The Symbiosis of the Media and Terrorism
Social media has undoubtedly gained a considerable amount of importance when it comes to receiving information. It’s given people the chance to share ideas, connections to form throughout the world, and minority groups to have a voice. However, this seemingly global connectedness has lead to over-crowded fields of nodes competing for attention. This phenomenon can be described as a sort of “attention economy” in which success is attributed to public recognition. The news is no longer based on importance, but rather on how attention-grabbing it is. In the words of Steven Pinker “Plane crashes always makes the news, but car crashes, which kill far more people almost never do.” This tendency of bringing more attention to “bad news” has especially led to disproportionate influence towards radical ideas. Unfortunately, this environment has especially lead to an increased influence of terrorist acts.
Mohammed Elshimi perfectly highlights this notion in his “Thinking About the Symbiotic Relationship Between the Media and Terrorism”. Elshimi states that the symbiotic relationship between the media and terrorism is based on a convergence of interest in which “the media’s insatiable drive to supply newsworthy content is simultaneously mirrored by the strategic necessity of terrorist movements for the oxygen of publicity.” Terrorist acts aren’t committed to affecting its immediate victims, but rather it aims to take advantage of social networks to deliver a message. This phenomenon, unfortunately, leads to a positive feedback loop in which publicity gained by violent acts will likely be repeated.
As a local in Las Vegas, Nevada, I witnessed a similar occurrence on October 1, 2017. While devastating the local community, this tragedy brought an unprecedented discussion to gun control. Within mere months, a number of federal regulations were implemented regarding gun safety such as the banning of bump stocks. Though this case did lead to positive change, the rapid course of action that took place demonstrates the power ‘bad news’ holds.
The ability of bad news having such prominent effects stems from the development of a term called local bridges. Local bridges are ties between two nodes through which neither node has any mutual friends. Despite having a relatively weak tie, local bridges have the power to rapidly transmit new information and ideas. Though most of the world operates within one giant component, most connections exist are concentrated similar cultures. However, if the media continues to draw stories from extremist groups, more local bridges can become developed between mainstream culture and extremist groups. These bridges not only allow their messages to be widely promoted but also have the potential to create other “terrorist copycats”. Especially in today’s increasingly connected social network, policymakers must consider the power of the media to prevent radical/extremists ideas from gaining footholds in society.
http://www.ocppc.ma/sites/default/files/OCPPC-PB1812.pdf