Media Coverage of Terrorism: Fear, Emotion, & Problematic Relations - Essay Sample

Introduction

The media group usually provides its coverage stories to its audience. However, in the cases of terrorism attacks, the coverage of the story is reported in a certain perspective to avoid the negative reaction of the audience. In most of the studies, many television viewers are usually left with a mixed emotional reaction and full of fear due to how the media have explored the information. Therefore, the task will review terrorism as problematic and its relationship to media coverage.

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In the year 2009, there was a terrorist attack that occurred at Fort Hood in the United States. The shooting happened on November 5, whereby armies of the United States of America were attacked by Hasan. In history, there is no ground that justifies terrorism acts. Thus, in case of a terrorist attack, the world should quickly respond to the fight with this issue, which threatens and destroy the freedom and lives of many. In most cases, terrorism attacks are usually connected with the political regime and not religion (Pfefferbaum et al., 2016). The enemies in many terrorist groups are politically motivated towards violence against a certain targeted subnational group of individuals. During this attack, many armies lost their lives, and later Hasan was shot.

The terrorist (Hasan) was armed with a pistol that was semi-automatic and started shooting people who ware at Fort Hood. The Fort Hood was full of soldiers who were waiting to return from deployment (Pfefferbaum et al., 2016). The attack leads to the death of many individuals, and others were left physically and mentally affected. During this attack, one civilian police shot the terrorists, and it took around ten minutes. According to Hasan, the American war about the terrorist group was highly against the Islamic religion (Jetter, 2019).

The attack occurred at Ford Hoof at Texas, and the party involve Hasan, the terrorist, and those affected were the soldieries. According to studies, the army group was waiting to travel home after they received their medical screenings. Hasan just opened the fire bullets, which killed one employee of the defensive department, and 12 service members were left injured. Then after a short time, he was shot by police.

From this particular attack, the army or solders lacked preparedness, and this resulted in the death of the 13 peoples, and others were left wounded. The terrorist was an army psychiatrist, and he used his position to kill the soldiers (Jetter, 2019). When Hasan was taken to court, he admitted that he was the shooter. This person was aiming at the protection of Muslim rights as well as the Taliban leaders. Due to this action, he was sentenced to death because of murder and attempted murder crimes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, media coverage cannot always be blamed for the terror attack. Most of the terrorist teams usually use available information to accomplish their mission, but people should stop the unfortunate stereotypes and perceptions about it. Although, after an attack, many people are left with attitudinal and emotional reactions, they should be able to deal with media exposure.

References

Beckmann, K. B., Dewenter, R., & Thomas, T. (2017). Can news draw blood? The impact of media coverage on the number and severity of terror attacks. Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, 23(1).

Jetter, M. (2019). More bang for the buck: Media coverage of suicide attacks. Terrorism and political violence, 31(4), 779-799.

Pfefferbaum, B., Nitiema, P., Pfefferbaum, R. L., Houston, J. B., Tucker, P., Jeon-Slaughter, H., & North, C. S. (2016). Reactions of Oklahoma City bombing survivors to media coverage of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 65, 70-78.