is the one that is responsible for occurrence of terrorism.
Government officials are the ones who have linked the media and terrorism. This is because they believe that the terrorists should not be given any kind of publicity. They disagree because they know that the terrorists are after publicity in order to create propaganda. They also know that the media has overreacted to terrorism by making their desires to be met.
According to Acquaviva, Mike. 1989, the relationship between the media and terrorism is not symbiotic and has explained this in four different ways. One is that there is pure indifference. The goals of terrorism are to cause fear to victims and they do not do this to gain attention from the media. They do not expect the press to get involved in their implementation.
Another is relative difference and this means that terrorists’ list concern is to be featured on the news even though they want to be gain power that the media can help them with. Media oriented strategy is another factor and this means that the media can expand their research on words and actions that the terrorists use and this is not in the knowledge of the terrorists. This makes the media to become integrated in the actions that the terrorists implement. Finally complete breakaway is another factor. This is whereby the terrorists view their biggest enemies to be the media and their journalists. They see them as enemies that must be destroyed and are put as direct adversaries.
These factors do not give the idea that there is a variety of relationships that can be established between these the media and the terrorism group. These factors show us how the terrorist can alternate the models and adopt one or more simultaneously. According to research modern terrorist that use some strategies to satisfy the news that the media show while the same time viewing them as enemies who must be overcome.
There have been two models that have been created in recent decades to show the relationship between the media and terrorism. One is the Culpable-media model and it is the link that is casual with terrorism and it calls for regulation. The model shows that the media covers terrorism and in turn incite more terrorism acts to be implemented as they give more coverage to these acts. The model contains a cycle of control. It is said that if the government tries to censor the coverage it causes harm because of the credibility of the government.
The other model is the vulnerable media model. This type of model states that the media is a victim and does not cause the acts of terrorism to be implemented. It also states that the control of the media on coverage is usually an ineffective one because the terrorists have other forms that they can communicate. Research that has been conducted shows that those who view the acts of terrorism react by fearing.
The Jihadist Perception of the Media
There are some characteristics that are structural and are said to be within the terrorism history. The history of the media and terrorism is said to have followed the same patterns as the history of terrorism. This is because the terrorism group knows the final goals that it wants to achieve and they also know that they cannot reach these goals without the media. The message that terrorism wants people to know is that they will be hostile to those who are guilty of failing in the Jihadist movement.
According to the Al Qaeda they blame the media for Salafist Islam message that is being ignored and distorted. This has made the Jihad group not to penetrate in other Muslim communities and make it large. This makes the Jihad movement not to be understood by other communities and they blame the media for it. The media on the other hand is controlled by the government and the policies of the government do not allow them to broadcast such things.
In stead the media has given very negative information about the movement because most of the time they focus on the actions of the group that involves terrorism and not the message the group is passing across. This is why the group considers the media to be their major enemy. Before the attacks of September 11 the jihadist group said that the media had some propaganda about the group and they had ignored them and their perspectives. This is because there are some countries that were attacked.
They were regarded as madmen who are crazy in all the interviews that were conducted in the previous years. They also say that the media is trying to fight against Muslim. The jihadist group has some tools that they have enumerate that the powers the western uses to achieve this. Jihadist propaganda is said to denounce the roles that the media frequently plays in the role of covering the war on terrorism and the world of Muslims.
Their views are presented in a way that they tend to cover more lies about the movement and not the real issues such as motivations of the muyahidin. According to the Al Qaeda what is covered in the media is about the motivation of the western government. This news cover international security and they hide the economic exploitation of the world of Muslim and the hostility that they face against their religion from the western government.
The jihadists view the role of the media and the influence they have as they try to develop the crusade that are said to be new. They have summarized the roles as one: the media has numbed populations of people and especially Muslims; they provide entertainment that contains sinful acts. This is intended to keep the Muslims unaware that there are serious situations that they have to step up to as believers. They believe that the media works hard to beatify the leaders and fulfill the plans that they have over their enemies and this way they occupy people’s minds with matters that are not important according to them.
The second thing that the media does according to the jihadist is that they spread false image about the strength of Islam. This makes them to be distrusted and this is because of the media. The media has taken the role of creating an image that has seen the power increase and the capacity that the military has. This has made it impossible for them to become reluctant in rising against acts of injustices because they know that they will be defeated.
According to the jihadist, the media is the one that is responsible for distorting the motivation that Islam has. These actions that the media has are said to be the reason that prevents that population from appreciating the culture of Islam. The media is said to distort the information that Islam has and this destroys the image that they have. The media is also blamed for the contribution that they have towards the aggression against Islam.
This means that they reduce the support that the Muslims have from the western governments. This way the Muslim remains a community that is hated and one that cannot be accepted by others because of their violent acts. There are many communities that remain against the Muslim community and cannot agree to do trade with them as well as entering into partnerships.
In conclusion the media has played a big role in the influence over terrorism. There have been both positive and negative effects as discussed above. As they try to cover the news on terrorism, they continue to tarnish the imager of the Muslims. That is why they will continue to be the greatest enemies of the Muslims. The best way to avoid all this problems is to carry out research about the Muslim community and the jihadist movement because terrorism will continue to take place with or without the media.
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