Thread Prompt 1: Role of Media in “War on Terror”
What do you believe the role of the media is in the “War on Terror?” Why?
The media is at the center of helping the public understanding the meaning of terrorism. The conventional terrorism studies viewed the media as a critical tool for terrorist groups to spread fear of terror to the global population. The media spread fear and provide the terrorists with a platform to attract attention and spread the group messages ( Seethaler, et al., 2013 ). In this respect, the media is viewed as an accomplice or the best friend to the terrorists since they directly appear to give the terror groups the publicity oxygen.
In general, media is related to terrorism in three ways: first, terrorists need a channel to get public attention. The media gives them the global stage to spread their message. Second, the terrorists make efforts to gain public sympathy, and it does so through the media, and lastly, the terrorists try to use media to spread terror and fear in the general public. However, even though the terrorists try to sympathize with the public through the media, they never sympathize with their local countries ( Liebes & Kampf, 2009 ). However, terrorists successfully work with the media to spread terror and fear by people. Media acts as a platform for terrorists to spread their message, an effective communication channel.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Do you believe that terrorism and the media have a symbiotic relationship (they benefit from each other)? Why or why not?
As discussed above, the media is a very important communication tool for the terrorists because it provides them with the means to attract public attention. Given that terrorism is a communication strategy by the terror groups, it can be assumed that the media is an accomplice to the terrorists or even their best friends since the media gives them the audience. On the other hand, terrorists give the media exciting, thrilling, emotional, and bloody news that the public thirst for so much. This kind of content sells like a hot cake for the global and local news channels, and as such, they won’t hesitate to get such information. Therefore, both the media and the terrorists mutually benefit from each other, and as such, it can be concluded that they have a symbiotic relationship ( Camphuijsen & Vissers, 2012 ). Even though the media and the terrorist groups have a symbiotic relation, the media have been known to take part in fighting against terrorism. The media is specifically interested in violent and exciting stories that sell their news product well. Maybe one needs to answer whether the desire for terrorism news could be a catalyst for terrorism in America.
Thread Prompt 2: Chemical Weapons Threat to the USA
What is the current threat to the United States from either a biological or chemical weapon, and why?
The political leaders and the military have worried about widespread biological warfare for over a century. There was anthrax to destroy horses and cattle, blight to kill crops, and poisons to not only kill the enemies but the entire city. In 1925, Churchill Winston complained that military science is advancing so fast across the globe that it threatens not just America but the world at large ( Cross & Klotz, 2020 ). Over the past several decades, the majority of the nations dropped their biological weapons programs. There is no country today pursuing biological weapons only.
Scientists have recently had breakthroughs in gene editing, but this has also brought back the fears regarding weaponized pathogens. By engaging the gene-editing tools, including a CRISPR system, scientists are now in a position to modify an organism’s DNA in a more effie9cnt manner, more accurately and flexibly than ever before ( Koehler & Popella, 2018 ). This is currently threatening America.
What should the United States do to better prepare for, or counter, the threat from WMDs (weapons of mass destruction)?
The U.S. government has placed the fight against Weapons of Mass Destruction. The resolve to fight terrorism is reflected in the American budget allocation and policy statements, deterrence through attribution, which is the main policy tool created for dealing with biological threats. Attribution is the method of determining the culpable and responsible parties of the forth terrorist act. As provided in the American policy statement, scientific technics, normally referred to as microbial forensics, are the critical elements in attribution. However, it must be understood that the use of forensic science in finding culpable and responsible parties for a terrorist act calls for responsibility from several players, including law, policy, science, the media communities, public health, and law enforcement.
An effective attribution capability calls for a properly developed science that meets the scientific threshold and meets the legal threshold. The legal constructs work effectively to monitor the biological weapons attribution evidence in the courts and the public opinion courts and in the policy leaders’ minds. The forensic determinations, mostly dependent on the scientific principles, call for collaboration with communities and other disciplines, including law enforcement, legal, and public health and communications ( Innes & Levi,, 2017 ). For microbial forensic science to be policy-relevant, it has to be well acknowledged by the internal science community and the non-science community.
Thread Prompt 3: S. Supreme Court case of Adrian Martell Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. 813 (2006) No. 05-5224
The photo and the message needs to be admitted as evidence at trial. Photography and text messages, in the criminology world, are considered as evidence. The advent of the advancement of technology, photography and text messages will be used at the courts of law as evidence. Photography and text messages will be used as evidence because both of them contain important and relevant information that the court may determine as useful. Additionally, the text messages also give critical details like the time of occurrence of an event or a crime. The text messages and photography may also be important in telling the important court information like the husband was at the scene when the crime occurred, or the reverse that the husband was away at the time of crime occurrence. The messages are used by forensic experts, through technology to determine critical information like the location where the message was sent at a specific time, the trend or mood of communication: earlier locations, or movements of the device. The photography, on the other hand, will give the evidence or proof that the ex-husband was also at the scene of the crime.
I will not change my mind or response because there are no evidence in all court cases and because it could be that there was no around at the scene when the incident happened. Additionally, the ex-husband approached the lady while in the parking garage, and there was darkness, making it nearly impossible for other unsuspicious people in the neighbourhood to notice what was going on. Instead, the text messages and photography will be useful court evidence.
Colossians 4:6: Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Reference
Camphuijsen, M., & Vissers, E. (2012). Terrorism and the Mass Media: A symbiotic relationship?. Social Cosmos , 3 (1), 14-24.
Cross, G., & Klotz, L. (2020). Twenty-first century perspectives on the Biological Weapon Convention: Continued relevance or toothless paper tiger. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , 76 (4), 185-191.
Innes, M., & Levi, M. (2017). Making and Managing Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: The View from Criminology. The Oxford Handbook of Criminology , 455-477.
Koehler, D., & Popella, P. (2018). Mapping far-right chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism efforts in the west: Characteristics of plots and perpetrators for future threat assessment. Terrorism and Political Violence , 1-25.
Liebes, T., & Kampf, Z. (2009). Performance journalism: The case of media's coverage of
war and terror. The Communication Review , 12 (3), 239-249.
Seethaler, J., Karmasin, M., Melischek, G., & Wöhlert, R. (Eds.). (2013). Selling War: The Role of the Mass Media in Hostile Conflicts from World War I to the" War on Terror" . Intellect Books.
Wilkinson, P. (1997). The media and terrorism: A reassessment. Terrorism and political violence , 9 (2), 51-64.
