War on terror and the media

Last updated

The mass media is recognised as playing a significant role in the war on terror, both in regard to perpetuating and shaping particular understandings of the motivations of the United States and its allies in undertaking the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq, as well as sustaining cultural perceptions of the global threat from terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Contents

Political theorist Richard Jackson argues that "the 'war on terrorism' [...] is simultaneously a set of actual practices—wars, covert operations, agencies, and institutions—and an accompanying series of assumptions, beliefs, justifications, and narratives—it is an entire language or discourse". [1] Jackson notes that such political discourses only rise to prominence when other social actors, like the media, reproduce the language across wider society and that, following the September 11 attacks, the media reproduced official discourse "in a relatively unmediated fashion, while at the same time silencing and marginalising alternative narratives". [2]

Similarly, David Holloway states the "idea of a war on terror was itself a representation of events, a rhetorical construction, a series of stories about 9/11 and about America's place in the world". [3]

Background

The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism, [4] is a global military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant Islamist movements like Al-Qaeda, Taliban and their allies. Other major targets included the Ba'athist regime in Iraq, which was deposed in an invasion in 2003, and various militant factions that fought during the ensuing insurgency.

In October 2001, an Entertainment Industry Task Force was secretly formed, bringing together prominent Hollywood figures with high-level military members, to discuss potential attack scenarios in the hope these might expose vulnerabilities in the US's counterterrorism capabilities. [5] According to attendee James Korris, several scenarios that were posited in these meetings ended up in films. [6]

A month later, in November, Hollywood executives met with George W. Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove, to discuss entertainment industry cooperation in the war on terror, though Rove denied the government intended to shape the content of movies or television shows specifically. [7]

In the music industry, however, a number of instances did demonstrate explicit curtailment of content. For example, the Clear Channel memorandum was a list of songs among US radio stations deemed "questionable" following the September 11 attacks, with the suggestion that stations did not play them. [8]

Media framing of the war on terror

Researchers in communication studies and political science found that American understanding of the "war on terror" is directly shaped by how mainstream news media reports events associated with the conflict. Jim A. Kuypers illustrates how "the press failed America in its coverage on the war on terror". [9] Kuypers labelled the mainstream news media an "anti-democratic institution" in its uncritical approach to the administration's discursive framing of the war. Indeed, studies of corporate news coverage of the September 11 attacks demonstrated the extent to which the media contributed to a significant narrowing of public discourse by neglecting to provide an outline of the wider political motivations of the attackers. [10]

Douglas Kellner identified the post-September 11 media coverage's "exceptionally impoverished understanding of the historical context of terrorism and war". [11] Jackson concurs, stating the media responded to the attacks "with a great deal of patriotism, self-censorship, oversensitivity to public opinion and deference to authority". [12]

Others have suggested press coverage contributed to public confusion and misinformation about both the nature and level of the threat to the U.S. posed by terrorism. Ian Lustick claims the media "have given constant attention to possible terrorist-initiated catastrophes and to the failures and weaknesses of the government's response". [13] Lustick alleges the war on terror is disconnected from the real but remote threat terrorism poses and that the generalized war on terror began as part of the justification for invading Iraq, before taking on a life of its own, fueled by such media coverage. [14] Similarly, Scott Atran writes that "publicity is the oxygen of terrorism" and that rapid growth of international communicative networks renders publicity even more potent, with the result that "perhaps never in the history of human conflict have so few people with so few actual means and capabilities frightened so many". [15]

Looking at the role of online bloggers in resisting and countering official narratives about the war, Stephen D. Cooper analysed several examples of controversies concerning mainstream reporting of the war on terror. [16] He observed four key points:

Media influenced by the war on terror

Some scholars have observed the way in which the war on terror shapes terrorism in the public social imaginary. Holloway looks at narratives of trauma relating to the September 11 attacks, arguing how the saturation, repetition and amplification of the events in the media in the weeks after underscored the extent to which "journalists themselves helped construct the event as trauma". [17]

Michael Frank notes the public discourse on terrorism, particularly sub-state, has "spawned numerous terrorist plots in literature and film". [18] He explores the way in which literary and cinematic narratives overlap with wider discourse on terrorism, arguing both draw on and contribute to a common imaginary. In the process, he argues, "the discursive boundary between the factual and the non-factual can become difficult to discern, as public discourse both feeds on, and feeds back into, fiction – and vice versa". [19] Observing how "terrorism systematically exploits the anticipatory nature of fear", Frank observes how the imaginary of terrorism may premeditate events in the world, shaping expectations and the construction of meaning. [20]

Likewise, Holloway writes that - from the start - the events of September 11 and subsequent 'war on terror' became so indivisible from their representations in political rhetoric, mass media spectacle, as well as films, novels, photographs, paintings, and TV dramas, that they came to feel pervasive. [21] He notes the "rapid accommodation of modish post-9/11 themes within established drama series" like ER and The West Wing and proliferation of new television dramas incorporating the same themes. [22]

Cataloguing a series of allegorical references to the attacks in movies like The Village and War of the Worlds , he shows how the latter in particular tapped into and exploited popular anxiety, simultaneously reproducing it as a "palpable and insistent reality in everyday life". [23] He notes the film's multiple signposted references to the September 11 attacks:

A panicked crowd in a city street fled a gigantic debris cloud. An aeroplane crashed into a house, leaving bits of its undercarriage prominently displayed to the camera in the wreckage. American refugees flooded roads usually choked with vehicles, while collages of photos and cards mounted on streetlamps, hydrants and booths showed images of the 'missing'. Other scenes evoked the horror of 9/11 more allusively. Corpses drifted down the Hudson River. The white ash remains of pulverised buildings and human bodies, and the empty clothes of dead Americans, floated from the sky. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism</span> Use of fear to further a political or ideological cause

Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war against non-combatants. There are various different definitions of terrorism, with no universal agreement about it. Different definitions of terrorism emphasize its randomness, its aim to instill fear, and its broader impact beyond its immediate victims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterterrorism</span> Activity to defend against or prevent terrorist actions

Counterterrorism, also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to combat or eliminate terrorism.

Islamic terrorism refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.

Criticism of the war on terror addresses the morals, ethics, efficiency, economics, as well as other issues surrounding the war on terror. It also touches upon criticism against the phrase itself, which was branded as a misnomer. The notion of a "war" against "terrorism" has proven highly contentious, with critics charging that participating governments exploited it to pursue long-standing policy/military objectives, reduce civil liberties, and infringe upon human rights. It is argued by critics that the term war is not appropriate in this context, since there is no identifiable enemy and that it is unlikely international terrorism can be brought to an end by military means.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michel Chossudovsky</span> Canadian economist and author

Michel Chossudovsky is a Canadian economist and author. He is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa and the president and director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which runs the website globalresearch.ca, founded in 2001, which publishes falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Chossudovsky has promoted conspiracy theories about 9/11.

The Saddam–al-Qaeda conspiracy theory was based on false claims by the United States government alleging that a secretive relationship existed between Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the Sunni pan-Islamist militant organization al-Qaeda between 1992 and 2003. The George W. Bush administration promoted it as a main rationale for invading Iraq in 2003.

Ian Steven Lustick is an American political scientist and specialist on the modern history and politics of the Middle East. He currently holds the Bess W. Heyman Chair in the department of Political Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jewish extremist terrorism is terrorism, including religious terrorism, committed by extremists within Judaism.

The post-9/11 period is the time after the September 11 attacks, characterized by heightened suspicion of non-Americans in the United States, increased government efforts to address terrorism, and a more aggressive American foreign policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of terrorism</span> Academic field that seeks to understand terrorism

Sociology of terrorism is a field of sociology that seeks to understand terrorism as a social phenomenon. The field defines terrorism, studies why it occurs and evaluates its impacts on society. The sociology of terrorism draws from the fields of political science, history, economics and psychology. The sociology of terrorism differs from critical terrorism studies, emphasizing the social conditions that enable terrorism. It also studies how individuals as well as states respond to such events.

Jim A. Kuypers is an American scholar and consultant specializing in communication studies. A professor at Virginia Tech, he has written on the news media, rhetorical criticism and presidential rhetoric, and is particularly known for his work in political communication which explores the qualitative aspects of framing analysis and its relationship to presidential communication and news media bias.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq War and the war on terror</span> Iraq-US relations

The Iraq War, along with the War in Afghanistan, was described by President of the United States George W. Bush as "the central front in the War on Terror", and argued that if the U.S. pulled out of Iraq, "terrorists will follow us here."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War on terror</span> Military campaign following 9/11 attacks

The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is a global military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks and is the most recent global conflict spanning multiple wars. The main targets of the campaign are militant Islamist movements like Al-Qaeda, Taliban and their allies. Other major targets included the Ba'athist regime in Iraq, which was deposed in an invasion in 2003, and various militant factions that fought during the ensuing insurgency. After its territorial expansion in 2014, the Islamic State militia has also emerged as a key adversary of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suicide attack</span> Violent attack in which the attacker accepts their own death

A suicide attack is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are often associated with terrorism or military conflicts and are considered a form of murder–suicide. Suicide attacks involving explosives are commonly referred to as suicide bombings. In the context of terrorism, they are also commonly referred to as suicide terrorism. While generally not inherently regulated under international law, suicide attacks in their execution often violate international laws of war, such as prohibitions against perfidy or targeting civilians.

Critical terrorism studies (CTS) applies a critical theory approach rooted in counter-hegemonic and politically progressive critical theory to the study of terrorism. With links to the Frankfurt School of critical theory and the Aberystwyth School of critical security studies, CTS seeks to understand terrorism as a social construction, or a label, that is applied to certain violent acts through a range of political, legal and academic processes. It also seeks to understand and critique dominant forms of counter-terrorism.

<i>FDDs Long War Journal</i> US news website on the war on terror

FDD's Long War Journal (LWJ) is an American news website, also described as a blog, which reports on the War on terror. The site is operated by Public Multimedia Incorporated (PMI), a non-profit media organization established in 2007. PMI is run by Paul Hanusz and Bill Roggio. Roggio is the managing editor of the journal and Thomas Joscelyn is senior editor. The site is a project of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where both Roggio and Joscelyn are senior fellows.

Islamic extremism in the United States comprises all forms of Islamic extremism occurring within the United States. Islamic extremism is an adherence to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, potentially including the promotion of violence to achieve political goals. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Islamic extremism became a prioritized national security concern of the U.S. government and a focus of many subsidiary security and law enforcement entities. Initially, the focus of concern was on foreign Islamic terrorist organizations, particularly al-Qaeda, but in the course of the years since the September 11 terror attacks, the focus has shifted more towards Islamic extremist and jihadist networks within the United States.

Terrorism, fear, and media are interconnected. Terrorists use the media to advertise their attacks and or messages, and the media uses terrorism events to further aid their ratings. Both promote unwarranted propaganda that instills mass amounts of public fear. The leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, discussed weaponization of media in a letter written after his organization committed the terrorist attacks of 9/11. In that letter, Bin Laden stated that fear was the deadliest weapon. He noted that Western civilization has become obsessed with mass media, quickly consuming what will bring them fear. He further stated that societies are bringing this problem on their own people by giving media coverage an inherent power.

Islamophobia in the media refers to negative coverage of Islam-related topics, Muslims, or Arabs by media outlets in a way that is hostile, untrue, and/or misleading. Islamophobia is defined as "Intense dislike or fear of Islam, especially as a political force; hostility or prejudice towards Muslims", and the study of how and to what extent the media furthers Islamophobia has been the subject of much academic and political discussion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural influence of the September 11 attacks</span> Effects of 9/11 on culture

The cultural influence of the September 11 attacks (9/11) has been profound and long-lasting. The impact of 9/11 has extended beyond geopolitics into society and culture in general. Immediate responses to 9/11 included greater focus on home life and time spent with family, higher church attendance, and increased expressions of patriotism such as the flying of American flags. The radio industry responded by removing certain songs from playlists, and the attacks have subsequently been used as background, narrative or thematic elements in film, television, music, and literature.

References

  1. ↑ Jackson, Richard (2005). Writing the War on Terrorism. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. p. 8. ISBN   9780719071218.
  2. ↑ Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism (2005), p. 153-154.
  3. ↑ Holloway, David (2008). 9/11 and the War on Terror. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 4. ISBN   9780748632411.
  4. ↑ Feickert, Andrew. "U.S. Military Operations in the Global War on Terrorism: Afghanistan, Africa, the Philippines, and Colombia". Congressional Research Service . Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Inside the Pentagon's Secret Post-9/11 Summit with Hollywood A-Listers (Exclusive)". 10 September 2021.
  6. ↑ "Inside the Pentagon's Secret Post-9/11 Summit with Hollywood A-Listers (Exclusive)". 10 September 2021.
  7. ↑ Lyman, Rick (12 November 2001). "A NATION CHALLENGED: THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY; Hollywood Discusses Role in War Effort". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ "Arts: Music industry responds to terror". web.archive.org. 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  9. ↑ Kuypers, Jim A. (2006-10-28). Bush's War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. ISBN   0-7425-3653-X.
  10. ↑ Holloway, 9/11 and the War on Terror, p.59
  11. ↑ Holloway, 9/11 and the War on Terror, p.59
  12. ↑ Jackson, Writing the War on Terrorism (2005), p. 170-171.
  13. ↑ Lustick, Ian S. (2006-09-01). Trapped in the War on Terror. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN   0-8122-3983-0.
  14. ↑ Lustick, Ian S. (2006-09-01). Trapped in the War on Terror. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN   0-8122-3983-0.
  15. ↑ Atran, Scott (2010-10-19). Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists. Ecco Press/ HarperCollins. ISBN   978-0-06-134490-9.
  16. ↑ Cooper, Stephen D. (2006-06-12). Watching the Watchdog: Bloggers As the Fifth Estate. Marquette Books. ISBN   0-922993-47-5.
  17. ↑ Holloway, 9/11 and the War on Terror, pp.64-65
  18. ↑ Frank, Michael C. (2017). The Cultural Imaginary of Terrorism in Public Discourse, Literature, and Film: Narrating Terror. New York: Routledge. p. 1. ISBN   978-1-315-54439-7.
  19. ↑ Frank, The Cultural Imaginary of Terrorism in Public Discourse, Literature, and Film, p.1
  20. ↑ Frank, The Cultural Imaginary of Terrorism in Public Discourse, Literature, and Film, p.17
  21. ↑ Awan, Muhammad Safeer (2010). "Global Terror and the Rise of Xenophobia/ Islamophobia: An Analysis of American Cultural Production since September 11" (PDF). Islamic Studies. 49 (4): 522. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
  22. ↑ Holloway, 9/11 and the War on Terror, p.75-76
  23. ↑ Holloway, 9/11 and the War on Terror, p.93
  24. ↑ Holloway, 9/11 and the War on Terror, p.92
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.