Media Attention to Terrorist Attacks: Causes and Consequences

Political movements that engage in terrorism typically have too few material resources— personnel, funds, or territory under their control—to achieve their goals through legitimate political action or large-scale organized violence (Fromkin, 1975). Terrorist attacks are part of an indirect strategy for achieving their political objectives by influencing an audience (Crenshaw, 1981). These terrorist groups differ in the audiences that they seek to influence and in the messages they seek to communicate to their chosen audiences (Kydd & Walter, 2006). Some use terrorism to convince opponents to concede to their demands. Other terrorist groups seek to provoke authorities into engaging in indiscriminate repression, which will undermine support for the government and justify the use of terrorist violence. Some use violence to demonstrate to current and potential supporters a capacity to deliver powerful blows against their opponents. Media attention is an important vehicle by which terrorists communicate with their audiences, and thus a central goal of many terrorist groups is to influence the scale and tone of media attention to their attacks (Hoffman, 2006; Jenkins, 1975; Nacos, 2002).