Media And Terrorism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Media And Terrorism - Research Paper Example Pandalai and Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (2013) argue that several characteristics make the media to be well suited for terrorist and terrorist activities. One important characteristic that is important for terrorism as related to the media is that it sets the agenda in that the more attention one pays to a certain activity like terror attacks, the more importance and attention the public pays attention to it. Moreover, the way a news item is offered or outlined determines how it will be explained or understood by the target audience or population. It is a matter of fact that terrorists and their terror activities would want to be in the media most probably in a positive way to be seen as fighting for a political, ideological or political cause. The media becomes an important tool for setting and framing this agenda as wanted by the terrorist.  Terrorists adopt the use of the media to set and propagate some of their objectives of terrorism, Whitehead (2013) argues th at terrorists may use the media for purposes of seeking attention, recognition, and legitimacy, which can be achieved through the psychological interaction between them and the media to demoralize enemies. In order to achieve this, terrorists try to gain the attention of the audience to condition their thinking thus creating fear; afterward, they seek for recognition of their motives in order to gain sympathy and respect before using the media to gain quasi-legitimate status to be recognized as important political players. Terrorists participate at several levels in the media either when the media reports a terror attack, when terrorists send their messages through the media or when they have a full control of the media outlet. In the first case, the terrorists carry out an attack and wait to see how the media carries out the story or report it, while the second scenario occurs when those involved in the terror activity send their message to the media after framing their message.