The social construction of terrorism: media, metaphors and policy implications

Spencer, Alexander

doi:10.1057/jird.2012.4

Cited by 51 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…It is difficult to establish causality of media influence. However, the literature on media and political representations of terrorism is extensive (Jackson 2007;Spencer 2012Spencer , 2017, and it is generally accepted that the media play a significant role in shaping how people understand issues (Norris, Kern, and Just 2003). Even if we accept that 'terrorism' is an appropriate label, whether it is framed as crime, acts of evil or elements in a wider conflict can influence public understanding and subsequent views on counter-measures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Press coverage of lone-actor terrorism in the UK and Denmark: shaping the reactions of the public, affected communities and copycat attackers

Parker

Pearce

Lindekilde

et al. 2018

Critical Studies on Terrorism

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Following 9/11, Al-Qaeda-orchestrated plots were considered the greatest threat to Western security and sparked the coalition's war on terror. Close to a decade later, the post-9/11 threat landscape had shifted significantly, leading then CIAdirector Leon Panetta to describe 'the lone-wolf strategy' as the main threat to the United States. Subsequent lone-actor attacks across the West, including the cities of London, Nice, Berlin, Stockholm, Ottawa and Charleston, further entrenched perspectives of a transformed security landscape in the 'after, after-9/11' world.The unique features of lone-actor terrorism, including the challenges of interdiction and potential of copycat attacks, mean that the media is likely to play a particularly important role in shaping the reactions of the public, affected communities and copycat attackers. This paper presents findings from a content analysis of British and Danish newspaper reporting of lone-actor terrorism between January 2010and February 2015. The study highlights that lone-actor terrorism is framed, with national variations, as a significant and increasing problem in both countries; that Islamist lone-actors are often represented as distinct from far-right lone-actors; and that some reporting, despite relatively limited amplification of specific terrorist messages, potentially aids lone-actors by detailing state vulnerabilities to attacks.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Press coverage of lone-actor terrorism in the UK and Denmark: shaping the reactions of the public, affected communities and copycat attackers

Parker

Pearce

Lindekilde

et al. 2018

Critical Studies on Terrorism

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“…Anderson's (1983) concept of the newspaper as constructing an "imagined community" draws on these ideas, as does Zelizer's (1993) consideration of journalists as forming their own interpretive community, "united by its shared discourse and collective interpretations of key public events" (219). Contemporary scholars have applied a constructive approach in understanding media discourse about topics from climate change (Carvalho 2007) to terrorism (Spencer 2012) to entrepreneurship, seen by Aldrich and Martinez (2010) as involving the social construction not just of organisations but also of populations and communities.…”

Section: Making Sense Of Change: Interpretive Repertoiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Journalism Students’ Interpretive Repertoires for a Changing Occupation

Singer

Broersma

2019

Journalism Practice

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Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Journalism Students' Interpretive Repertoires for a Changing Occupation Amid ongoing disruption, discourse about journalism increasingly emphasizes innovation within the newsroom and the rise of entrepreneurial initiatives outside it. This article uses the concept of interpretive repertoires to explore how students enrolled in journalism programmes in Britain and the Netherlands understand innovation and entrepreneurialism in relation to changing industry circumstances and long-standing conceptualizations of occupational norms and behaviours. We find shared repertoires that embrace technological change, but generally within an acceptance of traditional normative practice.

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“…This is demonstrated in the often‐mentioned agility with which designated terrorists may be given international recognition as heroes. For example, not too long ago, when South Africa was an apartheid state, Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist, as were both the Nobel Prize winner Yasser Arafat and his colaureate Menachem Begin (see Spencer, for more information on social constructivism of terror).…”

Section: The Terrorist As the “Absent Referent” In The Un Security Comentioning

confidence: 99%

The Normative Unconscious Of Nations: A critical geopolitical and psychoanalytic perspectives on the United Nations Security Council's counterterrorism strategy

Khouri¹

2019

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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This paper argues that the United Nations (UN) Security Council counterterrorism policies have largely failed because they did not address many of the conditions that make certain parts of the world a fertile ground for the emergence of terrorism, including the historical antecedents that lead to violence; the lingering and pervasive influence and hegemony of UN Security Council Members; the UN Security Council members' self‐serving and morally inconsistent exercise of their power of veto or in condemning violent acts perpetrated by Member States; and the double standard in the implementation of its policies (Barnett & Finnemore, 1999; Farer, 2002; Glennon, 2003). Utilizing a critical geopolitical perspective, as well as the conceptualizations of the “normative unconscious” (Layton, 2002, 2006) and the “absent referent” (Adams, 1990) of and Benjamin's framework of witnessing and the “moral third” (Benjamin, 2018). The paper further argues that much of what is taken as the status quo in United Nations Security Council counterterrorism policies is derived from ideological principles that were ultimately created in the service of the state apparatuses (and their signature exploitative practices) that governments unconsciously feel compelled to sustain. By making explicit these proclivities, and exposing terrorists as the absent referent of the United Nations Security Council's discussions, the paper offers a psychoanalytic framework to explain the logic behind such counterterrorism policies. Further, following Benjamin, the paper suggests that by moving away from Eurocentric, zero‐sum, and colonial logic, there may be a way to organically recognize populations that are aggrieved by these state apparatuses in a way that could obviate the use of political violence and, inter alia, terrorism.

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The social construction of terrorism: media, metaphors and policy implications

Cited by 51 publications

References 67 publications

Press coverage of lone-actor terrorism in the UK and Denmark: shaping the reactions of the public, affected communities and copycat attackers

Press coverage of lone-actor terrorism in the UK and Denmark: shaping the reactions of the public, affected communities and copycat attackers

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Journalism Students’ Interpretive Repertoires for a Changing Occupation

The Normative Unconscious Of Nations: A critical geopolitical and psychoanalytic perspectives on the United Nations Security Council's counterterrorism strategy

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