Terrorist violence achieves its aims only through mass media publicity

Evidence

Terrorists try to exert influence over targeted officials and nations through intimidation of the public and arousal of sympathy for their social and political causes. Without widespread publicity, terrorist acts can achieve neither of these outcomes. The mass media, especially television and the Internet, provide the best access to the international community because of their strong drawing power. Terrorists exploit the Internet as a major vehicle of social and moral justification for their causes and the violent means they employ to further them. They gain sympathy and support for their cause by presenting themselves as risking their lives for the welfare of a victimized constitu-ency whose legitimate grievances they disregard. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2258 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The myth that the prevalence of televised violence is determined by the base desires of viewers is widely accepted, despite empirical evidence to the contrary. Diener and DeFour (1978) correlated levels of program violence and viewership as measured by the Nielsen index of the number of households tuned in to given programs. The correlation that they found, r = 0.05, revealed no relation whatever between the amount of program violence and how many households watched it. Programs aired at the same time by competing networks can affect the viewership of a given program. In an experimental test of whether counterprogramming might affect the correlation, Diener and DeFour found that a program containing its original violence was no more attractive to viewers than the same program with most of the violence deleted. These findings provide no empirical support for the myth that violence sells. Nor does the annual viewership for the top-ranked series Bandura_1e_ch03. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 931 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Media publicity supplies the fuel that lets small jihadist cells threaten great powers — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 66; Terrorist violence functions as a desperate bid for an international forum; Terrorism depends on mass media publicity to achieve its core goals — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2258 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Terrorism depends on mass media publicity to achieve its core goals #corroborates (0.98) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2258
• Televised violence does not attract larger audiences #complicates (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 931