Media & Agenda Setting

For a generation, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, American news organizations reported on the world largely through the prism of the Cold War. Particularly on TV networks the East-West Conflict was a useful framing device especially on news shows.

 But, after the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989, media enterprises turned their attention towards domestic matters. Thus, media set new agenda to frame in front of their viewers such as human rights violation, trade issues, environmental and regional hot spots. However, news organizations simply parachuted journalists into war zones or other disaster-ridden areas as well.

On September 11, 2001, when the twin towers of the World Trade Center were demolished through terrorist attacks, all media outlets, either within the US or outside it, got a new agenda i.e. terrorism; to set on their framing devices. Media not only made terrorism a more pressing global issue than poverty, human rights violation, social injustice, etc., but also helped mould the international public opinion.

All the existing definitions of terrorism have some basic assumptions. One most cited among them terms it: ‘To threaten or intimidate larger population.’

Within two years of attack on Afghanistan on the pretext of pursuit of 9/11 culprits, the US launched a full-fledge war on Iraq. The US authorities utilized mass media as a useful agenda-framing device to turn public opinion in their favour. Media hype on Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMDs) soared to such an extent that the Bush regime didn’t even care the calls by the UN. They twisted the public opinion, especially in Europe, in favour of a strike on Iraq.

In today’s ‘global village’ world, modern electronic media and internet have equipped the terrorist with capabilities to fulfil their designs. All kinds of media may it be social or the mass media are being used by both state and non-state actors for their respective propaganda campaigns.

Media and Terrorists’ Agenda

The terrorists’ main objectives behind using media are:
1.    To create fear among the masses
2.    To get their motives propagated
3.    To woo sympathizers for their designs

As described in the preceding lies that the first and foremost goal of terrorists is to create fear and a sense of chaos among the masses. They influence media outlets in order to spread fear among the masses and, ultimately, gain public attention and make them aware of their existence, methods and targets. Through media, terrorists not only intimidate audience, but they also target government institutions to affect the policymaking process.
Dr Bruce Hoffman writes in ‘Inside Terrorism’:

‘Only by spreading the terror and outrage to a much larger audience, the terrorists can gain the maximum potential leverage that they need to effect fundamental political change.’

For instance, in 1972 Munich Olympics a Palestinian group launched attacks on Israeli athletes when world media was gathered in that city to cover the Games. Hence, they pushed the highlights of Olympic Games off the front pages.

Thus, through violent attacks terrorists led their target audiences think what their motivations were. Sometimes terrorists gain success when issues are framed by media because it gives recognition to them on one hand and on the other the terrorists try to publish their motives such as during hijacking of TWA Airplane in 1976, the renowned newspapers like New York Times and Washington Post published the statements made by terrorists.

However, it involves another aspect that by disseminating information about their objectives, terrorists gain sympathy and woo supporters in whose name they claim to act and thus convey that the organization is capable of impacting policymaking or legitimate political establishment.

Analysis

Actually, media seek to set particular agenda that become popular among masses and then audience wanted to watch updates related to the set agenda and these agenda in turn give viewership to the channels. There is an overrepresentation of bleeding stories in media, and terrorism fits in this frame very well. A common notion in news organizations says, ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’ They are related to emotional aspects therefore media seeks for drama, shock, tragedy and sensation which create interest in news. With the passage of time, media has changed to a great extent. During the Second World War, it usually took days and weeks to publish news stories of war zones. But today, the faster an event is reported the better it is for media outlet. Due to this intense competition of ‘breaking news’ and ‘live coverage’, media have become lesser responsible. Hence, this competition is brutal in its truest sense as during such crisis audience is more attentive, media stardom is at stake and news anchors get fame while covering terrorist attacks.

Conclusion

Media works on both agenda setting and framing. Both the techniques have most influential power to mould news in order to twist the public opinion. Freedom fighters can be shown as the terrorists or vice versa; it is all media propagation of stability and economic wellbeing that the whole world wants to adopt Western Model of Democracy. It is also the power of media during Cold War era that people did not want to research against KGB but accept the fact that CIA is saviour of the world against Communist rise.