Study Finds (Sept. 2006): Media hype, terror alerts etc. aid terrorist goals

I haven’t seen this posted before and I thought the results were interesting. I found this study while looking for sources for one of my college papers. The study was released this September and was done by 3 researchers from UC Santa Barbara. It shows what many here already suspect when it comes to fear-mongering.

www.sfgate.com.../c/a/2006/09/06/MNG52L01KC1.DTL

Much of the Columbia team's research focused on the press -- especially the television media -- and how it reacted to threats of terrorism.

"Any actual threat message -- a tape by bin Laden or al-Zawahiri or an alert -- results in a great deal of messages in the media," Nacos said. "People comment on it, they analyze it ... the administration, experts in the field, including myself."

That approach magnifies the sense of threat by repetition, Nacos said. And while increases in terror alerts always made the top of the news on the three major networks, decreases tended to be buried and far less time was devoted to them -- 1 minute, 34 seconds on average for a national alert being lowered, compared with 5 minutes, 20 seconds when the alert was raised.

"The threat alone brings them a great deal of media coverage, and the public takes notice -- we've shown that the threat perception by the public increases," Nacos said.
Officials in government and law enforcement also can have an effect on the public's perception of terror risk when their statements are magnified by the media.

In February 2003, for example, the percentage of people saying they were very worried about a terror attack "soon" stood at 18 percent. One month later, after the alert had been raised and lowered, it stood at 34 percent.
The official with the greatest ability to shift opinion on terrorism, the researchers found, is Bush, whose statements in the media about terrorism correlated highly with increases in the public's perception of terrorism as a major national problem --and with increases in his approval ratings.

I’m not trying to play political sides here. Just showing the study for what it is and hopefully we’ll have a discussion about the results: media hype helps terrorism.

Thoughts? Comments?

X






[edit: fixed source link]

[edit on 10/7/2006 by 12m8keall2c]

[edit on 7-10-2006 by xEphon]

wow i thought this would interest some of you hardcore administration haters. So no comments on a peer reviewed study that shows that our actions are either

1.) Government and media fear mongering
2.) A serious lack of foresight
3.) An excuse for policy change

Everything that happens is planned. That's my opinion. It's to strike fear in people. When we see things (bomb threats, school shootings, even illegal immigrant riots) it's all a sign of things to come. I believe that they do this to build up the fear, have us expecting it, then have things to quiet for a little bit, let people set back into their normal lives, let their gaurd down, then strike. This creates maximum panic and terror. It's psychological warfare. Then, a bs story comes out about how it happened, people believe this because the "terrorist" activity was building up so naturally it was only a "matter of time" before it happened, then, we get raped of our rights and liberties, which official story believers are more than happy to give up to "keep us safe". It's all a set up. It's all for martial law. It's all for greedy war mongering agendas. It's all for new world order. This is our world now. You can't look at it through rose colored glasses and assume everything is just peachy. People do very bad things. This is our government. You can't provide any facts to say they are completely innocent from doing bad things or immune to guilt. This is the world we live in now. We have to adjust to it. We have to accept it. Once we do all of that, we can then ask the next question. What can we do to stop it?

"Terrorism is a crime against the mind.
The real target of a terrorist is morale,
and press coverage helps him achieve his goal."
www.schneier.com...

"But if media voluntarily stopped broadcasting the
ISIS videos, quit publishing the horrific pictures of
victims supplied by ISIS and refused to give ISIS what
it desperately wants -- free, horrifying publicity --
it could dramatically reduce the value of kidnapping
and killing foreigners."
thetyee.ca...

"Now evidence is emerging that suggests even the
reporting of violence can trigger further attacks.
Research has found that sensationalist media coverage
of acts of terrorism results in more such acts being committed."
www.theguardian.com...

Pity they don't read what they write ...!

As they say ANY publicity is good publicity ,
SOOOOO ....
Don't feed the monster , MSM !

a reply to: xEphon

This is partially why having 24h TV news is a bad thing they repeat the same rubbish over and over and over.....

When the repetition is so great it molds the minds that are listening