scholarly journals Are Unidentified Terrorist Suspects Always Muslims? How Terrorism News Shape News Consumers’ Automatic Activation of Muslims as Perpetrators

Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desirée Schmuck ◽  
Jörg Matthes ◽  
Christian von Sikorski ◽  
Nicole Materne ◽  
Ekata Shah
Keyword(s):  
News Coverage ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Stimulus Exposure ◽  
Far Right ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Equal Degree ◽  
Automatic Activation

Two experimental studies investigated how news reports about terrorist attacks committed by unidentified perpetrators influence beliefs about the perpetrators and Muslims in general. In Study 1, a quota-based sample of 354 Germans was exposed to terror news coverage describing either non-Muslim or Muslim victims with no reference to the perpetrators of the attacks. Upon stimulus exposure, participants were asked the likelihood that the perpetrators were either Islamist extremists, far-right extremists, or lone operators. In Study 2, no information about the victims was provided, but the perpetrators were either Muslims or unidentified. In addition, we measured news consumers’ Islamophobic attitudes in both studies. Results from Study 1 revealed that participants attributed perpetrator-unidentified attacks to Islamist perpetrators when the victims were non-Muslims. In contrast, terrorist attacks directed against Muslim victims were more likely to be attributed to far-right extremists. Additionally, Study 2 revealed that news consumers associated perpetrator-unidentified terrorist attacks with Islamist extremists to an equal degree as terrorist attacks that were committed by Muslim perpetrators. Attributing the attack to Islamists was in turn significantly related to Islamophobic attitudes in both studies. Implications of these findings for journalism practice and society at large are discussed.

scholarly journals No Compassion for Muslims? How Journalistic News Coverage of Terrorist Crimes Influences Emotional Reactions and Policy Support Depending on the Victim’s Religion

2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872110006
Author(s):  
Desirée Schmuck ◽  
Jörg Matthes ◽  
Christian von Sikorski
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
First Person ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Victim Compensation

Islamist terrorist attacks have become a salient threat to Western countries, and news coverage about such crimes is a key predictor of public emotional reactions and policy support. We examine the effects of two key characteristics of terrorism news coverage: (1) the victim’s religion and (2) first-person narratives that facilitate perspective taking. A quota-based experiment ( N = 354) revealed that irrespective of the narrative type, news reports that mention the victims’ Muslim religion induce less anger and compassion, but more joy among non-Muslim news consumers. However, fear was equally induced by all news articles. As a consequence, fear, anger, and joy predicted support for more restrictive terrorism policies, while anger and compassion were related to more support for victim compensation.

Objectivity, False Balance, and Advocacy in News Coverage of Climate Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Declan Fahy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Environmental Journalism ◽  
Advocacy Journalism ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Over Time

Objectivity and advocacy have been contentious topics within environmental journalism since the specialism was formed in the 1960s. Objectivity is a broad term, but has been commonly interpreted to mean the reporting of news in an impartial and unbiased way by finding and verifying facts, reporting facts accurately, separating facts from values, and giving two sides of an issue equal attention to make news reports balanced. Advocacy journalism, by contrast, presents news from a distinct point of view, a perspective that often aligns with a specific political ideology. It does not separate facts from values and is less concerned with presenting reports that are conventionally balanced. Environmental reporters have found it difficult to categorize their work as either objective or advocacy journalism, because studies show that many of them are sympathetic to environmental values even as they strive to be rigorously professional in their reporting. Journalists have struggled historically to apply the notion of balance to the reporting of climate change science, because even though the overwhelming majority of the world’s experts agree that human-driven climate change is real and will have major future impacts, a minority of scientists dispute this consensus. Reporters aimed to be fair by giving both viewpoints equal attention, a practice scholars have labeled false balance. The reporting of climate change has changed over time, especially as the topic moved from the scientific domain to encompass also the political, social, legal, and economic realms. Objectivity and advocacy remain important guiding concepts for environmental journalism today, but they have been reconfigured in the digital era that has transformed climate change news. Objectivity in climate reporting can be viewed as going beyond the need to present both sides of an issue to the application in reports of a journalist’s trained judgment, where reporters use their training and knowledge to interpret evidence on a climate-related topic. Objectivity can also be viewed as a transparent method for finding, verifying, and communicating facts. Objectivity can also be seen as the synthesis and curation of multiple points of view. In a pluralistic media ecosystem, there are now multiple forms of advocacy journalism that present climate coverage from various points of view—various forms of climate coverage with a worldview. False balance had declined dramatically over time in mainstream reportorial sources, but it remains a pitfall for reporters to avoid in coverage of two climate change topics: the presentation of the many potential future impacts or risks and the coverage of different policy responses in a climate-challenged society.

‘Cologne Changed Everything’—The Effect of Threatening Events on the Frequency and Distribution of Intergroup Conflict in Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 684-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun Frey
Keyword(s):  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Intergroup Conflict ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Daily Rate ◽  
New Year’S Eve

Abstract In this article, I study the role that threatening events play in shaping both the occurrence and the distribution of intergroup conflict. Using the case of anti-refugee attacks in Germany, the study finds that the 2015 New Year’s Eve (NYE) sexual assaults led to a dramatic surge in the daily rate of violence, far surpassing the more short-lived effect of domestic and European terrorist attacks. Importantly, this effect was more pronounced among districts with low prior levels of anti-refugee hostility and far-right support. The NYE event both increased the frequency and changed the distribution of subsequent attacks—mobilizing new, previously peaceful communities to behave aggressively towards local refugee populations. Together, these findings reveal that threatening events not only affect the amount of intergroup conflict, but may also alter the structural conditions under which such conflict emerges in the first place.

Effects of September 11Th Terrorism Stress on Estimated Duration

2007 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 799-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Anderson ◽  
Kathleen Reis-Costa ◽  
James R. Misanin
Keyword(s):  
News Coverage ◽  
The Other ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
September 11Th ◽  
Wizard Of Oz ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Psychology Courses ◽  
Video Material

Previous research has suggested that the duration of stressful video material is estimated to be longer than one containing less stressful material. The current study sought to examine what effects viewing news coverage of the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks might have on estimated duration of exposure. 16 participants were recruited from Saint Joseph's College of Maine psychology courses and viewed two 3-min. video clips. One clip contained coverage of the 9–11 terrorist attacks; the other, a nonstressful control, was taken from a familiar segment of The Wizard of Oz. Participants estimated the length of the clip and rated stress experienced while viewing the clip. Analysis showed the September 11th footage was rated as more stressful and was estimated as longer than the control clip.

Social networks could counter lone-actor terrorism

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Base Rate ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The West ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Group

Subject Lone-actor terrorist motivations. Significance Recent lone-actor terrorist attacks in Orlando, Nice, Munich and elsewhere have made this threat salient for the public and policymakers alike. The number of lone-actor attacks has almost trebled since 1990 -- from a base rate of 5-6 per year, according to recent research. Yet the authorities find these types of attacks difficult to detect and disrupt ahead of time. Impacts Lone-actor attacks are likely to recur in the West while authorities struggle to respond. Islamic State group (ISG)-inspired lone-actor attacks may incentivise far-right lone actors to respond violently and vice-versa. The rise of encrypted messaging services and the dark net will fuel the debate around policing this problem without curbing free speech.

Terrorism and the Decline of Italian Communism: Domestic and International Dimensions

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-116
Author(s):  
Richard Drake
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Communist Revolution ◽  
Extremist Groups ◽  
The Way

This essay looks at two recent Italian books about the evolution of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Drawing on archival materials, the books trace the conflict between the radicals and the reformers within the PCI's ranks, a conflict that gave way to violent splinter groups that regarded the PCI as too staid and conciliatory. As the far left took a violent turn in Italy in the late 1960s, it paved the way for the spasm of grisly far-left and far-right terrorism in Italy in the 1970s and early 1980s. The books lend weight to the view that the PCI, through its exaltation of Communist revolution and its demonization of the Christian Democratic establishment, facilitated the emergence of extremist groups that perpetrated more than 8,400 terrorist attacks in the latter half of the 1970s.

scholarly journals Islamophobia and Religious Intolerance: Threats to Global Peace and Harmonious Co-Existence

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 257
Author(s):  
Kazeem Oluwaseun Dauda
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
News Daily ◽  
World Peace ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Religious Intolerance ◽  
Global Peace

<p>Recent events show that there are heightened fear, hostilities, prejudices and discriminations associated with religion in virtually every part of the world. It becomes almost impossible to watch news daily without scenes of religious intolerance and violence with dire consequences for societal peace. This paper examines the trends, causes and implications of Islamophobia and religious intolerance for global peace and harmonious co-existence. It relies on content analysis of secondary sources of data. It notes that fear and hatred associated with Islām and persecution of Muslims is the fallout of religious intolerance as reflected in most melee and verbal attacks, anti-Muslim hatred, racism, xenophobia, anti-Sharī'ah policies, high-profile terrorist attacks, and growing trends of far-right or right-wing extremists. It reveals that Islamophobia and religious intolerance have led to proliferation of attacks on Muslims, incessant loss of lives, wanton destruction of property, violation of Muslims’ fundamental rights and freedom, rising fear of insecurity, and distrust between Muslims and non-Muslims. The paper concludes that escalating Islamophobic attacks and religious intolerance globally had constituted a serious threat to world peace and harmonious co-existence. Relevant resolutions in curbing rising trends of Islamophobia and religious intolerance<strong> </strong>are suggested.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Using the Ship-Gram Model for Japanese Keyword Extraction Based on News Reports

Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Miao Teng
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Graph Model ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Keyword Extraction ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Semantic Coherence ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Cosine Distance

In this paper, we conduct an in-depth study of Japanese keyword extraction from news reports, train external computer document word sets from text preprocessing into word vectors using the Ship-gram model in the deep learning tool Word2Vec, and calculate the cosine distance between word vectors. In this paper, the sliding window in TextRank is designed to connect internal document information to improve the in-text semantic coherence. The main idea is to use not only the statistical and structural features of words but also the semantic features of words extracted through word-embedding techniques, i.e., multifeature fusion, to obtain the importance weights of words themselves and the attraction weights between words and then iteratively calculate the final weight of each word through the graph model algorithm to determine the extracted keywords. To verify the performance of the algorithm, extensive simulation experimental studies were conducted on three different types of datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed keyword extraction algorithm can improve the performance by a maximum of 6.45% and 20.36% compared with the existing word frequency statistics and graph model methods, respectively; MF-Rank can achieve a maximum performance improvement of 1.76% compared with PW-TF.

Elite Cues, News Coverage, and Partisan Support for Compromise

2016 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 862-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan McLaughlin ◽  
Douglas M. McLeod ◽  
Catasha Davis ◽  
Mallory Perryman ◽  
Kwansik Mun
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
News Story ◽  
Group Norms ◽  
Group Leaders ◽  
Categorization Theory

In accordance with self-categorization theory, this study predicts that because elite cues affect partisans’ perceptions of group norms, news coverage of political gridlock should influence partisans’ willingness to endorse compromise. Results of two experimental studies, where Republican and Democratic samples read a news story in which group leaders were either willing or unwilling to compromise, largely support our expectations. However, we also find evidence that willingness to compromise can depend on the specific issue context, as well as pre-existing attitudes. These results further our understanding of how media coverage affects the functioning of democracy in the United States.

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