Chapter 12: The Information Battleground: Terrorist Violence and the Role of the Media

Sean Aday, Steven Livingston, and Maeve Hebert analyze the objectivity of several broadcast news organizations in their reporting of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Xi Cui and Eric Rothenbuhler present a theory on how modern terrorism communicates intimidation, fear, and anxiety. Amy Fried evaluates contextual reporting of terrorism in print media. News magazine photographic coverage of the “war on terrorism” in Afghanistan and Iraq is assessed in Michael Griffin’s article. Sarah Harris analyses two cases of “digital activism” in Turkey and the suppression of such activism through “networked erasure.” Hervik applies the case of the Danish publication of Muhammad cartoons to a theoretical argument linking media reporting to a propensity for reporting radicalization through a narrowed lens rather than adequately understanding current events. Lee, Hongtao, and Lee examine how two of the most preeminent U.S. newspapers – New York Times and Washington Post – editorially invoked Tiananmen as a “news icon” in the past twenty years. The public relations strategies of the Pentagon and extremists are discussed and compared by Eric Louw. Frank Möller discusses the importance of visual imagery in the post-9/11 era. Describing an interesting perspective on the media, Kirsten Morgensen argues that television coverage of terrorist attacks is a specific genre of journalism. In their article discussing communication and the terrorist threat, Mythen and Walk critique media and government assessments and distortions of the threat. Applying the case of the 2015 Germanwings non-terrorist incident, Stuart Price discusses how incidences of public violence and disaster are categorized by executive authority and media organizations. Sancho presents an analysis of the role of new media technologies in the mobilization of international global justice networks. Michelle Slone reports research on differential stress responses to terrorism reporting by the public in Israel. In a polemical article, Philip Taylor argues that the West can win the “propaganda war” against terrorism. Vergani and Bliuc analyze differences in psychological dimensions found in ISIS’s publication Dabiq and Al Qaeda’s Inspire. Wolfsfeld et al. explore how different journalistic routines theoretically lead to the reportage of ethnocentric news. Joshua Woods analyzes press coverage of terrorism during an eight-year period spanning the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Journal Article 12.1: Aday, Sean. Steven Livingston, and Maeve Hebert. “Embedding the Truth: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Objectivity and Television Coverage of the Iraq War.” Harvard Journal of Press/Politics 10:1 (Winter 2005).

Journal Article 12.2: Cui, Xi and Eric Rothenbuhler. “Communicating Terror: Mediatization and Ritualization.” Television & New Media 19:2 (2018).

Journal Article 12.3: Fried, Amy. “Terrorism as a Context of Coverage Before the Iraq War.” Harvard Journal of Press/Politics 10:3 (Summer 2005).

Journal Article 12.4: Griffin, Michael. “Picturing America’s ‘War on Terrorism’ in Afghanistan and Iraq: Photographing Motifs as News Frames.” Journalism 5:4 (2004).

Journal Article 12.5: Harris, Sarah K. “Networked Erasure: Visualizing Information Censorship in Turkey.” Convergence 20:3 (2014).

Journal Article 12.6: Hervik, Peter. “Ten Years After the Danish Muhammad Cartoon News Stories: Terror and Radicalization as Predictable Media Events.” Television & New Media 19:2 (2018).

Journal Article 12.7: Lee, Chin-Chuan, Li Hongtao Li, and Francis Lee. “Symbolic Use of Decisive Events: Tiananmen as a News Icon in the Editorials of the Elite U.S. Press.” International Journal of Press/Politics 16 (July 2011).

Journal Article 12.8: Louw, Eric P. “The ‘War Against Terrorism’: A Public Relations Challenge for the Pentagon.” Gazette: The International Journal for Communications Studies 63:3 (2003).

Journal Article 12.9: Möller, Frank. “Photographic Interventions in Post-9/11 Security Policy.” Security Dialogue 38:2 (2007).

Journal Article 12.10: Morgensen, Kirsten. “Television Journalism During Terror Attacks.” Media, War & Conflict 1 (April 2008).

Journal Article 12.11: Mythen, Gabe and Sandra Walklate. “Communicating the Terrorist Risk: Harnessing a Culture of Fear?” Crime, Media, Culture 2:2 (2006).

Journal Article 12.12: Price, Stuart. “The Event of Terrorism: Ambiguous Categories and Public Spectacle.” Television & New Media 19:2 (2018).