¶ … Role of Media in Reporting Terrorism: Terrorist attacks have developed to become part of an indirect strategy to achieve political objectives through their impacts on an audience. In this process, the attention of the media has also served as an important channel that terrorists communicate with their audiences. Consequently, one of the major objectives of terrorist groups is to affect the degree and tone of media attention to their specific acts and attacks (Walsh, 2010). In the past decade, recent history has demonstrated numerous examples of the mutually beneficial relationship between terrorist groups and the media. Some of the recent terrorist attacks indicate that the perpetrators of terrorism use the media for various purposes such as propaganda schemes, operational efficiency, recruitment, collecting information, and fund raising. Moreover, this history also indicates that the media has had a positive impact in lessening the effectiveness of terrorists.

Media as a Force Multiplier for Terror Groups:

Media plays a crucial role in terrorism either as a force multiplier for terror organizations or as a channel for lessening terrorist effectiveness. With regards to the role of the media as a force multiplier for these groups, terrorist acts are seemingly wasted without the media's coverage of the incidents (Bilgen, 2012). This is primarily because the acts will remain restricted to the immediate victims instead of reaching the wider audience that the terror violence is targeted. Moreover, terror acts are relatively wasted without media coverage because terrorists are primarily interested in audience rather than victims since how the audience responds...

Therefore, terrorists carry out their acts to win the attention of the media, national and international publics, and government officials.
In light of this consideration, one past incident where the media has served as a force multiplier for terrorist organizations is the 9/11 attacks. Terrorists carefully selected their target for these attacks in order to generate the best and wide media coverage that would in turn significantly affect the target audience. The 9/11 attacks was characterized by huge media attention, which terrorists used as a channel to publicize their political objectives, justify their acts, reach huge audiences across the globe, and create an atmosphere of suspicion and fear. In essence, the media served as a force multiplier of terror groups in this incident because it provided free publicity of the groups' cause and communicated their message.

The main way through which the media benefitted the terror organization and promoted the desired effect by the terror group is through providing free publicity of the organization's cause and creating an atmosphere of fear and suspicion. Through this coverage, the terrorist organization publicized their cause of being an enemy of the United States. The media benefited the group by changing public perceptions, changing government and public discourse, and changing the way people view events and their attitudes towards ethnic or racial groups considered to be threats (Bilgen, 2012).

Media's Positive Effect in Minimizing Terrorist Effectiveness:

Despite serving as a force multiplier for terror groups in various incidents, the…