Abstract
In the era of speed and technology, mass media has an important role in keeping people informed about events happening all around the world, but also in shaping their opinion. One of the main issues that mass-media focuses on is represented by terrorist propaganda. Nowadays, terrorist attacks have become more frequent, and we argue that, due to their social and emotional intelligence, terrorists have the power to manipulate not only people but also mass media. The purpose of our paper was to assess the way Romanian and foreign online mass-media channels present information about Islamic terrorist groups and the activities developed by them, in order to raise awareness about the matter of propaganda and the role of mass media in promoting it. In order to conduct the research, content analysis was used as a method. A total of 36 news presented online by Romanian and foreign mass-media channels were analyzed. The result of the research revealed that Romanian mass-media channels focus more on using words with aggressive content, and that foreign mass-media channels focus on religious and cultural-geographic content. Therefore, the results of the research revealed that the way mass media presents terrorist attacks can unintentionally contribute to the promotion of terrorist propaganda.
Highlights
IntroductionIn today’s society, dominated by technology and continuous change, mass media plays an essential role in describing and communicating information about certain events and in shaping the way people perceive and understand the world around them.In this regard, mass media can be considered “the voice of our society” [1], and its power is given by the fact that, while it satisfies peoples’ need for information, mass media influences their opinions as well as their behavior [2].In this context, mass media is often associated with the phenomenon of propaganda.Broadly, propaganda represents a process of communication that includes a wide range of techniques, such as persuasion, and a wide range of communication means, whose purpose is to “influence the ideology or behavior of a target group” [3]
Terrorist propaganda is a serious matter and through the way mass media chooses to portray the activities of terrorist groups it can promote propaganda, it can influence the opinion and behavior of people
Our results revealed a series of similarities and differences between the information sent by Romanian and foreign mass-media channels
Summary
In today’s society, dominated by technology and continuous change, mass media plays an essential role in describing and communicating information about certain events and in shaping the way people perceive and understand the world around them.In this regard, mass media can be considered “the voice of our society” [1], and its power is given by the fact that, while it satisfies peoples’ need for information, mass media influences their opinions as well as their behavior [2].In this context, mass media is often associated with the phenomenon of propaganda.Broadly, propaganda represents a process of communication that includes a wide range of techniques, such as persuasion, and a wide range of communication means, whose purpose is to “influence the ideology or behavior of a target group” [3]. In today’s society, dominated by technology and continuous change, mass media plays an essential role in describing and communicating information about certain events and in shaping the way people perceive and understand the world around them. In this regard, mass media can be considered “the voice of our society” [1], and its power is given by the fact that, while it satisfies peoples’ need for information, mass media influences their opinions as well as their behavior [2].
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