Victimage and mortification: Terrorism and its coverage in the media

Abstract

Abstract Observers often suggest that terrorism is caused or strongly motivated by the desire to receive media coverage. Even a cursory rhetorical analysis reveals, however, that such coverage serves no useful purpose to the terrorists in reaching the audiences of Western media. Hence, another explanation of the media‐terrorism relationship is called for. Kenneth Burke's dramatistic theory of rhetoric explains the rhetorical purposes of terrorism without reference to the audiences reached by media coverage. By examining both terrorism and its coverage as human social action, Burke's method also shows the rhetorical purposes served by coverage of terrorism and by the criticism of media coverage of terrorism. In so doing, Burke's method illuminates the motives of terrorists, journalists, and critics alike. And the analysis reveals the futility of restrictions on media coverage of terrorism—thus offering support for those favoring free expression in an increasingly repressive world.