TERRORISM AS A COMMUNICATION PHENOMENON
Abstract
Some of the contemporary theories of the mass media and political communications1 teach their audiences and mold public ideas about events or phenomena which political forces exploit for their own ends. The media do not merely cover events or describe phenomena— they cover them with “outgrowths” that disfigure them to the extent that the public gradually shifts from discussing the real phenomenon to its virtual likeness, which might well be a product of media skills. This explains why from time to time the public concentrates on phantoms at the expense of real and even urgent issues, which remain uncovered and therefore ignored The agenda-setting theory postulates: “We judge as important what the media judge as important.”2 Significantly, according to the agenda-setting theory the media determines not merely what the public would think but also the objects of its deliberations: “The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.”3 This is true when applied to the press; the electronic media—TV and the Internet—have gone even further. They not merely suggest what people should think about—they tell them what they should think, how to treat the events, and what terms should be applied.
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References
See, for example: A.V. Atanesian, Aktualnye prob-lemy sovremennykh politicheskikh i konfliktnykh kommu-nikatsiy, Erevan State University Press, Erevan, 2008.
E. Griffin, A First Look at Communication Theory,McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, 1996, p. 332.
Ibid., p. 333.
See, for example: A.V. Atanesian, op. cit., pp. 15-39.
See: P. Norris, M. Kern, M. Just, Framing Terrorism: The News Media, the Government and the Public, Rutledge,New York-London, 2003, p. 5.
D.V. Olshansky, Psikhologiia terrora, Akademicheskiy Proekt, Moscow, 2002, pp. 11-12.
M. Al Sayyid, “Mixed Message: The Arab and Muslim Response to ‘Terrorism,’” in: The New Era of Terrorism.
elected Readings, ed. by G. Martin, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks-London-New Delhi, 2004, pp. 64-71.
“Informatsionnye aspekty terroristicheskikh aktov,” in: Psikhologiia i psikhopatologiia terrorizma, ed. by M.M. Reshet-nikov, The East European Institute of Psychoanalysis, St. Petersburg, 2004, p. 216.
See: H.A. Cooper, “Terrorism: The Problem of Definition Revisited,” in: The New Era of Terrorism. Selected Read-ings, pp. 55-63.
V.A. Medvedev, “Terror kak osnovanie kommunikativnoi kultury XXI veka: ot ponimaniia k interpretatsii,” in:
sikhologiia i psikhopatologiia terrorizma, p. 105.
See: P. Norris, M. Kern, M. Just, op. cit., p. 4.
For more about securitization see, for example: B. Buzan, O. Wæver, J. de Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., London, 1998, p. 23.
See: S. Oates, Through a Lens Darkly? Russian Television and Terrorism Coverage in Comparative Perspective, paper prepared for The Mass Media in Post-Soviet Russia International Conference, University of Surrey, U.K., 2006, pp. 6-7.
Ibid., p. 10.
B. Zelizer, “Death in Wartime: Photographs and the ‘Other War’ in Afghanistan,” Press/Politics, No. 10 (3), 2005,p. 27.
A.E. Jasperson, M.O. El-Kikhia, “CNN and al Jazeera’s Media Coverage of America’s War in Afghanistan,” in:
raming Terrorism: The News Media, the Government and the Public, Rutledge, New York-London, 2003, p. 114.
See: J. Mueller, War, Presidents and Public Opinion, John Wiley, New York, 1973.
See: R. Brody, C. Shapiro, “Policy Failure and Policy Support: The Iran-Contra Affair and Public Assessment of President Reagan,” Political Behavior, No. 11, 1989, pp. 353-369.
A.E. Jasperson, M.O. El-Kikhia, op. cit., pp. 116-117.
On 23 October, 2002, Movsar Baraev and his group, which partly consisted of girl suicide bombers, took over 900 hostages, the audience in the Theater Center on Dubrovka.
“Informatsionnye aspekty terroristicheskikh aktov,” p. 206.
B. Zelizer, op. cit., p. 30.
Ibid., pp. 29-30.
Ibidem.
“Informatsionnye aspekty terroristicheskikh aktov,” pp. 206-207.
P. Wilkinson, “The Media and Terrorism: A Reassessment,” Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1997,pp. 5-6.
P. Wilkinson, op. cit., pp. 15-16.
“Informatsionnye aspekty terroristicheskikh aktov,” p. 213.
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