The Narrative on Terrorism in Printed Media
“Terrorism must be decontextualised” Richard Perle, former chairman of the Defense Policy Board
I. INTRODUCTION
One can say that two occurrences in contemporary history exposed to the bright light internal contradictions of American policy: the real terrorist threat launched for the wide audience on September, 11, and the biggest ever economical crisis of 2008 and – as analysts predict – of some years after. From these two turning points in Western world history the first one, ‘the 9/11‘, as it has been called in dominant narratives, has been given the extensive footage, analysis and comments as well as far-reaching and considerable consequences. The terrorist activity has been never before perceived as such a threat to the Western society, and – obviously – has been never so spectacular before. The huge representation of the 9/11 occurrences that has dominated the media worldwide has influenced the Western world policy and had cast a revealing light on Islamic world as a potential resource of terrorist plague. The thesis of this paper is the assumption that the global discourse on the hot topic has captured other discussions on the contemporary conflicts and changed the language of the ethnic problems representation. The subject to my hypothesis are these ethnic conflicts, where the issue of guilt and clear division between wrong and right is not resolved and where the acts of terror, hatred and genocide can be interpreted as the just fight for national independence. This essay on the narrative on terrorism in printed media will take under consideration the tight bonds between the occurrences taking place in real life and their very influential image shaped by politicians, society and the media. On the basis of examples of two conflicts: Israeli-Palestinian over the Gaza region and IndianPakistani over Kashmir and their media coverage in two different-orientated American newspapers: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, I will analise whether ‘war on
I. INTRODUCTION
One can say that two occurrences in contemporary history exposed to the bright light internal contradictions of American policy: the real terrorist threat launched for the wide audience on September, 11, and the biggest ever economical crisis of 2008 and – as analysts predict – of some years after. From these two turning points in Western world history the first one, ‘the 9/11‘, as it has been called in dominant narratives, has been given the extensive footage, analysis and comments as well as far-reaching and considerable consequences. The terrorist activity has been never before perceived as such a threat to the Western society, and – obviously – has been never so spectacular before. The huge representation of the 9/11 occurrences that has dominated the media worldwide has influenced the Western world policy and had cast a revealing light on Islamic world as a potential resource of terrorist plague. The thesis of this paper is the assumption that the global discourse on the hot topic has captured other discussions on the contemporary conflicts and changed the language of the ethnic problems representation. The subject to my hypothesis are these ethnic conflicts, where the issue of guilt and clear division between wrong and right is not resolved and where the acts of terror, hatred and genocide can be interpreted as the just fight for national independence. This essay on the narrative on terrorism in printed media will take under consideration the tight bonds between the occurrences taking place in real life and their very influential image shaped by politicians, society and the media. On the basis of examples of two conflicts: Israeli-Palestinian over the Gaza region and IndianPakistani over Kashmir and their media coverage in two different-orientated American newspapers: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, I will analise whether ‘war on
References: Chomsky, Noam: „Culture of Terrorism“, Boston : South End Press, 1988. Soros, George: „The Bubble od American Supremacy“, London: Phoenix, 2004 Laitin, David: „Hegemony and Culture. Politics and Religious Change among the Yoruba“. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986 Laitin, David „Political Culture and Political Preferences“, American Political Science Review 82 (2), June 1988 Internet resources: wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn (definition of terrorism in: II.1 p. 3) http://www.truth-and-justice.info/defterror.html (definition of terrorism in: II.1 p. 3) 16