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A Relationship?Ever since the Black September aeroplane hijackings of 1970, media coverage of terrorist events has increased and has brought focus on a new debate, namely whether the media coverage of terrorist events encourages "terrorists" to carry out more acts. Terrorism experts such as Professor Paul Wilkinson, of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, have debated the nature of the relationship. Most studies acknowledge that it is an intrinsic aim of international terrorists to achieve maximum exposure for the terrorist act. When asked if a relationship existed Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University's department of Peace Studies replied "A relationship only in the sense that major terror incidents provide immediate and copious news which is of interest to a wide audience." Dorothy Byrne, commissioning editor of Channel Four's current affairs programme, Dispatches, commented, "I don't know that there is a relationship between terrorism and media. It is often mentioned that there is a symbiotic relationship but in this context [of current affairs programming] there is no agenda on the reporting of terrorism.". Media AnalysisThe media's attitude towards its coverage of the 'War on Terrorism' has been varied and self-critical. However, as much as such analysis places media coverage into context, identifying it's own shortcomings, there has been very little commentary on how to rectify them. Opinion on media coverage on the reporting of events since September 11th has been critical. Former BBC war correspondent, Martin Bell, coined the phrase 'newsak' in describing ITN's style of coverage. Professor Rogers identified failures in reporting saying "There has been an almost complete absence of the recognition that there is a connection between the al-Qaeda network and political circumstances in the Gulf which relates very strongly to the huge oil reserves that are present in the Gulf and the American military presence there.". The Journalist's RoleSo does the media help to define terrorism or what a terrorist act is? Selective use of labels and the word "terrorism" by journalists to identify acts, events and perpetrators are all part of the discourse on terrorism. This was reinforced by Professor Rogers who identified some key issues in response to that question, "It is certainly true that the way an act is represented in the media does help to define it ...depending upon whether they [the terrorists] are opposed to the interests and culture of the society that a particular part of the media represents. There is a real polemic aspect to the coverage of terrorism." Journalists' coverage of terrorism informs & develop the perceptions about the world in which people live thus influencing the ways in which terrorism is defined in people's minds. Journalists inform, emphasise factual information and document events. They report the emotions of people to events, presenting material and emphasising feelings of anger, provocation and fear, particularly of inherently dramatic and tragic elements such the attacks on the Pentagon and the Twin Towers. The State RespondsGovernments believe that media coverage of terrorism has an important role to play in combating terrorism. This broadens the debate to include whether the media functions as a state apparatus and what role the media should take. Does one oppose terrorism by using methods that are non-democratic and undermine democracy itself? Central government would like the media to engage in some form of news management. This essentially is a euphemism for censorship: limiting coverage, crippling debate or analysis, and limiting the scope of a free press. A spokesperson for the Home Office declined to answer whether the media should perform this role. Terrorist Orchestration of the MediaOsama
Bin Laden issued two videos
in The government responded by warning broadcast news executives that the footage might contain coded instructions to other's in Bin Laden's organisation. The broadcasters agreed to exercise caution in showing footage from the videos. ConclusionMedia responses where invariably apocalyptic as per the Sun's headline "Is this the end of the world?" on the day after the event. Global economic meltdown was deemed to be certain and America's response, it was thought, would be just shy of nuclear attack. but events since that time have proved otherwise. The terrorists brilliantly manipulated the media to blind us to the truth that September 11th was the most ghastly terrorist atrocity ever committed rather than the end of the world.
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the wake of the attacks, one in early October and another a month later, both
broadcast by a Qatari TV channel, Al Jazeera.These
acts illustrate how terrorist organisations use the media not just to
report the terrorist act itself. The videos showed the terrorist's reliance
upon the media and the media's role in reporting terrorism. 