Media publicity supplies the fuel that lets small jihadist cells threaten great powers

Evidence

Especially for young men, mortal combat with a “band of brothers” in the service of a great cause is both the ultimate adventure and a road to esteem in the hearts of their peers. For many disaffected souls today, jihad is a heroic cause—a promise that anyone from anywhere can make a mark against history’s most powerful country and its perceived allies. But because would-be jihadists best thrive and act in small groups and among family, friends, and fellow travelers—not in large movements or armies—their threat can only match their ambitions if fueled beyond actual strength. Publicity hyped by political and media frenzy is the oxygen that fires modern terrorism (Atran 2013), filling a transcultural niche whose ecology ranges over a media landscape (where competition for resources is a struggle for control of information) and a geographical archipelago that spans the globe. — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor, 66

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in manufactured external threats sustaining group solidarity — here the threat’s amplification depends on media oxygen, a constructed-enemy mechanism at the public level. — connects to: Terrorism depends on mass media publicity to achieve its core goals — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2258; Terrorist violence achieves its aims only through mass media publicity; Profit motives drive saturation coverage that amplifies terror threats beyond their real magnitude. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 363 (+4 more)
• CANDY: A compact, quotable formulation: publicity as ‘the oxygen that fires modern terrorism.‘

Related

• Terrorism depends on mass media publicity to achieve its core goals (similarity 0.85)
• Terrorism’s political impact exceeds its physical destructiveness via media amplification. (similarity 0.80)
• Terrorism depends on media publicity to achieve intimidation and sympathy (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Terrorism depends on mass media publicity to achieve its core goals #corroborates (0.95) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2258
• Terrorist violence achieves its aims only through mass media publicity #corroborates (0.90)
• Terrorism’s political impact exceeds its physical destructiveness via media amplification. #corroborates (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4163
• Profit motives drive saturation coverage that amplifies terror threats beyond their real magnitude. #expands (0.80) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 363
• Terrorists publicize rather than hide their harmful acts #expands (0.80)
• A tiny radical group provoked massive government attention at all levels #exemplifies (0.75) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1221
• Demonstrating destructive power attracts recruits to terrorist organizations #expands (0.75)