This book offers an East-West comparative analysis of mediatised terrorism.
This is the first country-specific analysis of the mediatisation of terrorism, with Pakistan and Australia representing the two worlds, respectively. Caught up in the ‘9/11 effect’, Australia is known for its anti-terror ‘hyper-legislation’, despite the implausible nature of the threat. In contrast, Pakistan is plagued by terrorism, yet the military establishment favours a duplicitous policy of fighting militant groups selectively. To understand how the two diverse cultural sites, with their very different experiences of terrorism, make sense of this unpredictable threat, the book uses Beck’s World Risk Society theory as a conceptual framework to examine the production and construction of news narratives around the risk of terrorism in both countries through textual analysis of local news stories and in-depth interviews with Australian and Pakistani journalists. Narratives about ‘global terrorism’ are mostly ‘Western’, with fear of its impact on ‘Western’ democracy and civilisation. This book aims to fill the gap and present a nuanced understanding of global terrorism by examining the characteristics of the phenomenon in a Western as well as an Eastern location and the ways in which the risk of terrorism is being played out in the two worlds.
This book will be of much interest to students of critical terrorism studies, media studies, Asia-Pacific politics, and International Relations.
Author(s): Saira Ali
Series: Routledge Critical Terrorism Studies
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 290
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
Research blueprint
Chapter profiles
2. The Politics of Securitisation in the World Risk Society
The world risk society
Reflexive orientation to risk
From natural to manufactured risks
Spatial, temporal and social distribution of risk
Real versus socially constructed risks
From regulated to unregulated risks
The quest for security in the world risk society
Security: Contours and dimensions
Reflexive security
Management
Presence of future
Boomerang effect
Post-national war
War is peace
Cosmopolitan collectivities
Note
3. Terrorist World Risk Society
Part I: Relations of definitions
New terrorism or old wine in a new bottle?
Rapoport's Four Waves of Terrorism
The Anarchist Wave
The Anti-Colonial Wave
The New Left Wave
The Religious Wave
From Al-Qaeda to IS
Eliminating the risk of terrorism
War-on-terror or terror wars?
Governing through terrorism
Part II: East-West terrorism encounters
Australia: A nation in terror
Keeping Australia safe
Pakistan: Raising the terror genie
Terror after war-on-terror
Reflexive counterterrorism
Keeping Pakistan safe
Notes
4. Mediatised Terror
Part I: The mass media machine
Newspeak: Framing the war-on-terror
Lights, camera, ACTION
In it together
Keeping the lid on
The terrorism-media nexus
Part II: East-West mediascape
Australia's Fourth Estate
Media concentration
Government and media control
Gag orders
Big Brother is watching
Business partners
Government knows best
Pakistan's Fourth Estate
Media ownership and diversity
Media on a leash
Fettered freedom
Military knows best
A dangerous profession
Notes
5. The Culturalisation of Terror
Terrorists everywhere: Staging a moral panic
East-West risk identities and otherisation
The Australian politics of multiculturalism
Representing the Other in Australia
Pakistan and the crisis of identity
Representing the Other in Pakistan
Notes
6. Mediatisation of Terrorism in Australia
Part I: The Lindt Café hostage crisis
The perpetrator
Part II: Staging terror news in Australia
Australian newspeak
Terror hits home
Sydney under siege
Australia under threat
Evil in our midst
Us and them
United in grief
Australian news sources
Sourcing trend
Manufacturing terror news in Australia
News exclusive
The business of news
Diversity
Independent journalism
Folk devils of Australia
Notes
7. Mediatisation of Terrorism in Pakistan
Part I: Army Public School (APS) attack
The perpetrators
Part II: Staging terror news in Pakistan
Pakistani newspeak
Unprecedented terror
Martyrs and survivors
Death to terrorism
Safe schools
The root of our problems
United at last
Pakistani news sources
Sourcing trend in Pakistan
Manufacturing terror news in Pakistan
Breaking news!
Elastic ethics
News analysis
Freedom to say we are free
In-house pressure
Journalists for hire
Folk devils of Pakistan
Notes
8. Two Worlds, One Story
Notions of risk and security
Juxtaposing terror newspeak
Editorial positioning
Media spectacle
Bite-sized terrorism
Storyteller trends
Factors influencing news construction
Cultural risk of Othering
To sum up
Way forward
Notes
References
Legislation
Australia
Pakistan
Index
