THE IMPACT OF MEDIA ON TERRORISM

 

 

 

The Impact of Media on Terrorism

De Facto Allies to Amplifying the Terrorists' Impact?

2013-04-05 23:18

ABSTRACT

Some eminent writers and scholars argue that too often the media helps promote terrorists' agenda. Others, however, disagree. I tend to go with the former, and in this short Paper, will show how terrorism can be seen from at least two perspectives, those of the victim and the perpetrator. Using three examples, I will prove that the media would not mind terrorist acts coming up on their own on the agenda, however distasteful and disagreeable they may seem, as much as the terrorists want the media, as it suits the interests of both these parties.  

            Keywords: terrorism, media, perspectives, casualties, infidels, television ratings

 THE STORY

The horrific events of 9/11 brought terrorism centre stage. Terrorism had existed well before that date, but remained largely underplayed, till Uncle Sam got bearded in his own den. Without attempting to add to the plethora of definitions of terrorism, let me just say that there is a fundamental difference in the way it is seen, related purely to perspective. The victim and the perpetrator portray an incident affecting them quite differently.

             For example, US media might say, “Terrorists detonated a bomb near the camp of the U.S. peacekeeping forces, causing numerous U.S. military casualties.” Arab media would report it as: “Freedom fighters detonated a bomb near the base of the crusaders. The tremendous blast killed and severely injured many infidels.”(n.p.)

              A free press is a mandate in a democracy. If the content available was not salutary, the media would still report it. Terrorism uses this mandate to further its own aim by spreading fear. A terrorist organization actually needs the media to spread information about localized attacks as widely as possible. In the cause of reporting, or at times, hogging the limelight, the media does exactly what the terrorist wants. Paradoxically, terrorism has become a boon for the media, because such attacks make television ratings surge. “Terrorist acts are well calculated, always played to an audience and specific tactics employed to maximize impact” (Bozarth, 2005).

            There are people who feel that the media brings the world up to date and educates people about the ills of terrorism and how it is crucial to lend a hand against this ugly monster. I do not agree and believe that the media is only interested in its ratings, ‘damn the consequences’ (n.p.).  I will use three examples to support my argument.

             Since 1960, advancement in technology had affected the media greatly, giving it a face and voice, not just events reported on black and white paper. The nature of terrorism reporting had also evolved simultaneously. While aimed to promote terror in a larger target audience, terrorism often aims to recruit more supporters. The media is the conduit to both these aims. Terrorism ‘relies almost exclusively on psychological “warfare” for its intended impact. Victims of an attack are the signal that is amplified and broadcast, terrorizing the target audience into capitulating to the terrorists demands’ (Bozarth, 2005). “Terrorists are not interested in three, or thirty – or even three thousand - deaths. They allow the imagination of the target population to do their work for them. In fact, the desired panic could be produced by the continuous broadcast of threats and declarations – by radio and TV interviews, videos and all the familiar methods of psychological warfare” (Ganor 2002).

             Terrorists have “four media-dependent objectives when they strike or threaten to commit violence. The first is: Gain attention, intimidate, create fear. The second is: Recognition of the organization’s motives. Why they are carrying out attacks? The third is: Gain the respect and sympathy of those in whose name they claim to attack. The last is: Gain a quasi-legitimate status and media treatment at par with legitimate political actors” (Nacos 2007, 20). Many cases confirm that ‘getting attention through the media is important terrorist strategy. The 7 July 2005 London bombings on the transit system in London is one example, with the G-8 summit on in Scotland. The terrorists pushed the G-8 leaders off the front pages’ (Ibid, 20-21).

             The Palestinian terrorist organization Black September attack on Israeli athletes in the Munich Olympic Games 1972, when people around the world were watching the Games and large numbers of newspaper and broadcast journalists had gathered, is another example. A  hostage situation and a rescue attempt ensued, closely covered by all media, and watched by approximately 800 million people throughout the world. The terrorists “monopolized the attention of a global television audience. (Ibid, 179). “Black September undoubtedly chose Munich at the time of the Olympics because the technology, equipment, and personnel were in place to guarantee a television drama that had never before been witnessed in the global arena.” (Nacos 2002, 177).

             The images of attacks like 9/11, can inspire awe. For instance, “after 9/11, Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden have become more popular in the Muslim community” (Gunaratna, 2006). “Simply by showing that he and his kind could land a devastating blow against the US on home ground, bin Laden conditioned a large number of young Muslim men – mainly in the Muslim diaspora in western Europe – for recruitment into his cause without ever meeting them.” (Nacos 2007, 22).

             The Internet can be and has been used terrorists for cyber-terrorism, coordination of plans, communication with cells, or propaganda and information. That they can now manage their own media is not the only advantage they have in using the Internet. “There are other advantages in using the Net. The audience is enormous; it is easy to access and stay anonymous, it is incredibly fast and inexpensive, and it offers a multimedia environment, which means that text, graphics, video, songs, books, and presentations can all be combined. In addition, regular media now often report on or even copy Internet content, which means that both old and new media can be influenced by using the Internet alone” (Weimann 2004, 3).

      Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

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The Fiefdom of Halwara

Blandings Halwara

 

If Tezpur was good fun, Halwara was a fiefdom.  The  Overlord  was Gp Capt NC Chatrath, VRC. He would drive in in truly majestic fashion, reaching his office at 0900 hrs on the dot. He would pack up at 1000 hrs on the dot. The station ran beautifully. He actually believed in de-centralisation and not just  lip-service, much in vogue today. He was a  passionate Bridge player, with his wife Pam as his partner. His instructions on the subject were  explicit . Two more offrs were required to form the quorum; these two were Flt Lt Driver and myself. A Fg Offr Shome was on standby. Our COs had been ordered to ensure that we flew two sorties by 1000 hrs. 1100 hrs onwards was Bridge time. For those who have read PG Wodehouse, he was Lord Emsworth personified. I won’t disclose the name of “The EMPRESS of Blandings.”

The Sqn Adjt, one Flt Lt Guni Sehgal was quite a bum, despised by all. He was subjected to a blanket parade one evening, as he came out of the swimming pool. He went from bad to worse thereafter, pushing junior offrs around. At that point in time, we were unaware of the ‘goings on’. A Court of inquiry was in progress, presided over by a Sqn Ldr, the Terms of Reference of which required identification of Offrs who had consorted with a promiscuous 16 yr old servant’s daughter. Revelations showed that many Sqn Ldrs were involved, requiring a change of  Presiding Officer. One Wg Cdr was implicated and the Inquiry was finally conducted by old Pop  Wadhawan, who himself had 10 children, 8 of whom were adopted. He was very simple and popular and somehow extricated the entire lot of sinners, who contributed 200 bucks each to the welfare of the servant concerned. 

MUKS AND THE THREE-WHEELER TEMPO

THOSE WERE THE DAYS

Air Force Station, Tezpur, bred the by-word of that era in the corporeal shape of a Sqn Ldr Parsuraman. His aim in life was very simple: to stay drunk. An excellent Met Offr, he was at his sharpest at the half-bottle stage. A fair Bridge player, he would carry on playing till he toppled off the chair. He would then request one of us to get him up, put him on the hazily lit road and point him towards our billets. He would then weave his way towards the billets, turn right as the first billet appeared and stick his left arm out horizontally, something rather unusual even for Bacchus. Later, he confessed ; His arm was to impact the pillars of the verandah of our living-in barracks and he would count each hit. At the count of nine, he would turn hard right and fall forwards, collapsing onto his bed, put in place precisely by his orderly. He never missed.

The Base  Ops  Offr  would double as  the Duty  Offr.  No vehicle was provided for the rounds, as they were far too noisy. One borrowed a pal’s 2-wheeler to go about his checks. Dark nights were terrifying, with stories of Hyenas and Jackals abounding. The darkness was Stygian, with dense vegetation , Sal Forest et al . Dinky Shaheed, RIP,  was into  his 4^th large when somebody reminded him of his duty. He sprinted out, climbed aboard the nearest Lamby and set off. Luckily, all turns into the technical area were left turns. Having got in, he discovered to his horror that the scooter could not turn right ! Just his luck, that night was the Hyenas night out. He went on the wagon for one full month. 

       The Army ran the RSI Club in town and we would drop in unannounced aiming to get into a scrap. We would drive down in Tushar Sen's Hindustan, which had no doors. Good fun, the drive as well as the scrap. The Army didn't find anything funny, but when did an Army Pongo have a sense of humour? The crowning glory was the hijack of a Tempo, which had a pull/push rod system for Gears. I have never yet seen anybody who could get into reverse gear from the top apart from young Mukho, who promptly overturned, luckily without injury. When you next meet Air Marshal Sumit 'Chunks' Mukerji, now retired, ask him about L the B.

THE PEEPAL TREE, ACCIDENTS GALORE AND BIKES

                                     KANG'S BULLET

I was in Tezpur from January 1973 to end March 74.  A free for all station; anything went. The monthly task was 320 hrs on the T-77 and 60 on the trainer. We had to finish flying by the 20^th of the month, so that the station could stand down for 10 full days. With three Sqns of Migs it was a mad rush to get airborne and fly your four details by 1300 hrs. All this with nary an accident. The local  menace  was CO 4 Sqn, who would  taxy out  on  his own, joining up with any formation carrying out tyre checks ,etc, especially  a 4 aircraft formation. He would make them run rings with his peccadilloes. 4 Sqn was very good in Chess, as he was very fond of the game. Bad weather? Chess board out. This overly laissez faire approach told in the end when 4 Sqn had a spate of 5 accidents, all fortunately ending in safe ejections. Their Flt Cdr and a very senior pilot got lost in very heavy clouding, from 300 feet up to 20,000, as the navigational aids on their aircraft failed. They ejected near Silchar, 325 km away. He himself ejected when burning up fuel in Afterburner after experiencing engine problems (oil pressure failure) warranting immediate landing. He was removed from Command but was reinstated as all his men went into a Hartal. Ironically, he rose to become Inspector General, in charge of Flight Safety !  

        One offr from 30 Sqn, a Flt Lt TS Kang had just purchased a gleaming red Bullet motorcycle and brought  it himself from MaDras, now Chennai. His stories of travel on a goods train were both amusing and terrifying. He loved his bike so much that he would tune it twice a day, keeping many of them awake till midnight . The icons of old, viz, Irfan Haidari, PPK Naidu, S Bhalla, Yezdi Irani and their ilk, warned him to desist. But, love is indeed a many splendoured thing and Kang decided to take them on. One midnight, the gang got together and silently lifted the Bike to the base of a massive Peepal tree and hoisted it 50 odd feet up, invisible to the ignorant. Kang was put through a grilling time, with Police dogs thrown in, 3^rd degree questioning of the orderlies, et al. There was a slightly dodgy moment when one dog headed for the tree; but only to lift his left hind leg. Good training, what? One week later, the bike was as silently restored, to the paeans of unbridled ecstasy of a chastened owner. Tragically, Kang was killed in a road accident on the same bike in Pune. May he rest in peace.

       The IAC dispersal was opposite the ATC. The hostesses then were very pretty and this led Yezdi Irani, the Operations Adjutant [Flying] to phone in a bomb threat. The intention was to get to know the Hostesses better. Yezdi rushed out to the F-27 as the passengers were now back in their waiting room. Alas, the Stn CDr reached first and ordered him to look after the Pilots! Guess who looked after the Air Hostesses?

       CTO was a Wg CDr Mukhodadhya, who spent his spare time rearing chicken, not for eating though. He once went on two weeks leave, handing over care of the birds to his neighbour, a Flt Lt MS Dalhi. A farewell was in the offing and 4 Sqn was tasked with the Food.  As their policy was ‘Drink before eat’, they forgot to set up the Menu. Chicken was a rare delicacy and when Denzil Uncle realised what had happened, he organised a quiet nocturnal abduction, intending to replace the previous night’s fowl with imported ones. The CTO was livid with rage on return and this was the probable cause of his raising the undercarriage on a MiG-21 during a ground run!  Incidentally, he is the only  Officer of any branch to have ever repeated this feat.

       Accidents do happen and that era was no different except that were no limitations, no irrelevant stuff . His course-mate, Plt Offr Tanwar ejected at 1030 hrs. He was recovered by 1230 hrs and sent up to fly a repeat sortie at 1600 hrs. He then debriefed all of us on his misadventure. His primary lesson was “I will never fly again without my cigarettes.” At all of 5’2”, he thought that getting out of the 8’ Elephant grass was far more terrifying than the ejection. He flew 17 sorties before Air HQ stopped his flying altogether. He moved over to Jorhat, to fly Tpt ac.

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SINDHIS TO THE FORE

The Avaricious Sindhi

I may be the only bloke from the IAF to induct two types of aircraft. It often requires you to go abroad and fly the purchased aircraft back to India. I would like to add a story about petty selfishness here.It concerns a Sindhi and an equally greedy Punjabi businessman.

My team leader in France for the induction of the French company, AMBDA or Marcel Dassault’s latest production, the Mirage-2000, was a Wing Commander and the second in command a senior Squadron Leader, due for promotion within a month of returning to India. We were to ferry quite a few aircraft to India. After the first ferry, the two honchos submitted a Ferry Report and added a paragraph  in fine print that all ferries were to be led only by Wing Commanders (Wg Cdr), i.e., themselves. Moreover, the Wg Cdr not ferrying the aircraft was to go as the leader of the advance party−four weeks in advance−in order to sign the taking over documentation and return with the Ferry team in the supporting Transport aircraft, an IL-76. Thus both these selfish chaps were overseas, one way or another. This clause was deleted after the last ferry. Greed has no bounds and you will see that regularly.

This same Wing Commander was selected as the Air Attache to Ukraine while another Wing Commander was selected for Sweden. Using his beguiling charm, this scheming Wing Commander managed to persuade his erstwhile Directing Staff at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Ootacamund to change over the two names so that he could go to Sweden while the deserving Wg Cdr was shunted off to Ukraine.

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Marketing Mojo for Small Business

Don’t Worry, Be Happy: It’s Good For Your Business!

As a small business owner, sometimes it’s hard not to feel a little overwhelmed, or to get run down by the responsibilities of being the boss. So it’s important to try to make sure you pay attention to your happiness tank and take steps to keep it full. And if you can’t do it for yourself – do it for your business.
Research has shown that happier people are more productive, more engaged in their work, and are better employees all around. According to an article in The Guardian, a team of economists led by Andrew Oswald has shown this in a recent study. They stated that “we find that human happiness has large and positive causal effects on productivity, positive emotions appear to invigorate human beings, while negative emotions have the opposite effect.”
With that in mind, it’s clear how your own mental state can have big implications for your business. What can you do to ensure your happiness and satisfaction as an entrepreneur? Mashable has some ideas. A recent article published on American Express OPEN Forum, suggests these 5 methods for How To Be Happy as a Digital Entrepreneur. While these are specifically for people in the digital space, we think they’re pretty widely applicable. You can check out the full Mashable article for all the details, but in the interest of time management, here’s a quick rundown:
1. Don’t Be Afraid of Failure
2. Don’t Get Bogged Down in the Negative
3. Silence the Inner Critic
4. Make Time for Yourself
5. Remember Why You Started Your Business

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Posted by Sarah in How To / Tips on April 15, 2013