Terrorism After 9/11: The Media Perspective

According to an old Chinese proverb the main aim of a terrorist activity is to “kill one and frighten ten thousand.” Terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon. Almost all of the world polities have either remained directly under terrorist attacks or have been suffering from its far reaching impacts. Media have been remarkably successful means of publicizing a political cause and relaying the terrorist threat to wider audience, particularly in the open and pluralistic countries of the West. The extensive, wide spread and prolonged coverage of the events like bombings in London in July, 2005 and March, 2004 attacks in Madrid were, many argue, have been more than sufficient for the ‘terrorists’ to put across their message of terror and fear to large audiences. This work looks at the media-terrorism relationship with a particular focus on TV news media.