Data Collection to Solve the Problems Arising

¶ … data collection to solve the problems arising from the impact of mass media on terrorism following the reviewing of the case study titled "Threat of Terrorism: Weighing Public Safety in Seattle." (Lundberg, 2002 p 1). The case discusses the possibility of terrorist attack at Seattle following the arrest of the Ressam at the U.S.-Canadian border for the possession of the explosive bomb. The follow-up investigation reveals that Rassam was connected with some terrorist groups.

However, Mayor Schell had already organized a grand plan for the celebration of millennium, New Year's Eve at Seattle. Meanwhile, the problem of the terrorist attack heightened because of the media contributions to the terrorist threats at Seattle. The mass media are the major agents that promote the act of terrorism globally. Following the arrest of Ressam, mass media quickly fueled the public fears of imminent act of terrorism on Seattle and other cities in the United States.

The impact of media on terrorism following the imminent threat of the terrorist attack at Seattle calls for the research questions that this study attempts to answer. Research Questions What are the impacts of media on terrorism? The proposal reviews the past literatures on the impact of mass media on terrorism. Review of the Existing Literatures The mass media has been the major agent that promotes the act of terrorism globally. In essence, terrorism will not exist without communication.

Altheide, (2007) argue that the mass media contribute to the promotion of terrorism globally by stressing future uncertainty due to the global terrorism. Typically, the role of mass media in promoting the terrorisms is more pronounced following the attack of the WTC (World Trade Center) on September 1, 2001. The media foment message that instill fear, danger and risk of terrorism in the mind of American people. Mass media allow the terrorist message to reach the global audience.

The goal of terrorists is to gain recognition, get attention and obtain a degree of legitimacy. The terrorist organizations have been able to achieve these goals through the media coverage. (Manuel, & Torres, 2008). Papacharissi, et al. (2008) provide a similar argument by pointing out that mass media contribute to the promotion of sense of urgency on the act terrorism. The authors provide "the comparative analysis of media coverage on the act of terrorism in the U.S. And UK newspapers" (Papacharissi, et al. 2008 p 52).

Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, the authors reveal that the U.S. newspapers provide more coverage on the act of terrorism than the UK newspapers. The reason is that the United States faces the imminent threats of terrorism than the UK. Research Method This section provides the method of data collection by discussing the research design to solve research problems. The section also discusses the method of carrying out the data analysis and the rational for choosing the data use for the research.

Research Design Method of Examining the Research Questions The study will use the qualitative technique for the research design. Qualitative research aims to understand the aspect of social life using technique such as case study, interviews, observation, and ethnography. Unlike quantitative research that measures variables in number and percentages, the qualitative research use words and texts to narrate the phenomenon. The benefit of using the qualitative research for this study is that it provides a rigorous method of answering the research question.

The study will collect data using both secondary research and case study. The secondary research involves collecting, summarizing and synthesizing the existing data to achieve the research aim and objective. The study will collect secondary data from large number of research articles that focuses on the "impact of mass media on terrorism." The researcher will search for data from the quality electronic databases such as Science Direct, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, Elsevier, and Springer.

The paper will focus on these databases because they contain high quality research papers on the impact of mass media on terrorism. The primary reason for using secondary research is its cost effectiveness. Using the secondary data, the research will be able to collect large volume of data that contain high quality peer-reviewed articles and journals. Moreover, the secondary research saves the research time because the data are already available. However, the researcher will consider the validity and reliability of the data selected by focusing on the peer-reviewed data.

The study will also use the case studies to collect data. The study will analyze the case studies of how the mass media have contributed to the promotion of terrorism. Peresin, (2007) argues that terrorist organizations have understood the importance of mass media in achieving their aims. Typically, there exist interactive and symbolic relationships between mass media and terrorism because mass media contributes towards the sensational act of terrorism globally. Essentially, mass media influences the public perception of terrorism by instilling fear and dangers arisen from terrorism.

In the essence, terrorist organizations exploit and manipulate the free media to their advantages. The researcher will use the case studies to complete the study based on the benefits derived from using the case studies. One of the benefits of using the case studies is their cost-effectiveness because case studies are readily available as source of data. Data Analysis The study will use thematic data analysis for the research.

The analysis will involve making a comparative analysis of all data collected and identify the common theme that occurs; then, summarize the main themes collected. The researcher will use the following steps to carry out the data analysis: First, the paper will make the annotated transcript of the data collected. The next step is to identify the themes in the data and summarize the important themes discovered.

The important themes collected should be related to the terrorism, media promotion of terrorism, threats of the terrorism, and strategy to forestall the threat of terrorism. The study will explore the relationships among the wide range of themes collected to assist in achieving the research objective and answer the research questions. The coding scheme is the next step of the data analysis. The researcher will make a list of the themes extracted and use the codes for the identification.

The number system will be assigned to each theme for the coding system as being reveled below: Major terrorist attack in.