Essay Sample on Terrorism and the Media Today

Introduction

In today's world, terrorism has been delineated to be one of the major impasses that most states are struggling to overrule. Prominent cities across the globe have recently been subjected to inhumane under sieges that have left a high figure of civilians dead at the hands of terrorists. It has deeply been perceived that large numbers of these tandems emanate from the oil-rich countries of the Arabic nations; mostly dangled as the Al Qaeda soldiers. Recently, according to their ideology, the group has successfully disseminated worldly and subdivided into lethal groups in the name of Al Shabaab and Boko Haram.

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As the fights against those groups heighten, the media council team has been placed on the spotlight and most specifically during ambushes. The media is expected to relay the details with a lot of precautions, thus reporting what the real attacks depict. At most times, the security forces impose restraining orders, shielding the team from overboard coverage that would only drive the public into a frenzy. For instance, back in 1998, when the United States embassy was attacked, the repercussion was unexplainable and horrific. There were a lot of casualties and immense injuries. The news about the number of victims had percolated in a somewhat more different tread than expected. That positive move pushed the country into undeserving panic hence jeopardizing families and relatives of those who worked or happened to be at the building, and that is the needful reason why the media rights acts had to be revised and orchestrated in a more structural forum.

Informatively, the revised act was very imperative because, it outlined the status of the media in the society; and as Mehta Ibrahim narrates after the Westgate Mall ambush in Nairobi, "A reporter's ability to practice responsible reporting and due-diligence with speed needed in our digital age is critical to fulfilling the civic duty that journalists maintain in our world." Furthermore, if the media fails to oblige to its pledge, it could be used as a vessel by the terrorists. Especially during attacks, the coverage mechanism only consolidates the terrorist acts by giving them publicity and undeserving fame.

Lately, with the introduction of advanced media masterminds like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, the extremists have climbed a notch higher because they do not need to rely on the reporters to communicate their information to the targeted nations. They have even developed their websites like "Moro Islamic Liberation Front" and "Abu Sayyaf" for that kind of inhumane strategy. This kind of platform permeates them into monitoring all the government movements within and outside the border perimeter, hence favoring their next device of attack. However, most states have retaliated back by concocting digitalized archetypes that would similarly monitor the terrorists and obliterate any traceable data from their servers.

Aside from all these digital altercations, the journalistic trend persists as the most fundamental par for terrorists. The collaborated information voiced out to the public about their activities is permanently installed in the conscience and mind of the civilians; plus, recurring airplay of their videos during training and the sophisticated facilities they possess, have done nothing in solving the terror situation, but worsens the nation stand in the fight against terrorism. Such a move would only depict the extremists as heroes and achievers of their objective; which was mainly, to push the targeted countries into fear for being aware of their existence.

Additionally, in that state of conferring fame to extremist and fear to the public by the media, the outcome has borne its share of consequences. The choreography footage exuding the training ploys of the terror groups, that particular scheme, is actually being watched by growing youths who might be short of employment of opportunities; hence when such entities grasp the added information on what they could garner upon linking up with the extremists, as in the money price involved, most of them get lured easily and end up being radicalized at the cost of their own country. That justifies the notion that extremists are built by the journalists, who thought that by reporting about their routine, they would be creating awareness and exterminating the popularity of the terrorists.

In other instances, some nations have structured strategies that have been undertaken in managing the activities of the media. The law took its course by prosecuting media houses that deviated largely from their professionalism. Parallel, the public as well stood by the frontline to bash the media for the purported unprofessionalism. For example, foreshadowing on the character of the media at the aftermath of September 11, 2001, one Canadian diplomat Kim Campbell was astonished "whether journalism can rhyme with patriotism, whether the omnipresence of American flags on screens or ribbons sported by television presenters would interfere with the journalistic mission of asking difficult questions to politicians."

However, despite having numerous forces condemning the media for failing to scrutinize its terror footages before radiating to the public, personally, I think the media houses should be allowed to execute their prerogative role of advocating on terror matters. Especially in the current ages of terrorist attacks, the media should be allowed to inform freely without being judged. When women and men in the disciplined forces are being singled out, it is the mandate of the media to implement its responsibilities by relaying needful information, hence shielding citizenry and commonwealth altogether. If the media openly accomplishes its allegiance, am very certain as the society, we shall subjugate all the terrorist acts and lives shall be salvaged.