Introduction The War on Terror was a campaign instigated by the United States as a result of the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA and is on-going. The international military campaign was joined by many nations including Great Britain to eradicate the threat of global terrorism, Al-Qaeda and other radical organizations. The term ‘The War on Terror’ was first coined by George Bush in a speech on 20th September and since been used largely by the Western media to denote the battle to find and defeat the terrorists culpable for the attacks on the World Trade Towers now known as 9/11. 9/11 has been considered a symbolic attack on the west and in uniting the people of USA in particular against a common enemy; it generated a strong sense of nationalism. Nacos states, ‘…watching television, listening to radio, reading the newspaper, going online gave them the feeling of doing something, of being part of a national tragedy.’ This demonstrates the unity of the American people after in response to such a tragedy. Though also regarded an international event whose scope was far-reaching as more than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Centre, the September 11th attacks signalled a powerful patriotic response from the USA. This research could be deemed important, as the influence of propaganda on the change in public opinion is relevant as the War on Terror continues to this very day. The two agents of propaganda relating to the War on Terror The proposed research will look at two agents of propaganda relating to the War on Terror, the American government and the main focus, the media. The four areas of propaganda that will be discussed are, condemnation of terrorists, remembering the dead, fear monger... ... middle of paper ... ...essed on 01/04/2014] • NACOS, B. (2002). Mass-Mediated Terrorism: The central role of the media in terrorism and counterterrorism. Oxford and New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. • (2008) Holloway, D. 9/11 and the War on Terror. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press: • Lexington (2013) [Online] Available from: http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2013/05/war-terror. [Accessed 07/10/2013] • BUSH, G. W. (2006). [Online] The War on Terror. Vital Speeches of the Day. Ebsco, Vol. 72 Issue 6 (3) p.162-164. Available from: web.ebscohost.com. [Accessed 29/10/2013] • TAYLOR, P. M. (2008) [Online] Can the information war on terror be won? A polemic essay. Swetswise, Vol. 1 Issue 1 (1) p.118-124. Available from http://mwc.sagepub.com/content/1/1/118 [Accessed: 29/10/2013] • Schmemann, S. (2001). The New York Times. Vol. Cl. No.53874. [Accessed: 01/04/2014]
Jeffrey David Simon, The Terrorist Trap: America's Experience with Terrorism, 2nd ed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001), 188-89.
Words and images were silent weapons used by all governments involved during World War II. Wars are generally fought between soldiers, but the different ideologies often meet on the battlefield as well. The support of the people is crucial during these times since it general knowledge that strength relies on numbers. Propaganda targets people’s emotions and feelings and changes people’s perception about a particular idea, people or situation. Propaganda goes hand in hand with the art of persuasion and convincing; these tools can control and manipulate the collective minds of massive amount of its audience. During World War II, for instance, the elements of war were taken from the location of the military fights and brought to the households of millions of families. Advertising has the power to sell ideas, to give or take away hope, and to boosts people´s morale; the ideas that were presented to the public through propaganda are immortal, they linger in the nation’s memory. Images often displayed in posters and pamphlets during war time, were an essential factor to gain peoples support and trust, images attract people’s attention with more efficiency than word. It is an effective mean to attract attention; it I said that images speak louder than words and this case is not the exception. Media, during World War II, was the catalyst which increased the magnitude of the issue that was being confronted. This event left a mark in our history since its objective was to generate hatred between ethnics. It is in our nature, the human nature, to take our own culture as a point of reference to judge others, this is a phenomenon called ethnocentrism and it is fuelled bye prejudice and stereotyping. Throughout history whenever technologically...
The attacks that occurred on 9/11 took place on September 11th, 2001. In this devastating event, four different attacks had taken place. Each of the attacks were carried out by terrorists. The group responsible for the attack was Al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist organization that is known to be global in present day. The group itself has a network consisting of a Sunni Muslim movement that aims to make global Jihad happen. Furthermore, a stateless, multinational army that is ready to move at any given time. This terrorist group focuses on attacking non-Sunni Muslims, those who are not Muslim, and individuals who the group deems to be kafir. Ever since the late 1980s, Al-Qaeda has been wreaking havoc all around the world. The leader of the group once being Osama bin Laden. Three planes were bound for New York City while another plane headed towards Washington, D.C. which was supposed to take out the U.S. Capitol. Two of the airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center. One plane hitting the North Tower and the other hitting the South Tower. The third plane had crashed into the Pentagon taking out the western side of the building. The last and final plane was focused solely on taking out the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. but failed due to passengers of the plane coming hijacking it from the hijackers. The passengers attempted to take out the hijackers but sadly failed, crashing it into a field in Pennsylvania. Throughout the content of this paper, we will be focusing on the role of media when it comes to 9/11; more specifically: how the media's coverage of 9/11 manipulated our feelings towards 9/11, how it affected Islamophobia in America, and the lasting effects of 9/11.
...). The Global War On Terror: the Most Extensive . Pointer, Journal of The Singapore Armed Forces , 15-23.
Host: On September the 11th 2001, the notorious terror organisation known as Al-Qaeda struck at the very heart of the United States. The death count was approximately 3,000; a nation was left in panic. To this day, counterterrorism experts and historians alike regard the event surrounding 9/11 as a turning point in US foreign relations. Outraged and fearful of radical terrorism from the middle-east, President Bush declared that in 2001 that it was a matter of freedoms; that “our very freedom has come under attack”. In his eyes, America was simply targeted because of its democratic and western values (CNN News, 2001). In the 14 years following this pivotal declaration, an aggressive, pre-emptive approach to terrorism replaced the traditional
What does the word propaganda really mean? For most of us we assume that it is a word for negativity use. Just to assure those that think of propaganda as a negative word. Propaganda does have a positive objective if used correctly. The word propaganda is defined in a few different ways, But in the most general usage, it varies from bad to good persuasion of our minds. It is used during election time to our daily lives on television to our newspaper stands. According to Donna Cross’s essay, “Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled,” there are thirteen different types of propaganda; this paper will discuss six varieties. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney used primarily every sort of propaganda to influence the citizens; therefore, our national society needs to develop awareness in the propaganda used by such politicians so that they can make wise decisions intelligently.
Herman, E. & Sullivan, G. O.1989. The Terrorism Industry: The Experts and Institutions That Shape Our View of Terror. New York: Pantheon.
Brzezinski, Zbigniew. "Terrorized by 'War on Terror'; How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America." The Washington Post. N.p., 25 Mar. 2007. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Determining an equal state of propaganda and governmental control of information has always remained a challenge for democracies. It seems that in this day an era the United States leans towards a more propaganda approach rather than remaining equal. War portrayal by the media plays a monumental role in how a community reacts to the situation; this was shown during the Vietnam War as support deteriorated due to the gruesome images that were displayed. The relationship between media and terrorism is a vicious cycle; “As media cover terrorism, they incite more terrorism, which produces more media coverage” (Biernatzki, 2002).
The events of 9/11 led to a “war on terror” as former US President George Bush described it at the time, but questions have been raised as to whether the global war on terror is a productive response to terrorism (Mockaitis, 2008). Chomsky, (1991) suggests that there are two ways to approach the study of terrorism and that the propagandistic approach is usually used by governments because when societies feel at threat, gover...
Thesis: Propaganda was a tool that leaders used to get people involved in wars of the past.
Shaw, Anup . Media, Propaganda and September 11 . 26 July 2002. 27 Mar. 2004 .
Chomsky examines and explores the use of propaganda in the mass media. His focus remains on the “elite” as he would call them, or the corporations and politicians that control the mass media in our country. He speaks of how the U.S. government used propaganda in order to gain support for our country’s involvement in wars from Wilson’s presidency to Bush Sr., and now in our so-called “War on Terror” brought upon by George W. Bush. He explains how he believes this elite group of people control the minds of those that are less educated, and without an open minds. He believes that propaganda has been used through the mass media to guide this population towards supporting political interests.
Shpiro, S., 2002. Conflict Media Strategies and the Politics of Counter-terrorism. Politics, [Online] 2002 VOL 22(2), p.76–85