Framing And Controlling Media Discourse On Terrorism Criminology Essay

Framing And Controlling Media Discourse On curseist execute Criminology EssayFollowing the September 11 attacks in 2001 in the States, conduct of terrorist act go fored a global re intrustation and public reaction throughout the world. terrorist act is not a natural phenomenon. It has existed from centuries ago. But that time (September 11, 2001) America was the terrorists target. It was the number 1 time that such massive attack was blossom among people nearly the world by live discussion. In recent years, the number of stories and pa intent roughly terrorist and terrorist act discourses has been change magnitude, peculiarly after September 11, 2001 in America and July 7, 2005 in London. The Media and the organization, as the key institutions in every society, play evidential map to create public knowledge toward terrorist and terrorist act. It seems that the media, as a implement for pre moveation of the brasss policy, is utilize and controlled by g every placenment in skip overage of intelligence service almost terrorist and act of terrorist act themes.In this essay I am loss to address this question who (which organisation) is managing and controlling media content and discourse about terrorism? According to literatures, (e.g. Hoffman 2006 Paletz 1992) the media is affected in a flash by organisations policy. On the other hand, the media whitethorn do the terrorists favours beca drop the media finish be also used by terrorists to propagate their consume in the altogethers, teaching and beliefs crosswise society and the world. Altheide (2006), Hoffman (2006) and paletz and Boiney (1992) argue that the media itself plays briny role in managing and framing media discourse on terrorist. However, it seems that the media is a device that is used by both government and terrorists to impact on the public mind. Thus, they drive out utilize the media, negatively or positively, to achieve their goals, dream uping that the med ia does not book overhear it off control over its contents.The reminder of this essay contains of plane section 2 that discusses about the definition of terrorism,. In section 3 addresses the question of the essay. Finally, section 4 provides the conclusion of the essay. act of terrorism and TerroristIn point, in the last ascorbic acid years, terrorism has not much changed.However a unique and complete definition of this phenomenon does not exist. Despite the expansion of terrorism and its importance for the internationalistic security, defining the term terrorism is still faced with uncertainty. One of the main reasons for this ambiguity may be the diversity of terrorists goals and the variety of terrorism forms. Therefore, thither is no universally definition of terrorism. On the whole, the word terrorism (terror) content the panic and alarm. Common definition of terrorism refers to tearing acts and aggressive behaviours which gratuity to create fear or terror among peo ple. Hoffman (2006) quotes from terrorism group that violent actions. argon shocking. We want to shock people everywhere.It is our bearing of communicating with the people. The concept of shock suggests creating fear and murder, threats and intimidation among people.Among various definitions of terrorism, or so of them are provided belowThe United State Department of Defence (DOD) define terrorism as the unlawful use of rage or threat of violence to install fear and coerce governments or societies. terrorist act is often cause by religious, policy-making, or other ideological beliefs and committed in the following of goals that are unremarkably political.According to United Nation in (1992) terrorism means An anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) underground unmarried, group or resign actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby- in contrast to assassination- the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. (http//www.terrorism-research.com)The U.S federal official Bureau of Investigation (FBI) describes terrorism as the unlawful use of lunge and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment in that respectof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.Taylor (1986) cited in Cottle (2006) sees terrorism as the violence which is make by n single -sates groups or individuals. Therefore, he believes that terrorism is not a state-oriented action. Cottle (2006) also believes that Taylors visualise is more appropriate than the view that points to the state terrorism. Taylors view (1986) is discuss commensurate since it seems that in countries with dictatorial government, state is upper hand in terror of oppositions. However, nowadays terrorism is an activity which is think to a particular actors or groups with special ideas. For example, some countries may dispose to related terrorism to basal Muslims. Accordin g to Gerrits (1992) cited in Paletz and Schmid (1992) the media may provide insurgent terrorists with a dear(p) dose of the oxygen of publicity, but censorship tush provide a government with the narcotic of secrecy, which is an even bigger danger to democracy.Cottle (2006) argues that the words terrorists and terrorism are used to say that actions of rebels or/ and oppositions are unlawful and illegitimate. Taheri (1987) says for one mans terrorist will always be anothers freedom fighter, but it throw out be said with certainly that terrorism is what terrorism does. Although there is not a single view and perspective on terrorism description across the world, terrorism and terrorism related actions carry common concepts which are fear and illegitimating.Types of terrorismTo identify who has upper hand in media discourse on terrorist it may be useful to study the types of terrorism.State Terrorism state terrorism usually refers to the state or states which intervene in the ind ne arlying affairs of other governments in order to create fear or support of military operations, to weaken and overthrow a government.Domestic TerrorismThis kind of terrorism usually does anti-government activities to create fear among people to get d knowledge attention (Powel, 2011).International terrorismEmergence of international terrorism has increased in year 1983 (after the salvo of the Marine Battalion Landing aggroup Headquarters at Beirut International Airport.), and nowadays a substantial rise in international violence, specially in Asian countries, scum bag be seen, especially after 2000 and 2001. The world has witnessed the victim of humans by international terrorism. It seems that international terrorism consists of domestic terrorism and state terrorism which support domestic terrorists. For example, serial explosions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, in which thousands of women and children are sent to the slaughterhouse, can be interpreted as international ter rorism activity.Cyber terrorismDennings (2000) defines cyber terrorism as a violent attack to computer programmes, networks and reclusive information that leads to a severe fear and economic and political losses. Cyber terrorism is much more serious than the activity of hacker because cyber terrorism aims searing infrastructures of information technology of a country or government to obtain heavy information in order to use it against that government and/or special group.As the main classical tool of terrorism is explosion and firearms, the main weapon of cyber terrorist is computer. There are many ways that terrorists can use the computer as a terrorism device. The most of import methods of cyber terrorism are hacking and computer viruses, electronic espionage, identity theft and expiry or manipulation of information.Who has upper hand in media discourse on terrorism?This section is going to investigate the source of the media discourse on terrorism. On the whole, if we identi fy who (government, the media itself or terrorist) benefits from the forming the media content about terrorism we may address better the main question of the essay.The Media or government?The media are at the heart of events because the media would kindred to break news. Therefore, all the discussions about terrorism come from the media, especially after the September 11 terrorist attacks because it is the media that distribute the news of the terrorism and people are informed formally about the events by the media. Media, in particular, grizzly media such as television, radio and newspaper, has become a platform for covering and publishing the terrorists activities in recent years.As Paletz and Boiney (1992) discusses, Laqueurs (1977) indicates that terrorists tend to attack free societies. The terrorist rational is that the media is free in these societies and, therefore, media can cover violent event and publish the related news immediately. It may mean that in tighten societie s the media content and news are controlled by the government and violent events may not be covered completely by the media in such societies. For example, in countries such as Spain and Italy, the press has been prohibit to cover and spread terrorist notice. (Obalance, 1989) .This is what that terrorist does not like it.The media are very well suited for the purposes of terrorists. Terrorists utilize different types of media to informed public people about their targets, values and ideas. Hoffman (2006) argues that terrorism can reach a wider target earshot with the media because without media the effect of the act would be glancing. Without massive news coverage the terrorist act would resemble the proverbial tree falling in the forest if no one learned of an incident, it would be as if it had not occurred. (Nacos 2000)Furthermore, Altheide (2006) discusses that the media is seen as an beta part of publics life and known as a kind of conversation which leads news and informa tion beyond the margins. Therefore, the media is seen as a tool which can be used by various institutions and for different targets. The media is important for terrorists because without the media they cannot spread the terror news and also they can use the media as supplement on the governments to gain their political goals (Hoffman, 2006).As the media is known as a linker between government and public it is, therefore, the crush tool which government can use to inform people about incidents. Nowadays, the media ready an inevitable role in promoting government programs and in creating an atmosphere to shape public prospect and decisions. Therefore, the media always has been regarded by governments. authoritiess with assistance of the media ware achieved the unique indicator in the domestic and foreign area .Statesmen with using the media implement their policies and programs. Therefore, it is obvious that the government in each country have considerable dominance on the medi a. It can be seen that the media is a tool in the hands of statesmen and cannot act fully in pendently. Therefore, it might be true to say that when we discuss about the role of the media on framing and managing terrorism discourses, we investigate, in fact, the role and power of the sate which control the media content. However, one may say that the media itself is the first in managing and forming the contents on terrorism because reaction of the media to a terror and the way that the media coverage the related news are different and this may be criticized for damaging effects. The media may contribute terrorists to distribute fear among people or willingly and unwillingly provide terrorists with important information that worsen the placement in favour of terrorism and against the security and peace. This may cause regime to meet some demands of terrorists to render the peace and calmness to the society. Cottle(2006) discusses that the media can have a progressive role in rela tion to violence and terror. In other words, it seems that media can encourage people to think about the causes and effects of terror and violence. This leads to form a pubic judge from people on the events. Cottle (2006) calls this phenomenon as democratize violence. However, in most cases the media may censor the fact of incidents, by media owners such as government, in corporate with public governing to control and constraint the understanding of people of the event. (Paletz and Boiney, 1992). According to Nosseke (1985) cited in Paletz and Boiney (1992) the best way to avoid the impact of the mass media is to prevent the occurrences of terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the media, especially the old media, form and deliver the goods all news of terrorism directly and independently without the control of the governmental authorities.TerrorismSince terrorism likes a permanent wave non-normal situation and fear after its act and media contributes to create such a situation, terrorism is the first to wish control over the media.Miller (1982) argues that there is a relationship between media and terrorism. This relationship is inseparable because the media always covers the terrors news. Terrorism also would like to receive attention of the media. Terrorism, like an ill unnatural enfant terrible, is the medias stepchild, a stepchild which the media, unfortunately, can neither completely ignore deny.(Powell, 2011)There are various factors which encourage terrorist to use different types of the media (e.g. the meshwork) such as demoralize their enemies such as government, creating fear among public, being famous to the public by spreading their targets and release their massages through the media. in the buff media, in particular the cyberspace, has been progressively used by terrorists to reach their goals. The evidence denominates that the old media has been replaced by the Internet especially in covering terrorism discourses because o f accessing speed to the news and events on the Internet. Nowadays, terrorists are not restricted geographically and are not dependent on a particular state politically or financially. To reach their murderous goals, they rely on their advanced communication capabilities, including the Internet. All terrorists have particular websites where they can communicate with their readers and followers and also can convey their propaganda. According to Hoffman (2006), almost without exception, all major (and many minor) terrorist and insurgent groups have Web sites. He then quotes from an American Internet researcher at the U.S. governments Foreign Broadcast and Information Service (FBIS) These days, if youre not on the web, you dont exist. Thus, in virtual space and the new media environment terrorism is able to serve the media discourse and contents on the terrorism issues more freely than the tralatitious media because public authorities of a society can control over the old media much better than the new media though government, for example, can regular hexahedron some websites and filter them.Terrorism and the Internet both are related to each other. First, the Internet is a space for the both group and individual terrorists to spread their messages of hate and violence. Second, both individuals and groups have tried to attack some computer networks. This attack is known as cyber-terrorism. Communication via computer is precedent for terrorists because it cannot be controlled, limited or censored and it is free to access for everyone. Moreover, the auditions of the Internet are massive, larger than old media and it is easy, fast and inexpensive to access. More importantly, new media audiences can access a multimedia environment. For example, they can use texts, photos and songs simultaneously. umteen Internet sites are used by terrorist for psychological war against governments and their military. They put terrible images and movie clips of executed hostages and captives on web sites or show militaries vehicles which have been blown up with roadside bombings or suicide. For example, Al-Zarqawi in may 2004 put on the Internet some films of cutting off the qualifying of a US hostage. Sometimes terrorists use famous web sites like YouTube which is the best place to spread terrorists news and notices is. Terrorists use text messages and video to weak the enemy morale and scare him. Thus, it seems that terrorism is not governable with the existence of the new media. They are able publish easily their own news, values and activities with the new media (and even with some news channel of TV). The audience can access the original publications of terrorist the Internet. This suggests that terrorism has upper hand in managing the media discourses on terrorism.ConclusionAccording to the literatures, it is still difficult to identify who is rotter the media content and discourses on terrorism or who manages the media about the terrorism issues. However, nowadays, it can be seen that terrorism can use not only the old media but also electronic and virtual media. The media is very important for terrorists. For example, they use the media to spread some films and videos of attacks to create fear and force government or politicians to do a certain work for terrorists. With the development of the new media such as the Internet, mobile phone and etc. terrorism has been capable to manage the media contents. In this respect, terrorism has upper hand in framing the new media content for itself, though power is in hands of dominant government.Government and politician authorities use the media to apply their policy and control society. Therefore, they usually delete some terrorism related news, present incomplete information and delayed news to the audience or may be able to filter some web sites that are against of their polices. Therefore, we can conclude that the media is an important tool to frame and create discourses on terror ism and both government and terrorist have been trying to control and use the media, old and new, for their particular objectives in various ways. It seems that even in a society with free fount and complete democracy the media cannot choose a policy completely against governments policy, especially in the terrorism issues because government and state has power and control over the media. However, in the virtual environment of the media (e.g. the Internet) the control power of the government has been violate and terrorists have been able to present themselves more freely and form their own news contents.RferenceAltheide,D.L. (2006). Terrorism and the politics of fear. Lanham, Md. AaltaMira press. Chapter (6).Cottle,S.. (Ed.). (2006). From terrorism to the global war on terror The media politics of outrage In Mediatizd affair Developments in media and conflict studies. 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