英语论文网

The responsibilities of the media

One of the major responsibility of the news media in covering political violence is deciding what descriptions to use of the act itself. A 留学生论文代写difficult issue for the media is "when is one accurate in labeling an act of violence, and individual, or group terrorist, and when should the more sympathetic label freedom fighter(s) be conferred on an actor or group of actors."   it is apparent that governments apply such labels to suit their foreign policy and other interests, as when the Reagan administration called the Contras in Nicaragua "freedom fighters" while accepting the Israeli government's descriptions of comparable Palestinian efforts as "terrorist."

A related problem is whether to describe the action as a terrorist act or as retaliation.https://www.51lunwen.org/StudentPapers.html Many acts of political violence are described by those supporting them as retaliation for earlier acts of political violence, though described by their detractors as "new" or "fresh" or "renewed" acts of terrorism. For the media to decide where to begin the cycle such that one act is called an "act of terrorism" but another "retaliation" is often fraught with arbitrariness or bias. But the responsibility can't be evaded, and has enormous influence on how political violence is viewed by an audience. 

The media have sometimes been asked not to give coverage to terrorists, since attention gives the terrorist what he seeks. And the media have been asked to avoid making heroes of those who use violence.

Some worry that media coverage of terrorist activity has a "contagion effect." They advise the media to resist covering acts of political violence to avoid setting off imitators.  Grant Wardlaw doubts that media coverage significantly affects the occurrence of terrorism, and Robert Picard shares such doubts.  But although there are not yet studies establishing a causal link between television coverage of political 留学生媒体学专业论文violence and the incidence of it, it may well be, Picard admits, that television contributes to the diffusion of information and ideas which, together with personal contacts, encourages this form of action.