Terrorism and the Media Essay

September 11, 2001 brought many different feelings that were new to Americans. Americans had not experienced something of this magnitude in their own country. Even to this day, America continues to resonate what took place in our culture and in politics. The magnitude is definitely shown throughout many songs, books, and television shows that were created and released immediately following 9/11 (Melnick, 64). They try to illustrate the on-going thoughts of what happened and the attitudes that have evolved due to this tragedy.

September 11th, 2001 is now a date discussed in history lessons. While the post-9/11 generations may not have witnessed the changes of this tragic event, which rapidly filled every crevice of US society, they have an entire generation ready to narrate what they witnessed on and after that day. The expeditious reaction made a permanent mark on American culture.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, an Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda carried out a series of four attacks on the United States. The most well-known attack is when two commercial airline planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City. Many innocent lives were lost and families were torn apart. While many Americans were determined to show their resilience towards the attacks, this is a day many Americans will never forget. Although the attacks happened sixteen years ago, Americans are still dealing with the impacts these attacks have had on life in America. The 9/11 attacks have had several long-lasting effects on everyday life in America, some of which include an increase in airport security, a change in national security, and an increase the fear of terrorism.

An article in this month's "Stuff" magazine for men, titled "Die American Scum" tells us that the world sucks. It sucks because while Americans have given other countries "Mickey Mouse, burgers and gum, won wars for them, kept the peace and disposed of dictators," all we have gotten in return is terrorism. The article, by John Parrish, goes on to discourage Americans from traveling to 10 "terrorist" countries including Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Colombia and Mexico.

“If the media were not there to report terrorist acts and to explain their political and social significance...terrorism as such would cease to exist” said John O'Sullivan, an editor of the Times of London.1 This is also the way many other people feel about the recent increase in terrorist activity; they feel that the media is causing it. The media is doing this by fulfilling the terrorists' need for publicity.2 Terrorists need media publicity in order to get their views spread to the public.3 Because of this need for publicity, terrorists are committing their acts of terrorism in areas where a lot of publicity will be gained; the United States and Western Europe are the most recent targets. The bombings of the federal building in

During a terrorist event the media will play an integral piece in shaping our viewpoints of the event and relaying critical information such as where to go for assistance or letting the public know what happened. Media comes in many forms today, such as the television, radio, and the newspaper. But for many of us, we will rely on using are smart devices to receive our news and alerts these days which include Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr. Depending on which age generation category you fall into usually results in what means of media you rely on. This is important to understand because the goal of the media is to reach a wide range audience that needs information quickly during a terrorist event. Therefor, the media must utilize a multiple

A bomb goes off in a marketplace in Tel Aviv. A suicide bomber launches himself in a bus full of people in the street of Baghdad. Foreign tourists get massacred at a holiday resort in Nairobi, Kenya. This can go on and on. We all have heard this kind of pathetic news in the media. These kinds of incidents are widely known as Islamic terrorism according to the western media. All such incidents have come to be identified with the religion of Islam. Such incidents from past and present have undoubtedly affected Muslims worldwide and more so in the West. Any Muslim, who wants to practice his/her religion and expresses the pious desire to live under the umbrella of Islam, is labeled a fundamentalist or

Muslims faced tremendous amounts of prejudice after the September 11th attacks. The September 11th attacks were four coordinated attacks perpetrated by the terrorist group known as Al Qaeda. These attacks killed 2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 innocent people. These terrorist attacks also contributed to the fear that we now know as Islamophobia.

This survey reveals that the problem with the Islam faith is not racial: The Muslim people are welcomed, the Islam faith is not. The violence that has been perpetrated against America, whether executed or planned, has brought to fruition religious persecution not seen since the persecution of the Jews in W.W.II. This “trust no Arab” attitude has brought shame to the Constitutional intentions of freedom of religion intended by our forefathers, and has set religious tolerance back 200 years. Looking at media representation of Muslim Americans prior to 9-11, it shows religious diversity in America, depicting Muslim America as just another religious community seeking to advance and protect their interests, not unlike other Americans. After 9-11 the media portrayed representations of threat and fear, creating boundaries between Muslims and other Americans. Such depiction transforms the identity of Muslims and American religious pluralism (Byng, M. pg. 3).

Terrorism can be defined as the use of criminal violence to try to force a government to change. It can also be defined as the use of criminal violence that groups or individuals use to seek revenge and cause heartache amongst those that they want to hurt/threaten. Most terrorist groups prefer to target people for a more dramatic response and celebrate when the media broadcasts their violent acts on television and throughout the news. Lately, more and more deadly terrorist acts have been captured on film and broadcasted in all parts of the world. Sixty years ago recordings of terroristic acts didn’t spread through the world as quickly as they do now because technology wasn’t as advance. That is just one of the

fear into the society. Among one of the most effective avenues that terrorist organizations use

Imagine you are a resident of Jerusalem, in the year 60 AD.  You are taking

Terrorism has played a role affecting civilization for a hundred of years. The acts of violence have aims and objectives which intend on being achieved by the perpetrators themselves, or by the organizations that support these acts. With the aid of the present day media, acts of terrorism are now becoming designed to grasp the attention of the entire world and compel a terrorist organization's message into the spotlight for the whole world to look at. Reasons and purpose for attacks are often derived from the news so what better way for a terrorists organization to relay there message than the news.

In the aftermath of the Manchester bombing that claimed the lives of 23 people, injured over 100, and left the international community reeling, the world is faced with yet another challenge: to piece together a comprehensive plan that provides sufficient countermeasures to successful terrorist recruitment and reduces chances of exploitation of states’ cyber vulnerabilities. In the article entitled “Containing ISIS’ Online Campaigns After Manchester” and published by Foreign Affairs, Smith takes a critical stance on Western social media attempts at shutting down pro-ISIS propaganda accounts. He documents a rise in attacks outside the Middle East as a trend from hijrah to

There has been a lot of thought put into finding a more effective way to build intelligence efforts to make a stronger product for decisions of national security. The use of the media and worldwide reporters can be used in the effort to build more information on the intelligence products, but the usage will be limited. It is not very likely that the government of Pakistan will sponsor a column disclosing a list of nuclear assets every week, or that the Irish Republican Army will endorse a schedule of events for next weeks offensive maneuvers; but it is likely that many countries in the free world will encourage the disclosure of movements and known associations of terrorists. The same type