What We Talk about When We Talk about Terrorism: Elite Press Coverage of Terrorism Risk from 1997 to 2005

Abstract

The risk of terrorism in the United States has gained a great deal of attention from researchers, policy makers, the public, and the press. This article focused on how one of these actors—the press—portrayed the risk during an eight-year period centered on the attacks of 9/11. The three goals of this study were to identify the dimensions of terrorism risk that are most likely to increase public perceptions of the danger, describe how these dimensions were portrayed in newspaper content, and explain how these portrayals were associated with other important news topics including the use of military force, the protection of civil liberties, and the image of the Muslim religion.

The Dynamics of Evolving Beliefs, Concerns Emotions, and Behavioral Avoidance Following 9/11: A Longitudinal Analysis of Representative Archival Samples

“…The [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] year olds most preferred to investigate threats regardless of personal privacy followed by those older than 65, the 46-64 year olds, and the 18-29 year olds, respectively. Although the majority of respondents (around 75%) preferred the FBI to investigate, between two years and five years after 9/11 respondents of all ages started decreasing their preference to investigate.…”

Are Unidentified Terrorist Suspects Always Muslims? How Terrorism News Shape News Consumers’ Automatic Activation of Muslims as Perpetrators

“…Terrorist attacks may be committed by a variety of different actors and organizations, including right-wing and left-wing political groups, nationalist groups, religious groups, revolutionaries, or lone operators (Global Terrorism Index 2017). In particular, news coverage of terrorist attacks committed by so-called radical Islamist terrorists has received vast research attention (e.g., Chuang and Roemer 2013;Ibrahim 2010;Mahony 2010;Hussain 2007;Powell 2011Powell , 2018Woods 2007). Islamism is described as a set of ideologies that are supposed to guide an individual's social as well as political life (Berman 2003).…”

“…The news media play a powerful role in shaping discussions about terrorism and Islam (Powell 2018). Although some studies show that the media avoid associating Muslims and Islamic organizations to terrorism (see Woods 2007), a wealth of research identifies a tendency to link Islam in general to terrorist threat (e.g., Ibrahim 2010;Powell 2011Powell , 2018. In particular, after 9/11 and more recently in the context of the Islamic State (IS), Islam religion has been repeatedly associated with terrorism, extremism, or jihadism within the news (Ahmed and Matthes 2017;Mahony 2010;Satti 2015).…”

Tourist Worries after Terrorist Attacks: Report from a Field Experiment

“…Western societies have responded with increased security measures in air travel, with anti-terrorism campaigns, and we have seen an increased focus on risk and safety-related issues in the media. Woods (2007) points to the fact that there is a certain risk that the mere focus of the news organizations on terror may increase the salience and availability of this hazard thereby increasing public perceptions of the risk of terrorism. As shown by the Madrid train bombings on 11 March 2004, which killed 191 people such events are not easily refuted.…”