Unit 4 Paper
The Media as it Relates to Aiding or
Thwarting Terrorist Activities
CJ307: Crisis Management in Terrorist Attacks and Disasters
Kaplan University
Lindsay McKibben
07 July 2014
The Media as it Relates to Aiding or Thwarting Terrorist Activities
The media can have a drastically negative effect on terrorism by actually promoting the terrorist’s cause. One such example of the media coverage actually propagating the terrorist’s message would be the horrendous September 11, 2001 attacks of the hijacked planes into the Twin Towers in New York City. There isn’t an American citizen in the world who doesn’t know of the painstaking terror that swept through the country as we witnessed the scene via the myriad of media coverage on every channel.
Watching these news sources and seeing the aftermath, and watching the government response as they tried to figure out why it happened was actually detrimental to the healing process of the country. Hearing the scientists discuss how the towers fell, and listening as the government talked about how these terrorists gained access to the planes just worked to spread more fear into the minds of the American citizens. Had the media just gone dark, had the government just said, “Ok, this happened, we need time to clean this up and discuss options, trust us,” Then the country may have been able to relax a little more.
American citizen’s now have some level of post-traumatic stress simply from being exposed to what was going on in real time. I will never forget the video of the people jumping from the buildings before their collapse, or the ash falling like snowflakes, covering everything around the city. I’ll never forget the clouds of thick black smoke, and the exact moment that the towers finally collapsed. And I’ll never forget the days after, and the images of the towers missing from that NYC skyline. And yet, I’ve never even been to New York.
The media showed every horrifying angle as
Thwarting Terrorist Activities
CJ307: Crisis Management in Terrorist Attacks and Disasters
Kaplan University
Lindsay McKibben
07 July 2014
The Media as it Relates to Aiding or Thwarting Terrorist Activities
The media can have a drastically negative effect on terrorism by actually promoting the terrorist’s cause. One such example of the media coverage actually propagating the terrorist’s message would be the horrendous September 11, 2001 attacks of the hijacked planes into the Twin Towers in New York City. There isn’t an American citizen in the world who doesn’t know of the painstaking terror that swept through the country as we witnessed the scene via the myriad of media coverage on every channel.
Watching these news sources and seeing the aftermath, and watching the government response as they tried to figure out why it happened was actually detrimental to the healing process of the country. Hearing the scientists discuss how the towers fell, and listening as the government talked about how these terrorists gained access to the planes just worked to spread more fear into the minds of the American citizens. Had the media just gone dark, had the government just said, “Ok, this happened, we need time to clean this up and discuss options, trust us,” Then the country may have been able to relax a little more.
American citizen’s now have some level of post-traumatic stress simply from being exposed to what was going on in real time. I will never forget the video of the people jumping from the buildings before their collapse, or the ash falling like snowflakes, covering everything around the city. I’ll never forget the clouds of thick black smoke, and the exact moment that the towers finally collapsed. And I’ll never forget the days after, and the images of the towers missing from that NYC skyline. And yet, I’ve never even been to New York.
The media showed every horrifying angle as