1、ATTITUDES AND REACTIONSTO MEDIA COVERAGEOF TERRORIST ACTSGiora Keinan, Avi Sadeh, and Sefi RosenTel Aviv UniversityH18546The present study examined attitudes and reactions of individualstowards media coverage of terrorist acts. Shortly after a series of severeterrorist attacks had taken place in Isr
2、ael, 534 people were asked to fillout a questionnaire that assessed their attitudes and reactions to themedias coverage of these acts as well as a questionnaire that examinedtheir information-seeking style. The results suggested that although aconsiderable proportion of media consumers preferred det
3、ailed coverage ofterrorist acts, when the coverage included horrifying details, the readinessfor receiving detailed information declined. In addition, the resultsindicated that exposure to such coverage was associated with thedevelopment of symptoms similar to those of Post-Traumatic StressDisorder.
4、 Finally, individual differences in both attitudes and reactionstowards media coverage were found as a function of participants gender,political orientation, and information-seeking style. The theoretical andempirical implications of these findings are discussed. 2003 WileyPeriodicals, Inc.Over the
5、last three decades, international terrorism has come to occupy a prominentposition on the public agenda of many countries. According to data from the U.S.State Department, a total of approximately 10,000 terrorist acts transpired worldwidein the period between 1977 and 1996, with an average of about
6、 480 acts annually, andnever dropping below 300 per year U.S. Department of State, 1997!. The Middle Easthas been a center stage of terrorist activity and statistics show large numbers ofWe would like to thank the Canadian Beth Tsedec Congregation for supporting this project.Correspondence to: Giora
7、 Keinan, Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.E-mail: giorakpost.tau.ac.ilARTICLEJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 31, No. 2, 149165 (2003) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Published online in Wiley InterScience (). DOI: 10.1002/jcop.10040casualties in this region com
8、pared to other regions in the world. For example, of 553people killed in the years 19961997, 43% were from the Middle East U.S. Depart-ment of State, 1998!. Data for the same period, taken from Israels Ministry of ForeignAffairs, show that 121 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacksa figure that r
9、epresentsabout 52% of the casualties in the Middle East, and about 23% of the total numberworldwide Israel Foreign Ministry, 1998!.The world has come to witness a new type of terrorism characterized by a blatantorientation towards the media and designed to attract its attention. The ultimatetarget o
10、f this terrorism is the media consumer rather than the victim, as aptly describedby Schmid and de Graaf: “The victim is the skin on a drum beaten to achieve acalculated impact on a wider audience” 1982, p.14!. This development has promptedthe term, theater of terror, which underscores the fact that
11、the terrorists choreograph a“show of terrorism” whose objective is to be as spectacular and dramatic as possible tocapture the medias attentione.g., Jenkins, 1975; Rubin Weimann,1990!.THE TWO-WAY RELATIONSHIP BETWEENTHE MEDIA AND TERRORISMMany authors have pointed out at the interdependence, or even
12、 symbiotic relations,between the media and terrorisme.g., Alali Farnen, 1990; Jackson, 1990;Kingston, 1995; Nacos, 1994!. Such mutuality was keenly conveyed by Ted Koppel, awell-known broadcast news anchorman:Without television, terrorism becomes rather like the philosophers hypothet-ical tree falli
13、ng in the forest: no one hears it fall and therefore it has noreason for being. And television, without terrorism, while not deprived of allinteresting things in the world, is nonetheless deprived of one of the mostinteresting. S. Anzovin, 1986, p.97!Each side, it would seem, uses the other to achie
14、ve its objectives. Terrorists exploitthe media to achieve political recognition, present their cause, transmit messages anddemands to the government, and induce fear in the general public cf. Hacker, 1980;Kramer, 1990; Paletz Hoge, 1982; Schmid, 1992a!.Inspection of terrorist acts and their associat
15、ed media coverage in different coun-tries reveals many examples of the high motivation of each side in this dyad to achieveits objectives by exploiting the other side. Thus, terrorists often pose an unconditionaldemand for the presence of news reporters or for immediate access to broadcastingtime; i
16、ndeed, in 1981, this escalated into the execution of a hostage by the Italian RedBrigades when their demand for airtime was refused. By the same token, reporters150 Journal of Community Psychology, March 2003make a “mad rush” to the site of a terrorist act and persistently attempt to obtaininterview
17、s with terrorists or their victims and to provide a maximum number ofclose-ups or video recordings of terrifying and violent scenes.The Coverage DilemmaOne of the dilemmas that preoccupies the public and professionals alike concerns theextent to which the public should be exposed to details of terro
18、rist acts. More specif-ically, there is a question whether the media should uncover all the details of aterrorist act including extremely violent and frightening ones, or whether it shouldprovide selective coverage or even ignore the terrorist act such a public debate hadtaken place in Israel after
19、a series of fatal bus explosions in 1996, during which thepublic was exposed to extremely cruel visual materials by the media!.The central argument in favor of detailed coverage is that of the publics right toknowin a democracy, neither the government nor the media have the right toprevent public ac
20、cess to news material. Defenders of selective coverage retort thathorrifying scenes are bound to sow panic and distress, cause demoralization, and evenharm mental health see Schmid, 1992b!.Only a number of surveys have assessed the publics attitude to this dilemma andits preferences with regard to t
21、he type of media coverage. In a survey conducted in1977 by the American Institute for Public Opinion in de Boer, 1979!, participantswere asked to indicate to which of the following two attitudes they felt closer: “Thenews media place too much emphasis on reporting of terrorism” or “Such reportingis
22、necessary to keep people fully informed.” The survey outcomes suggested that about50% of the respondents felt that the public should be fully informed, 47% believedthat terrorism was overemphasized, and 3% had no opinion on the subject.In another survey, conducted by Times Mirror in 1986, a consider
23、able part of therespondents felt that newspaper coverage of terror acts benefits the public more thanit causes harm. More specifically, almost two thirds of the respondents felt that themedia coverage of terrorism aids “the public interest,” while only 23% held that itharms the public interest. The
24、remaining 12% had no opinion on the issue. Finally, inanother relevant survey, Grossman 1986! found that public support for the U.S. newsmedia was stronger during the very massive and sensational coverage of the hijackingof TWA Flight 847 in 1985, than during a much quieter period 2 months later. Sc
25、hmid1992b! commented that “Apparently, the gripping social drama co-produced by theterrorists and the networks has a high appeal for an overwhelming majority of thepublic” p.109!.The picture sketched by these surveys is, in our opinion, a partial one only.Although these surveys take into considerati
26、on the publics attitudes toward the type ofpreferred coverage, they lack information about its behavior during media coverage.For example, they do not provide information on the frequency of watching TVduring and0or after the act, or about the proportion of people preferring to receiveinformation vi
27、a a communication channel that transmits vivid and rich material e.g.,TV!compared to a channel which offers less vivid and varied informatione.g., radio!.Moreover, the cited surveys did not examine the impact of the media coverage ofterrorist acts on the publics mental health. Finally, these surveys
28、 did not investigatethe possibility that people who have different attitudes and different coping styles mayreact differently to threatening information.Media and Terrorist Acts 151The Present StudyThe present study was conducted in Israel in early 1998, after a long period duringwhich the Israeli p
29、ublic had been exposed to an extremely severe series of terroristattacks for a list of terrorist incidents in which Israeli citizens were killed or injuredfrom January 1, 1996 to January 1, 1998, see the Appendix!. These acts received fullmedia coverage, which often included horrifying scenes. This
30、situation allowed us toexamine the above-raised questions that previous surveys had omitted.First, in addition to investigating the publics attitudes and opinions concerningthe medias treatment of the acts, we evaluated the participants behavior duringmedia coverage of the act as reported by them si
31、nce the study was conducted shortlyafter the above-mentioned series of terrorist attacks, peoples memory of how they hadbehaved was still vivid!. Second, we examined the influence of extensive reporting ofterrorist acts on the reported stress reactions of the public. More specifically, weexamined a
32、number of symptoms in our participants typical of Post-Traumatic StressDisorder PTSD!, e.g., recurrent recollections of the terrorist act, or nightmares asso-ciated with it. Finally, we assessed the effects of three variables that we believed werelikely to affect the degree to which individuals woul
33、d seek threatening informationand the mode of their response following exposure to it, namely, gender, politicalattitude leftist vs. rightist!, and information-seeking style monitoring vs. blunting!.The latter terms were introduced by Miller 1979!, who defined high monitors or lowblunters! as those
34、individuals who tend to scan for threatening cues when confrontedwith threat, and low monitors or high blunters! as those who tend to avoid or bedistracted from threat-relevant information.Our first hypothesis was that people would prefer relatively detailed and immedi-ate coverage of a terrorist ac
35、t rather than limited or delayed information. We furtherpredicted that such preference would be manifested both in the publics attitudestoward this subject and in their reported behavior. This hypothesis was based ontheoretical work indicating that in many cases people seek information about threat-
36、ening issues to reduce uncertainty and to increase their sense of controle.g., Berlyne,1960; Keinan Thompson, 1981!, as well as on the empirical findingthat even in situations in which people face an uncontrollable threat, two thirds preferto receive information about the threat and only one third o
37、pt for complete distrac-tion Miller, 1979;1987!.Our second hypothesis was that extensive media exposure to terrorist acts wouldexert an adverse effect on the publics stress reactions. This hypothesis was based onthe notion that people exposed to media reportage of terrorism, often become “sec-ondary
38、 victims” of violence through identification with its original victims Schmid,1992b!. These secondary victims accordingly experience fear and frustration and arelikely to develop PTSD-like symptoms. In addition to possibly causing increased anx-iety among media viewers via identification with the vi
39、ctims, recurrent exposure toextreme manifestations of violence per se is likely to promote the development ofintense stress reactions. Accordingly, the mere sight of blood or dismembered bodiescould possibly bring on PTSD-like symptoms.Our third hypothesis was that there would be specific difference
40、s in the extent towhich individuals chose to be exposed to threatening information as well as in theirreactions to this type of information. More specifically, we predicted that compared tomen, women would prefer less exposure to threatening coverage and would reactmore extremely. This prediction wa
41、s based on findings indicating that women who152 Journal of Community Psychology, March 2003experienced threat reported higher levels of tension and anxiety than men e.g.,Ben-Zur Shore, Tatum, Wilkinson, 1983!.As to the political attitude variable, we predicted that people with a rightistorientation
42、 would prefer more extensive coverage than leftists. This prediction wasbased on the selective exposure theory which holds that people prefer to seek, or topay attention to, information that supports their political attitudes Klapper, 1960;Sweeney b! watch occasionally; c! avoid watching TV as mucha
43、s possible.”3. Items that examined the influence of TV coverage of terrorist acts on respon-dents or their children, e.g., “After watching TV coverage of a terrorist attackhave you experienced any of the following phenomena: a! recurrent recollec-tions of the terrorist act; b! nightmares associated
44、with the event; c! attemptsto stop thoughts or feelings about the event; d! difficulty falling asleep ordisturbed sleep;e!irritability and outbreaks of anger;f!concentration problems.”At the end of the questionnaire, respondents were asked to provide personal dataon their age, gender, years of educa
45、tion, and political attitude.In regard to the lattervariable, the participants were asked to indicate whether they incline towards the leftor the right in their political outlook!.Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS). The MBSS was developed by Miller 1987! to inves-tigate the information-seeking sty
46、le of individuals who had been exposed to threat,and was translated into Hebrew by Shiloh, Ben-Sinai, and Keinan 1999!. The ques-tionnaire measures self-reported preferences for information and distraction in fourhypothetical stress situationse.g., the threat of being fired from work!. Each question
47、is followed by eight “Yes” or “No” items, four reflecting monitoring stylee.g., “I wouldtalk to my fellow workers to see if they knew anything about the supervisors evaluationof me”! and four reflecting blunting style “I would push all thoughts of being laid offout of my mind”!. Monitoring and blunt
48、ing scores are obtained by summing up thenumber of relevant items.There is evidence from both laboratory and field studies that the MBSS has highvalidity e.g., Miller, 1987; 1991; Miller, Brody Shiloh et al.,1999!. Thus, for example, it was found that when individuals were exposed to aphysical avers
49、ive event, high monitors and low blunters chose to seek out informationabout its nature and onset, while low monitors and high blunters chose to distractthemselves Miller, 1987!. Testretest reliabilities are reported in the 0.8 range, andinternal consistency coefficients Cronbachs a! are in the 0.7 range Miller, 1987;1991!. In the present study, Cronbachs a was 0.66 and 0.61 for the monitoring andblunting scales, respectively. Pearsons correlation between the two scales was found tobe H11002.1
