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2007/3
There is no ‘general theory’ of terrorism, as there is of ‘relativity’. There is little consensus about how to define terrorism, although it is generally accepted that it is the intentional use of, or threat to use, violence against civilians for political aims.
Such a definition must logically apply as much to state-sponsored terror as it does to non-governmental groups or individuals. How do the mass media treat this topic?
What are the responsibilities of communicators when reporting 'terror'?
Metta Spencer
There is a symbiotic relationship between terrorism and the mass media: Stories about terror sell to avid audiences, while they also generate the publicity craved by terrorists. The ethical aspect of this unintended complicity is rarely addressed publicly, for there is no obvious way of avoiding such a convergence of interests. Any plausible solutions seem only to mitigate the problem a bit. This article will reflect on the complicity issue as an ethical challenge.
Douglas Kellner
Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, both the U.S. corporate media and the Bush-Cheney administration generated a politics of fear that enabled the administration to push through their right-wing agenda and invade Iraq. The following articles shows how both the Bush-Cheney administration and corporate media in the United States privileged the ‘clash of civilizations’ model, established a binary dualism between Islamic terrorism and civilization, and largely circulated war fever and retaliatory feelings and discourses that called for and supported military intervention, leading to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Jörg Becker
Is there a significant relationship between the mass media, especially the entertainment industries, and the ideal of building a viable culture of peace? The following article argues complicity and the need for radical change.
Nancy Snow
‘The world that we have to deal with politically is out of reach, out of sight, out of mind.’
Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (1922)
Jake Lynch
Tom Lehrer famously gave up the profession of satirist because, he said, the decision by the Nobel Peace Prize committee to bestow the award on Henry Kissinger marked a point where real life had become impossible to satirise. This was after the Nixon Administration, in which Kissinger served as Secretary of State, had ordered ever more violent policies in south-east Asia, where an aerial assault on Vietnam and Cambodia left over two million people dead.
Luigi Rodríguez Rocha
During two decades of terrorism in Peru two radical movements and the national military forces carried out crimes throughout the country affecting the life of people everywhere, especially in the poorest and remote regions of the Andes where the absence of justice and government control allowed the intensification of crimes by terrorists. However, the presence of the local media, especially community radio, was vital to organize people and to promote the defence of their interest and rights through journalism and participative communication demanding justice and giving voice to the people.
Prasun Sonwalkar and Stuart Allan
Enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is the basic premise that ‘all people matter,’ a moral commitment to overcoming the culture of othering permeating everyday life around the globe. This premise, when considered in relation to the priorities and protocols of Western journalism, throws into sharp relief the ways in which certain ‘us and them’ dichotomies inflected in news reports recurrently counterpoise the structural interests of ‘people like us’ against the suffering of strangers.
Peter L. Berger
Some of the USA’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in December 2006 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. At the conference, Peter Berger examined the globalization of religious pluralism. He argued that peaceful coexistence of different racial, ethnic and religious groups – pluralism not secularization – is the best model for understanding religion in a globalizing world. The following is a transcript of his speech.
Clifford G. Christians
‘Communication is peace’ is the dramatic proposal for WACC’s mission today. The church used ‘to proclaim the ascendancy of the Christian faith over all other religions’;.., ‘in a pluralistic world of different cultures and beliefs’ its mission now is ‘non-violence, tolerance… peace’ (Lee, 2007: 50-51). Impeccable rhetoric. For those of us who know communication ethics, what does it mean? Is it something permanent or a passing fancy?