Media and Terrorism

1
Media and Terrorism

• Meeting 8

2
Changing Correspondents

• World flow as series of trickles and spurts
• News breaks in SA along direct line of
  international airline routes
• Too few correspondents reliance on foreign
  nationals American unevenly distributed to only
  19 countries
• Larger role for stringers freelancers
• Women becoming war reporters
• Danger for reporters in hostile countries - 27
  killed in 2001

3
Foreign news misnomer

• Everyone potentially affected by any event
  anywhere
• Different views from each political concept of
  press
• Western
• Authoritarian
• Communist
• Revolutionary
• developmental

4
Impact of Great Events

• Failed coup in Moscow
• Soviet journalist, Western radio got information
  to people
• Chinas Tiananmen Square and Internet
• TV pictures intensified impact of terrorism

5
Covering Hot Spots

• Gulf War -432 days
• Press controls military briefings
• Saddam and CNN
• Samolias warring clans
• Yugoslavias dearth of reliable information
• Afghanistan - first videophone war reporters on
  their own
• First amendment issues - can security needs and
  press freedom co-exist?

6
Global News Impact

• Triumph of western journalism
• Globalization of media
• Mass culture accepted
• Global audiences increasing more for global
  events like terrorist attacks
• History is speeded up
• Whole world is watching
• Diplomacy changed

7
Negative effects

• Fragility of democracy and open societies in
  emerging countries
• Poor nations lag in information age
• Trends toward media monopoly
• Declining standards to celebrity/ sensationalist
  orientation
• Shortcomings of audiences - Western unconcern

8
More positive impacts

• Autocrats loss of controls
• Revolution by personalized media
• Surrogate media for fettered people
• Copycat effect with terrorist acts
• Profit-driven media
• Globalization of advertising and PR