Posted: October 27th, 2022

Media coverage of the unfolding crisis

Criminal Justice
Title: Week 2 discussion
Number of sources: 0
Paper instructions:
Find an article published in the last 6 months using the search criterion, “terrorism in the US.”
Summarize the article and include the date and a link.
In your opinion, how does mainstream media impact the perception of terrorism in the U.S.?
Do you think we have terrorist cells?
Outline your thoughts on how we can do a better job of detecting potential threats.

‘Media coverage of the unfolding crisis of domestic terrorism in the United States, 1990–2020’ is an article published on 23rd February 2021. The main issue the article is addressing is how US Public relations focuses more on foreign terrorists than domestic terrorists. It also explains how the mass media channels have been addressing domestic terrorism over the last 30 years (Zulli, Coe, Isaacs & Summers, 2021). The article also analyzes how sources on contextualization of domestic terrorism have changed over time, and that media channels are applying ideological labels in addressing domestic terrorism. From the article, we can see how the US Public relations apply theory and practice and the implications of the practice.
In my opinion, mainstream media plays an important role in US citizens’ perception of terrorism. Mainstream media consists of several media channels that are always competing against one another. The profit the mainstream media channels gain depends on how sensationalizing their stories attracts more ratings. Therefore, when it comes to terrorism, these media channels will try to bring up more violent terrorism stories. In the end, the audience, that is, the US citizens will end up having a more violent perception towards terrorism.
A terrorist cell, also known as a sleeper cell, is an agent of a group of terrorists who remains dormant in a terrorism plan until one receives order from the others on how to act. A terrorist cell is an undercover agent who facilitates a terrorist plan on behave of a larger group of terrorists (Salmon, Carden& Stevens, 2018). For me, I think terrorist cells exist, and a good example is where a terror attack occurs in a well secure place. In such a case, the level of security is usually high, and for the terrorists to successfully attack such a location, they will need a terrorist cell who will facilitate the attack.
To effectively detect potential terrorism attacks, I think it is important to develop and implement several measures. One of the measures is allocating informed personnel the role of tracing and understanding how terrorists operate. Another important measure in detecting potential threats is using modern technologies to tracing terrorist weapons such as bombs and firearms. Improved technology devices will also help in determining the locations of terrorists and how they operate.

References
Salmon, P. M., Carden, T., & Stevens, N. J. (2018). Breaking bad systems: Using work domain analysis to identify strategies for disrupting terrorist cells. Proceedings of Ergonomics and Human Factors.
Zulli, D., Coe, K., Isaacs, Z., & Summers, I. (2021). Media coverage of the unfolding crisis of domestic terrorism in the United States, 1990–2020. Public Relations Inquiry, 2046147X21996015. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2046147X21996015.