THE EFFECTS OF MEDIA

Effects of Media Reporting of Terrorism on the Public

Effects of Media Reporting of Terrorism on the Public

Introduction

According to a famous saying "the terrorist does not want that many people die, they want a lot of people to know about the terror.” Raymond Aron characterized by the search for a psychological impact than its military impact. All striving to produce a message than to destruction, the terrorists use their weapons to communicate rather than to kill. Above all, historically, he considers the media as weapons (Brown 2003, Pp. 225).

Directly first, it may attempt to use Internet and computer as a means of sabotage directed against our societies based on the information. This is what we call "cyber terrorism", for the moment more dangerous in theory than experienced. Indirectly then, the terrorist tries to return the media of the opponent against him. They use to scare (spread terror), but also to echo (or even to get an advertising claim), to coerce, future disciples. Even the choice of the victim is made to mean something; he obeys the logic of representation and symbol.

The propaganda of terrorism in that show or the booklet for small group to the slaughter in satellite telecasts, the spectacle of terror adapts to the dominant means of communication: popular press, radio that we listen to the bottom campaigns, display of TV or computer. Long, the fight against terrorism was thinking in terms of propaganda bloody or "forums" that would be offered or not the terrorist ideology (Blaisse 1992, Pp. 148). But now the issue is more about control of the image. Western media no longer have a monopoly, nor do they retain control over the Web. "Own" the media do not guarantee control over the frames of reference that they oppose the recipients. Terrorism has its media and is a medium.

Discussion

Terrorism

Historical perspectives of terrorism

What is terrorism? There exists no definition of the term because it has got myriad of dimensions, which are interlinked and complex in nature. It is a phenomenon rather than a practice that develops under certain circumstances, triggering an abnormal reaction from an individual or a group of people or even countries. We cannot single out one or two factors responsible for influencing violent behavior among the so-called terrorists and their supporters. In this paper, terrorism is discussed in connection with political, social, psychological and religious perspectives.

Political Perspective

Terrorism can be loosely defined as the use of illegal and unfair means to implement the principles at will, thus subjugating the affected to agree to them despite their inappropriateness. Most of the historians hold the point of view that terrorism is essentially a political phenomenon. Historically, powerful nations, including, Britain, France, Portugal etc. were involved in using terrorism as a tool to strengthen their unjustified rule over the colonial states (Bandura 1998, Pp. 167). The two World Wars in 1914 and 1939 gave further impetus to the concept that terrorism is characterized by the use of force, which resulted in colossal loss and suffering ...