Media, Terrorism and Audience Reception
Terrorist attacks are not just about body counts. In fact, no terrorist organization is in a position to kill all of the people who they have organized against. Rather, the goal of a terrorist attack is to control the communication process to enhance fear and to generate oppositional conflicts. Through March of 2019, according to Wikipedia, there have been terrorist attacks in Somalia, Afghanistan, Mali, Syria, India, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Germany, Iraq, Cameroon, Turkey, Myanmar, Chile, Yemen, Colombia, Egypt, Mozambique, Congo, United States, Thailand, Central African Republic, Israel, Philippines, West Bank, Kenya, Algeria, Norway, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Niger, Iran, Mexico, Chad, Tunisia, Nepal, France, Spain, New Zealand. Total 74 terrorist attacks. Terrorism is weaponizing propaganda as a rhetoric tool across the world.
Accordingly, communication scholars can offer valuable perspectives on how political entities should respond to these attacks. We are calling for communication scholars to consider these issues and topics they believe are relevant to this discussion.
- Media Coverage of Extreme Violence and Terrorism Activities;
- Online and Offline audience reception of terrorist/extremists’ violent activities;
- Counter insurgency, media, civil society, and government;
- Case studies: Media is the mother’s milk of terrorist activities;
- Case studies of the use of media by violent extremists and/or terrorists in particular countries or regions;
- Violent political extremism and terrorism and/or countering activity;
- Media ethics and journalists response covering terrorism/violent extremism;
- Challenges before social media in spreading of terror information;
- Direction of conflict reporting in digital age.