Week Thirteen Blog

This week, we discussed terrorism in the media

Shoma Munshi's article Television in the United States from 9/11 and the United State's continuing 'War on Terror' discusses news media and its portrayal of terrorism and how the news makes it a big spectacle. The article goes on to talk about the incidence of 9/11 and its aftermath. The media is more concerned about creating it a media event, and not the event alone. Without the media to intervene and give us a story and show us images of the event, then what is the point in that? Another issue that was brought up in this article concerned the political aspect of terrorism and how the media portrays it as a 'War on Terror', instead of trying to ask harder questions like why has the US been a victim of terrorism, and what motivates people to commit such acts of terrorism?
I thought this article was interesting because it brings up the idea of terrorism and issues that are overlooked by the media and political figures. If we can reflect on past events we can learn from them and apply these lessons to the future and think about it critically in order to bring about change.

Boggs and Pollards article Hollywood and the Spectacle of Terrorism talks about the entertainment media and its take on terrorism. Similar themes are used throughout most movies that are about terrorism and uses similar character types and figures. Most of the terrorists in movies are from the "Middle East" and are scary/intimidating/psychologically unstable individuals. Movies about terrorism instill the fear and threat into its viewers and re-enforce beliefs about terrorism and stereotypical terrorist characteristics.


The Siege takes an interesting approach about United States ideas on terrorism. After an islamic terrorist is abducted into the United States, New York City becomes the target for terrorist attacks which leads to the declaration of martial law. I thought it was interesting that this movie was made before the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and that the setting is New York City and Terrorism. The movie is almost a foreshadowing of events to come.

In this weeks CNN crime news headline i looked at an article about the murder of three men in Ohio
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/26/justice/ohio-craigslist-killings/index.html?hpt=ju_c1
These men were supposedly killed after looking for work on Craig's list. the bodies were found on a cattle farm in eastern ohio and the suspected murderer is 52 year old male Richard Beasley.