The purpose of this critical thinking and writing (CTW) exercise is to help you become familiar with key content and processes covered during the semester, sharpen your summary skills, practice your critical thinking and writing skills, identify key aspects of terrorist messaging/propaganda, and produce a counter narrative message.
I want to see your understanding of the topic. It is important that you gain a deep insight about the topic while you are analyzing the news about a terrorist incident.
Find news about a terrorist incident covered by public media (not by media organizations of terrorist groups or their affiliations). You can contact me and ask whether the news you found about the terrorist incident is appropriate for the assignment.
Write a paper on your analysis considering the questions below.
Should the media report act of terrorism?
Why and why not?
Should the media be censored to protect/secure homeland?
Do you think banning appearance of terrorists on media and devising a punishment mechanism for misinformation and exaggerators is appropriate?
If you were the head of a TV news program, how would you cover terrorist attacks and why?
How can the media be used for counterterrorism purposes?
What impact do images have?
How images could have an agenda setting effect on viewers.
How could images affect the information that media intend to convey?
Could news stories be more effective if compelling images were shown first followed by relevant facts?
How do threatening images in terrorism coverage influence the public?
What images should be shown?
People jumping from the Twin Towers?
Video showing the execution of a journalist in Afghanistan?
Flag-draped caskets coming home from war?
Is it unpatriotic to report news that may hurt the war effort?
Do you agree Brigitte L. Nacos?
No medium has provided more oxygen to terrorism than television.
By devoting extraordinary broadcast time and column inches to even minor violence and elevating it to the level of spectacular reality show, the mass media, especially television, play into the hands of terrorists.
Your CTW assignment should not simply summarize the reading and it should not review literature related to the readings. It should convey your original thoughts about the given topic. You can take an idea or problem/issue from the reading and run with it. Go beyond what has been presented in the reading and connect it with the given topics and/or propose new hypotheses or research. Feel free to be critical or question what has been presented.
