Terrorism

It is believed that when the press is free, then the population will also be free. To this moment, democratic societies are defined by a free press. However, it becomes disturbing when the content of media is influenced by organizations that are meant to disturb the security and safety of the population. For terrorist organizations to be able to spread fear and pass across its political intentions, they need the media. In most of the time, terrorist attacks normally affect only a small group of people in a certain location. However, their intension is to spread fear to more people other than those attacked. Unfortunately, the media plays the role of spreading news about the attacks or sometimes even passing across direct messages from terrorist organizations. Glupker(2009) states that media oriented terrorism is linked to the cropping up of mass media that gives a life coverage of various terrorist activities.

According to Biernatzki (2002), Margaret Thatcher once said that mass media was the “oxygen of terrorism” (Biernatzki, 2002, p. 6). Even though she might have gained negative publicity because of this statement, there is so much truth in these words. Terrorist plan their actions with the media in their mind. Governments are also unable to spot the flow of information. An increase in technology has made it possible for news to flow from one part of the globe to the other within a very short time. For instance, the internet is used to instantly transmit information all over the globe. The media is a fundamental tool of a very brutal cycle. As it covers acts of terrorism, it also incites more activities from terrorist organizations. This produces even more coverage by the same media therefore creating a never ending cycle (Biernatzki, 2002).

Even though the September 11 attack might have taken place in the US, information about the attack was spread all over the world in a very short time. There were even video footages posted on the internet. Television stations also passed across the message as ‘Braking news”. This spread of information helps terrorist organizations to make their intensions known. If it were not for the media and its technology, information about the attack could not be wide spread at it. According to a report compiled by International media Support, Adil Soz & Public Association journalist (2008), terrorist attacks in London, Madrid and Moscow also received intense media coverage. This seemed to prove the fact that terrorist were interested achieving full publicity and therefore exert pressure and spread fear in governments. 

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