Terrorism and the Media
Summarize the attack, the initial investigation, and the manhunt for the suspects.
On April 15, 2013, the terrorists attacked the Boston Marathon and killed 3 viewers and injured many people. Two bombs exploded few yards from the end line and the first outburst occurred at 2:50 and the other occurred about 10 seconds later (Gates et al, 2014). Many official entrants and citizens had gathered to cheer. The police conducted an intense manhunt and arrested one suspect. Other two suspects were killed by the law enforcement during a shootout (Gates et al, 2014).
Describe the media coverage of these events, and assess the degree to which the media affected the public’s perception of the attack.
During the manhunt for the suspect, the media participated in the news coverage to provide the public with information. Most of the residents of Boston learned the news from the media. However, the authority was against the media in that the up-dates on police movements would allow the suspect to be aware of the in-progress manhunt (Holman et al, 2014). Thus, the authorities prevented the media from reporting inaccurate reports. It is important to note that the media negatively affected the public's perception in that there was a competition between the media and other cable networks and they all wanted to be the first reporters. There was a confusion that led to an unfounded report or in other words a false report. For example, the CNN reported that the suspect was arrest yet no arrest had occurred at that time. After a day and a half, the news media reported an update that was derived from unofficial sources (Holman et al, 2014). For example, the news media reported that one of the victims from the Saudi national was a suspect. Besides, the media exaggerated and said that there were more explosive devices and also informed the public that 12 people were killed. In general, the media reported inaccurate reports and this affected the public in that they believed that the crime was immense (Holman et al, 2014). The media watched very worst features and this made the public develop tension and psychological distress.
Media effect on the immediate emergency response at the scene of the bombing
It is worth to note that the immediate emergency response was not influenced by the media coverage since physicians, were already on the site to offer medical services to runners (Gates et al, 2014). In general, the medical and health department saved the life of many and offered first aid and later provided mental health counseling to the victim.
Media effect on the investigation of the incident
It was not easy to conduct thorough investigations because the media did not cover all events to figure out what happened. The news media were moving fast to inform the public both true and false news. Note that the investigators relied on the false rumor in the news media and ignored the use of data collection (Holman et al, 2014). It is important to understand that the social media platforms reported different content and this affected the investigation in that the investigators did not know where to allocate resources and techniques to find the suspects.
Media effect on the manhunt for the suspects
The media hindered the manhunt for the suspects in that the CNN, the AP media, the New York Post, and the Boston Globe had competition since each wanted to the first reporter. As a result, they all reported inaccurate information (Holman et al, 2014). This affected the manhunt for the suspects in that the vigilante army arrested the wrong people.
Assess the importance of the media’s role as a force multiplier for terrorists.
The media is a force multiplier and it plays the role of portraying the terrorist groups. However, media does not have great importance in that terrorist benefits form the media coverage in that they feel important and their striking power is strengthened (White, 2012). There, media as a force multiplier is not important in that rather than preventing terrorism, it increases the crime. Note that terrorists want the message to spread all-over as they believe that the media convinces the public that the act was legitimate. Terrorists do not only focus on public attention but they also focus on recognition (White, 2012). Therefore, the spread of image and portrayal of images makes them gain victory and motivation to cause more terror.
Take a position on the debate between the public’s right to know versus operational security.
On the debate, my position is that secrecy is essential for national security. For example, people have privacy and security rights such as the protection of personal information. Similarly, the information concerning national security needs to be protected. Even though government transparency is a good thing toward democracy, military secrets should not be made public to the people (Hobson, 2011). However, the military should consider some factors such as the enemy and the risk to determine the type of information to be disclosed and the information to be kept secret. Therefore, they should make their judgment to evaluate when to disclose information. The purpose of concealing some information is to protect themselves and their mission and the purpose of disclosing some information to the public is to allow them to make informed choices (Hobson, 2011).Therefore, the military should focus on promoting peace and stability in disclosing or concealing the information.
References
Hobson, S. (2011). Operations Security and the Public's Need to Know. Canadian Defence & Foreign
Affairs Institute.
White, J. R. (2012). Terrorism and homeland security. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Gates, J. D., Arabian, S., Biddinger, P., Blansfield, J., Burke, P., Chung, S., ... & Gupta, A. (2014). The initial
response to the Boston marathon bombing: lessons learned to prepare for the next
disaster. Annals of surgery, 260(6), 960.
Holman, E. A., Garfin, D. R., & Silver, R. C. (2014). Media’s role in broadcasting acute stress following the
Boston Marathon bombings. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(1), 93-98.
