Media & Terrorism

The Power of Propagation

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• Definition of Terrorism
• Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of
terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular
persons for political purposes (UN General Assembly
Resolution 49/60)
• Terrorism is not a conventional war – it’s a psychological
war
• The target are not the victims only – it’s general public

Introduction 2
• The method of psychological war
• Maximizing the effect of an incident by propagating the
violence to a large audience.
• It’s not about creating danger but about creating the
perception of danger.
• To reach the audience, terrorist depends on media.
• By helping terrorists in achieving their aim, media
appears as an accomplice to the terrorist.

Introduction 3
 World-Wide Publicity

Actual Terrorist Incident Media

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• How media helps the terrorists in achieving their purpose:
• Exaggerating the problem of terrorism
• Misinforming public and Spreading false alarms
• Provoking overreactions
• Legitimizing the terrorists’ acts
• Romanticizing the terrorists and making them appear as
heroes

The Negative Role of

Media 5
EXAGGERATING THE PROBLEM
OF TERRORISM
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• “People will believe a
big lie sooner than a
little one; and if you
repeat it frequently
enough people will
sooner or later believe
it” (Adolf Hitler)

Exaggerating the problem

of terrorism 7
• Too much coverage
• For 444 days, the American news media gave 24 hours
coverage to the seizure of Tehran embassy.
• The video clip of twin tower attack was repetitively shown
for hours
• The Indian media portrayed Mumbai attack as similar to
9/11 through over-coverage of the event
• Coverage initiating before the first confirmed news and till
the last prophecy

Exaggerating the problem

of terrorism 8
• What is the biggest problem for the world?
• Domestic Violence
• Murders
• Usual diseases like flu
• Terrorism

Exaggerating the problem

of terrorism 9
• Some facts to surprise you
• During 1967-1978 in Israel, 272 people died of attacks from
Palestinians while several thousands were murdered
• In USA, only 80 people died in terrorist attacks but 20,000
were murdered
• Over 10,000 people died annually due to domestic violence
• Flue kills 36,000 people annually
• People killed in 9/11: 3500

Exaggerating the problem

of terrorism 10
• Media gives more coverage not to the frequent acts but to
the unusual and alarming acts, making the situation
appear worse than it actually is.
• People outside Karachi or Pakistan believe that it is
constantly convulsed by terrorist attacks but we live a
normal life and visitors often get surprised by not finding
a trace of such acts.

Exaggerating the problem

of terrorism 11
MISINFORMING PUBLIC AND
SPREADING FALSE ALARM
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• “The news isn't there
to tell you what
happened. It's there to
tell you what it wants
you to hear or what it
thinks you want to
hear” (Joss Whedon,
Astonishing X-Men)

Misinforming Public and

Spreading False Alarm 13
• Gives only half of the truth by focusing on the sensational
part of news, not the informative one
• The focus is on the blood, the gore, the horror of the victims
• Little contextual information
• Chunks of events with missing in between stories
• Uneven coverage of events
• Time of London ignored 43% and The New York Times
ignored 44% of incidents of International terrorism.
• More coverage to hijacking and hostage crisis than bomb
blasts

Misinforming Public and

Spreading False Alarm 14
PROVOKING OVER-REACTION
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• Anti-state sentiments
• Misperception about government efforts in combating
terrorism by focusing only on few dramatic events rather
the overall anti-terrorism and counter-terrorism policy.
• Ending moderation and patience from the society
• Anti-Islam sentiments in the West
• Growing divide between left and right wingers in Pakistan

Provoking Over-reaction 16
• Contribute to public support for drastic measures to
counter terrorism
• “Extensive qualitative media analysis shows that
political decision-makers quickly adjusted propaganda
passages, prepared as part of the Project for the New
American Century (PNAC), to emphasize domestic
support for the new US role in leading the world.”
(Altheide, 2007: 287)

Provoking Over-reaction 17
LEGITIMIZING THE TERRORISTS
ATTACKS
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• Letting terrorists explain their reasons for committing
these crimes
• Discussing the factors “compelling” people to become
terrorists
• Provoking the would-be terrorists by making terrorism
appear as a self-perpetuating phenomenon

Legitimizing Terrorist
Attacks 19
ROMANTICIZING THE
TERRORISTS AND MAKING
THEM APPEAR AS HEROES
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• Contagion effect – terrorist attacks of one kind occurring
in clusters
• Reason?
• Broadcasting their names and pictures across the screen
and giving them credit for these heinous acts serves only
to inflate warped egos.
• Recently at the death of Waliur-Rehman, the TTP
commander was lionized by the media as someone who
died a hero’s death after living a militant’s life

Romanticizing the
terrorists 21
SOLUTION
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 Media Policy
• Defining a formula for coverage hours
• Promoting investigative journalism
• Banning appearance of terrorists on
media
• Devising a punishment mechanism for
misinforms and exaggerators

Solution 23
• Altheide, D.L. (2007). The mass media and terrorism.
Discourse and Communication, 1(3), 287-308.
• Jenkins, B.M. (1981) Embassies Under Siege: A Review of 48
Embassy Takeovers 1971-1980. (R-2651-RC). The Rand
Corporation.
• Jenkins, B.M. (1981) The psychological implications of media-
covered terrorism (No. RAND-P-6627). Santa Monica, CA:
The Rand Corporation.
• Kelly, M.J. & Mitchell, T.H. (1979). Transnational Terrorism
and the Western Elite Press. Paper presented to the Annual
Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. May 30 1979.

References 24
Thank You

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