The Role of the Online News Media in Reporting ISIS Terrorist Attacks in Europe (2014-present): the Case of BBC Online Agne Vaitekenaite A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Master of Arts in International Journalism COMM5600 Dissertation and Research Methods School of Media and Communication University of Leeds 29 August 2018 Word count: 14,955 ABSTRACT The numbers of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) terrorist attacks have risen in Europe since 2014. Consequently, these incidents have particularly attracted the media attention and received a great amount of news coverage. The study has examined the role of that the online news media in reporting ISIS terrorist attacks during the period between 2014-present, based on the fact, that the online news has overtaken the print media and the television as the most popular source of the news within the last few years (Newman et al. Hence, this allows it to reach and affect the highest numbers of audience.
The research has focused on the case study of the British Broadcasting Corporation news website BBC Online coverage on the Manchester Arena bombing, which was caused by ISIS. The study has investigated the news coverage throughout 29 weeks since the date of the terrorist attack, what includes the period between the 22nd May 2017 and the 11th December 2017. This time slot has provided the qualitative study with 155 articles, what were analysed while conducting the thematic analysis. The findings indicated that some themes are dominant in the content of the online news media coverage on ISIS terrorist attacks.
The research has been based on the Though Contagion Theory approach, according to which, these themes act as a ‘contagion’ among the audience of the online news media. This suggests that the online news media play specific roles while reporting ISIS terrorist attacks. The results of the study identified that the online news media through its coverage may mediate various emotions, encourage solidarity among society and create the stereotype of the perpetrator and, as a result, all this may prolong the presence of the terrorist attack effects on society. Keywords: ISIS, terrorism, online, news, media, roles.
3 LIST OF FIGURES .1 Media and Terrorism Relation.1 Advantages of Terrorism for the News Media .2 Advantages of the News Media for Terrorism .2 Theoretical Approach: Thought Contagion Theory .1 Contagious Terrorism and the Media .3 The News Media Roles While Covering Terrorist Attacks.1 Reporting Terrorism and Serving Public Interest.2 Mediating Emotional Power .3 Media Coverage and Future Attacks .4 Relevant Studies in the Field .1 Research Questions, Aims and Objectives .1 A Case Study Approach .2 Qualitative Thematic Analysis .0 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. 63 4 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 'Perpetrator' theme map. 29 Figure 2 'Solidarity' theme map. 34 Figure 3 'Victims' theme map.
39 Figure 4 'Violence' theme map .0 INTRODUCTION Terrorism has been a huge issue in Europe since 2014 (Simcox, 2017). As the number of terrorist attacks started to increase, the phenomenon has been a highly present topic in the news during these few years. The relationship between the media and terrorism has been discussed by many scholars and referred as ‘symbiotic’ (Peresin, 2007; Beckett, 2016) due it its mutual benefits. However, in this symbiosis, not much attention has been paid particularly to the role of the online news media.
Although it is argued that the media coverage on terrorism may provoke various emotions among society (Doveling et al., 2011) and even encourage further attacks to happen (Barnhurst, 1991), the majority of the literature is focused mainly on the influence of the mass media overall. The role of the online news media while reporting ISIS terrorist attacks in Europe has not been taken into consideration enough, as there have not been any studies directly addressing the issue. Thus, the primary aim of this research was to locate the roles of the online news media in reporting the phenomenon and, therefore, to contribute to filling the existing gap in the field of study. The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is the militant Jihadist group in Syria and Iraq (Galily et al., 2016) that also recently expanded in Libya (Engel, 2015).
The terrorist group is based on religious extremism and seeks to establish a caliphate in Syria, Iraq and beyond by causing bombings, public executions and other acts (Wood, 2015). It is believed that the main aim behind each terrorist attack is the media attention that the perpetrators aim to achieve in order to spread their ideology (Speckhard, 2015). The main targets for Jihadists have been people because of the emotional response and the attention that the attacks with high numbers of injured and dead victims receive (Europol, 2018). According to European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report produced by Europol (2018), recently, the Islamic State has caused more fatal attacks in Europe than any other terrorist group.
Inevitably, these attacks have received a high amount of media attention and have dominated in the new after they occurred. Therefore, ISIS terrorism has been a considerable issue in Europe within the past few years and a huge topic in the online news media. 6 The concept of the online news media has been greatly discussed recently (Breiner et al., 2018; Debbelt et al. 2017), since it has become the primary source of the news for the Western societies (Boczkowski et al.
An easy access to the Internet nowadays has turned the online news media into a quick and informative way for people to gather the news in every European country. The capability of the online news media to constantly provide the audience with a great amount of information (Debbelt et al. 2017) and to reach a high amount of visitors (Fletcher et al., 2017) increases its influence on the audience, what simultaneously empowers the roles that the online news media play in reporting ISIS terrorist attacks. Having established that, the world’s leading broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) provides its users with the opportunity to instantly gather the news online from BBC Online news website (BBC, c2018).
Every day receiving the highest numbers of visitors from all the British news websites (SimilarWeb, 2018), BBC Online plays a great importance while reporting about ISIS terrorist attacks in Europe. BBC Online provides the content in 27 different languages (BBC, c2018), what enables the news website to be used and read by people not just in the United Kingdom, but also in most of the European countries. Moreover, BBC represents itself as acting as a national public broadcaster (BBC, c2018), what addresses to its aims and responsibilities to provide the news for the public benefit instead of seeking any commercial advantage from it. This refers to BBC’s transparency and trustworthiness while reporting the news, including ISIS terrorist attacks.
For this reason and the popularity of the website, the coverage of BBC Online has been investigated by conducting thematic analysis of the news articles in this research. Furthermore, this study takes an innovative approach towards the roles of the online media in reporting the news. The research is based on Thought Contagion Theory.1 The theory states that people’s beliefs, behaviour, values and emotions are influenced by the ideas that are presented to them. The dissemination of the ideas strengthens their own existence and impact people to act, think and feel in a way that is presented to them.
Hence, the research suggests that the online news media 1 The theory was build on Social Contagion Theory and developed by Aaron Lynch in 1996 (Lynch, 1996, p. 7 act as a ‘contagion’ while covering ISIS terrorist attacks through reporting certain themes, which impact the audience. Therefore, this study has examined the roles of the online news media in reporting ISIS terrorist attacks using the real coverage of BBC Online on the incidences. In order to locate the roles, the research aimed to answer three research sub-questions: ‘How do the online news media depict ISIS terrorist attacks in Europe?’, ‘How may the coverage of the online news media impact society while reporting ISIS terrorist attacks in Europe based its effects on Thought Contagion Theory?’ and ‘How may the coverage of the online news media influence the outcome of ISIS terrorist attacks based its effects on Thought Contagion Theory?’ Hence, set out in four sections, this research initially analyses the relationship between the media and terrorism and presents a review of the existing literature on the roles of the media while depicting terrorism.
The methodology chapter provides an in-depth explanation of the methodology that was used while aiming to locate the roles of the online news media and justifies the choice of thematic analysis for this research. Afterwards, findings and discussion chapters thoroughly provide with the outcome of this investigation. Ultimately, some conclusions have been drawn out of the research findings.0 LITERATURE REVIEW In this section, various theories and previous academic studies related to the news media roles while reporting terrorism will be discussed and analysed. The literature review chapter provides with an overview of the links between media and terrorism, critically assesses what is already known about the roles that the media play while covering terrorism and defines the existing gaps in the field of study.1 Media and Terrorism Relation Since 2014, when the number of ISIS terrorist attacks started to increase significantly, a relation between terrorism and the media has developed stronger than ever before.
This relationship is claimed to rely on the mutual influence of both entities (Tsauro, 2016). Peresin (2007) highlights their interactive impact of media and terrorism on each other, explaining that nowadays the media industry seeks the content that causes sensation and attracts more audience, whereas terrorists also aim to get the public attention though the media. Therefore, in this way, the media and terrorism complement each other, and that is why this relation is necessary for both of them (Hacker, cited in Jaehnig, 1978). 4) contributes to the idea, claiming that terrorists aim to get the media attention and the media is also attracted by terrorism.
Thus, this relationship is considered to be quasi – symbiotic (Nacos, 2002). According to Nacos (2002), terrorists implement their goal to acquire publicity for their attacks through the media, and the media is also simultaneously attracted by the terrorist stories as a relevant content for the news coverage. Interestingly, Jeahnig (1978), Peresin (2007) and Beckett (2016) claim that the link between the media and terrorism nowadays is purely symbiotic. They all argue that the relationship has become even stronger with the rise of mass media and the Internet.
Wilkinson (2006) also emphasizes that terrorism and the media unintentionally support each other. Terrorism and the power of its acts depend on publicity that the media nowadays are able guarantee, and that is the essence of this symbiotic relation (Wilkinson, cited in Peresin, 2002). 9 Having said that, Wieviorka (cited in Peresin, 2002), dismisses the symbiotic nature of the relationship between terrorism. In the theory presented by Wieviorka (cited in Peresin, 2002), terrorism benefits significantly more from the media, rather than the media from terrorism.
When the media cover the actions of terrorists, likewise, it provides them with popularity among society. To illustrate that, Nacos (2002) claims that the news media amplifies the impact of terrorism and turns terrorism from a local problem into a global issue. Nevertheless, even though Nacos (2002) still agrees with the idea of Wieviorka (cited in Peresin, 2002), that the main cause of the relationship is terrorism, the scholar (Nacos, 2002) also emphasizes the importance of the media role in this symbiosis and the relation between these two entities still remains undeniable Ultimately, even though the various scholars present different arguments about the links between media and terrorism, the relationship of these two entities is yet irrefutable.