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Journal article
Terrorism as Failed Political Communication
International journal of communication, v 9(1), pp 1120-1139
01 Jan 2015
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Some terrorist acts are meant to communicate something beyond the violence they cause. They are a form of political communication that should be studied as such. To identify the acts we consider politically communicative, we develop a typology of primary objectives that ranges from strategic goals to such communicative statements as moral condemnation. We examine why, as a form of political communication, terrorist acts typically fail. Terrorism fails as political communication because it is violent; because targeted audiences often have little prior awareness of the group's grievances; because it is sometimes a complex communication; and because governments and media frame issues in a way that sidelines the act's communicative content. In promoting a better understanding of the message, and why it fails, we hope to make this component of terrorism a more robust subject of study for political communication scholars.
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Details
- Title
- Terrorism as Failed Political Communication
- Creators
- Ashley Pattwell - Drexel UniversityTyson Mitman - Drexel UniversityDouglas Porpora - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- International journal of communication, v 9(1), pp 1120-1139
- Publisher
- USC Annenberg Press
- Number of pages
- 20
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- [Retired Faculty]; Communication
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000361977300033
- Other Identifier
- 991019170148304721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Communication