NCJ Number
216478
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 23 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 428-461
Date Published
December 2006
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This study of the media's (New York Times) coverage of terrorism in the United States from 1980 until September 10, 2001, documents the amount and type of coverage received and identifies variables that influenced whether an incident was covered and how much space it received.
Abstract
The findings indicate that most terrorism incidents received little or no coverage in the news, except for a few cases that were sensationalized. Dramatic events, especially those that involved a number of deaths, lengthy events, and those that occurred in certain regions or involved certain kinds of targets (notably airlines) were more likely to receive exaggerated coverage. Only 15 terrorist incidents accounted for approximately 85 percent of the 4 million words published in the New York Times. The authors argue that terrorists who are seeking dramatic and extensive new coverage will tend to tailor their attacks to have characteristics likely to draw the attention of the news media. This, in turn, means that government resources and political resources will focus on the groups that mount such attacks. This could result in less attention to and resources for potentially dangerous but less media-savvy terrorist groups. The analysis was based on a list of terrorist-related incidents and New York Times articles about each incident. Terrorist-related incident data came from both the FBI's Terrorism in the United States annual report and the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism Knowledge Base. The list consisted of all reported terrorist incidents, suspected incidents, and prevented incidents investigated by the FBI, as well as court documents on individuals indicted for terrorism acts. The analysis of news coverage of terrorist attacks focused on the type of act, its seriousness, location, target, tactics, and origin. 7 tables and 86 references