Terrorism and Mass Media Using it to Further Affect a Targeted Community - Research Paper Example

A total of 22 pieces of information have been used to research the topic. The introduction has been written using Thayer Watkins's article which gives a good balance between how the media is viewed and terrorists are viewed. His assumption portrays both as having the same unspoken agreement. The next section deals with mass media as Jennifer Akin defines media, mass media, and news media in a media context. Raphael Perl’s issue brief goes into more detail and stipulates what terrorists want from the media and why. Pearl works for the Congressional Research Service and is a very knowledgeable source.

Jessica Baron gives further details from the jihadist point of view. Other articles lend information from a sociological point of view. The terrorist view is supported by Paul Wilkinson’s article on the Media and Terrorism. He gives a good account of what a terrorist is aiming to achieve. Dr. Ali Alkarni who is an Association Professor of Journalism in Saudi Arabia projects the Saudi view. Two articles and one document support new trends, which highlight the Internet and satellite TV as media outlets.

Information about global mass media is supported by three educational documents and three journalistic articles. Sociological trait research comes from the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress along with one journalist’s article. The remainder of the information along with the opinion is supported by a variety of related articles. Terrorism and Mass Media Using It To Further Affect a Targeted Community Introduction: “Media: If you commit some atrocity we will publicize it and make it seem militarily significant.” (Watkins, 2012). The media has a tendency to sensationalize and this can add to and even work as an advantage to a terrorist organization. “Terrorist: Well, if you will publicize it, we will commit it.” (Watkins, 2012). War is horrible but the things done in war are for goals of military advantage. In terrorism, horrible acts are done entirely for publicity value. Mass media and terrorists seem to work hand in hand when the information is relayed and written by people who despise their government.