The media serves a pivotal role in the reporting of terrorist activities. Terrorist attacks that lead to fatalities are the ones that receive a lot of media attention especially in the Western developed countries. Most terrorist groups carry out their inhuman acts by bombing, kidnapping, hijacking or holding people hostage. Information on the terrorist attacks is reported in newspapers, magazines and also broadcasted in television. The media is an effective tool of spreading information as it able to reach a multitude of people over a very short time. Understand why some people find the information traumatizing. There are people who argue that the broadcast of terrorist attack help them to know how to deal with future attacks.
It is debatable on whether the media should broadcast terrorism activities or not. There are a group of people that believe that broadcasting is therapeutic as it helps the victims to cope with the incidents while others argue that it increases the stress level in the victims and also the population. Further, others argue that it helps them in coping with the catastrophe (Hamblen., n.d)
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The purpose of this paper is to therefore discuss the pros and cons of media coverage of the terrorist activities on both the victims and viewers.
Thesis statement
Media plays an important role in informing people of the activities that are taking place in different parts of the world. It also reports on the terrorist attacks and educates people on what they should do when they find themselves as victims in such attacks. However, media coverage of the terrorist attacks psychologically affects adults and children which puts them at risk of developing depression and other stress related complication. The position of this article is that media broadcasts of terrorist activities should be limited to reduce potential impact on victims and non victims.
Argument for media coverage of terrorism activities
The purpose of the media is to keep people updated by providing them with the latest news. Some people argue that broadcasting of terrorist activities increases the audience who watch news on television and those who read newspapers and magazines that carry such news. The high rating by the viewers of television and the readers of newspapers increases the amount of profits that are made by the media houses. However, most of the media houses are not aware of the psychological torture that the victims of the attack experience as a result of broadcasting such news.
The media broadcasting of the terrorist attack is also advantageous as it makes announcements about the attack that makes people to be aware that a terrorist attack has taken place in a certain place. Further, the media also notifies the people who are affected by the attack on where they can be able to access services such as counseling and donations. It also gives hope to the affected families by assuring them that they will overcome the situation (Hamblen., n.d).
It helps people to prepare on how to deal with future attacks. There is a group of people that argue that watching of the terrorism attack activities on television helps the victims to cope with it and also educate people on what they should do in case of another attack. Media such as television should try to let viewer know whether the terrorist attack was a personal threat (Schuster et al ., 2001).
Argument against the media broadcasting terrorism activities
Terrorist attacks have been reported to increase stress levels in the victims and also in the people who are not physically present at the scene. The situation is made worst especially if a loved one in directly involved by the terrorist attack. Other people in the population may also be negatively affected through watching the television (Dixon et al ., 1993). The situation is exuberated by viewing of television broadcasting the incident. Research studies report that viewing of television airing the bomb attack on America affected the victims and the population. It psychologically increased the stress levels of the majority of the adults and children. Forty-four percent of the American adults who took part in this study reported to having experienced psychological trauma such as stress (Schuster et al ., 2001). Further, Schuster et al . (2001) reported that 35% of the children to have experienced stress symptoms which were mostly associated with viewing the television coverage of the terrorist attacks. Further, the stress levels were highest in those people who spent a lot of time watching the incident on television. This made most of the parents to respond by decreasing the time that their children spent viewing television.
Watching of terrorist attack activities on television have been reported to increase anxiety on the viewers. A research study carried out on Israeli adults reported high levels of anxiety on those people who watched video clips related to terrorism as opposed to those who didn’t watch (Sloan., 2000).
Broadcasting of terrorist activities has also been reported to slow the recovery of the victims. A research study carried out on the people who were close to those who died on the tragedy that occurred at Mount St. Helens reported that the coverage of the news on television slowed down their efforts to recover from the trauma (Murphy, 1984). Further, the media coverage of the Oklahoma bombing prevented the children who had lost loved from calming down ((Pfefferbaum et al ., 1999).
Watching of television broadcasting terrorism activities can also lead to mental conditions in children. A research study carried out on middle school children in Oklahoma reported that sixty seven percent of the children who did not witness the explosion and neither did they have a close relative involved in the attack but just watched the bombing on television experienced post traumatic stressed disorder symptoms. This is because of the continued broadcasting of the bombing by the media houses (Pfefferbaum et al .,2001).
There are people who argue that the media coverage of the terrorist activities provides the terrorist groups with an opportunity to increase their support base. The leaders of the terrorist group may use the media in assuring their supporters that the group is powerful as their actions have inflicted pain on the members of the rival group (Walsh, 2010). Further, the terrorist usually target the people who are watching or reading the news. Their attacks are meant to make people to give them attention and also view them as being powerful ( Jenkins, 1981). The terrorist groups receive attention as most of their activities make the headlines of the newspaper of the next day. For instance, when Aldo Moro was kidnapped, the news received a lot of media attention making other news to look less important (Jenkins, 1981). In addition, they use the media so that they can be able to send their message to country it is targeting thus inflicting fear on the citizens. It also uses the media attention in recruiting more members to their group. This media coverage of terrorist groups like AlQaeda may encourage them to carry out more attacks (Jetter, 2017).
Author’s position
Media broadcasting of terrorist activities serves to inform the public of the occurrence of the terrorist activities and the precautions they are supposed to take. However, the media attention that is extended to the terrorist groups also serves to make them famous something that is reported to make their fans happy and also increases the number of people who are recruited into such group. People have argued that the media coverage of the terrorist attacks helps the victims and non-victims to cope with the trauma that comes with the events but the psychological torture that occurs because of people watching the attacks on television outweighs its benefits. Victims and non-victims of such events including children have been reported to suffer from stress, depression and post traumatic disorders. Further, the broadcasting of the news also slows down the recovery of the victims which makes them to be more depression. In addition, the media coverage of the terrorist attacks makes the terrorist groups to be famous and they are also made aware of the harm their actions have inflicted on human beings. Further, they also get the morale of carrying out more attacks so that they can get an opportunity to spread their message. Therefore, the psychological torture experienced due to the boasting of such inhumane actions cancels out any benefit that the viewers obtain by following such news. The media has the freedom to speech and also to inform the population on the events that are taking place everywhere in the world. It is therefore imperative for the media houses to have knowledge on the negative effects of repeating broadcasting the news on the victims of such incidence. My position is that media broadcasts of terrorist activities should be limited to reduce potential impact on victims and non-victims.
Conclusion
Terrorist attacks have been reported to lead to psychological trauma in both the victims and the non-victims. The victims and the general population use various strategies in coping with the related stress. Some people call the people they love just to ensure that they are safe. Other people turn to religion so that they can be able to cope with the catastrophe. Further, other people resort to giving out donations to the victims. Children are also affected by the media coverage of terrorist attacks. Parents should be able to discuss with the children about the attack and this will help them in dealing with the reality. Further, the parents should limit the amount of time that their children spend watching television and also monitor on the things that they watch so that they can be able to cushion them from undergoing psychological trauma.
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