Why Do Some Terrorist Attacks Receive More Media Attention Than Others?

Abstract

Terrorist attacks often dominate news coverage as reporters seek to provide the public with information. Yet, not all incidents receive equal attention. Why do some terrorist attacks receive more media coverage than others? We argue that perpetrator religion is the largest predictor of news coverage, while target type, being arrested, and fatalities will also impact coverage. We examined news coverage from LexisNexis Academic and CNN.com for all terrorist attacks in the United States between 2006 and 2015 (N?=?136). Controlling for target type, fatalities, and being arrested, attacks by Muslim perpetrators received, on average, 357% more coverage than other attacks. Our results are robust against a number of counterarguments. The disparities in news coverage of attacks based on the perpetrator’s religion may explain why members of the public tend to fear the “Muslim terrorist” while ignoring other threats. More representative coverage could help to bring public perception in line with reality.     

试论我国反恐刑事特别程序立法之必要性与紧迫性

我国虽然在《刑法修正案(三)》中增补了有关恐怖活动犯罪的罪名,也相应加重了其法定刑,但是,我国还没有专门就恐怖活动犯罪的刑事诉讼程序作出规定。在反恐实践中,面临着采取反恐特别措施无法律依据、随意性大、取证难、审讯难等许多法律难题,而我国反恐怖斗争的长期性、复杂性和尖锐性却日益突出。因此,我国有必要抓紧对此作出相应的立法规定。     

Radical-right narratives in Slovakia and Hungary: historical legacies,mythic overlaying and contemporary politics

ABSTRACT

In the last several years, radical-right rhetoric has gained further ground in the political discourse of Slovakia and Hungary. This increasingly overt spiral of tension has been fuelled not only by radical-right actors, such as the Slovenská národná strana (SNS, Slovak National Party) and Jobbik (Movement for a Better Hungary), but also by mainstream parties such as SMER in Slovakia and Fidesz in Hungary. The legitimizing radical-right frames have mostly been founded on politicized historical narratives related to the intertwined processes of nation- and state-building in both countries. Pytlas seeks to describe and analyse this phenomenon, focusing on historical legacies, their mythologized reinterpretations as well as their application to contemporary politics. The debates on the Slovak language law of 2009 and the Hungarian citizenship law of 2010 shall be used as empirical examples of this ‘mythic overlaying’ mechanism.     

In Defence of Politics: Interpreting the Peace Process and the Future of Northern Ireland

The interpretation of the Northern Ireland peace process is highly controversial because it not only has implications for the future of Northern Ireland but ‘lessons’ are also drawn for dealing with terrorism and insurgency globally. This article reviews and critiques key interpretations of the peace process. ‘The Militarists’, Republican Dissidents and Neoconservatives, offer a ‘fundamentalist idealist’ interpretation which leads them to reject political compromise and continue to pursue victory by military means. ‘The Enthusiasts’ are leading figures in the Labour government who champion the outcome of the peace process and recommend ‘talking to terrorists’. ‘The Sceptics’ argue in defence of politics and support the pragmatic realism used to negotiate accommodation. They are critical of ‘The Militarists’ for misinterpreting the peace process and threatening to go back to ‘war’. ‘Sceptics’ welcome powersharing but criticise the ‘Enthusiasts’ for mishandling the peace process and undermining the moderate parties. This has left Northern Ireland with high levels of segregation and economic inequality that prevent the consolidation of peace.     

Terrorism Salience increases System Justification: Experimental Evidence

The issue of international terrorism has figured frequently in recent political debates and media coverage. In the present paper, we explore the question of how the salience of the concept of international terrorism affects the system-justifying tendencies of public opinion. On the basis of Terror Management Theory and System Justification Theory it was hypothesized that terrorism salience would lead to increased system justification. Four experiments with student and non-student adult samples support the hypothesis, yielding a medium-sized average effect of d = 0.47. Across variations in the intensity of focal death-related thoughts, the effect was not subject to boundary conditions typical of mortality salience effects. Social and political psychological implications are discussed.

The search for the Russian Mafia

After the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, newspapers, films, academic researchers and intelligence agencies warned against a new phenomenon in organized crime: the “Russian mafiya.” In fact, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Western European countries have noted an increase in the number of criminals from Central and Eastern Europe. In the mid-1990s, the Dutch judicial authorities made the issue a priority and established a special team to investigate crime with links to Eastern Europe. From 1999 to 2005, the KT NON crime team published several studies and reports on serious crime of this nature. In this paper, the authors, who were assigned to the KT NON crime team, discuss the findings of the two most recent publications on the “causes, nature, scale and threat of Central and Eastern European crime” and “mobile banditry,” respectively. They come to the conclusion that among other forms of crime, the phenomenon of mobile banditry seems to be the most serious manifestation of crime from post-communist countries. The Russian mafia was not found.

论中产阶层行为的法律规制

随着现代市场经济的发展,我国的中产阶层正在发展壮大,有利于社会和谐稳定的"橄榄型"社会阶层结构正在形成。但是,我国中产阶层的理性行为方式还没有完全形成,存在着缺乏社会责任感、行为缺乏有效的社会制约和自我约束、对国家权力的依附性等问题,因此,必须对中产阶层的行为进行有效的法律规制。加强对中产阶层行为的法律规制,主要是进一步加强现代市场经济法制建设,包括加强物权法制建设、加强市场交易法制建设、完善公平的资源配置机制和社会流动机制、加强廉政制度建设、加强社会组织法制建设等。因此,依法规制中产阶层的行为还应当注意处理好几个关系。     

MIKTA--国际社会的新成员

2013年,墨西哥、印度尼西亚、韩国、土耳其和澳大利亚5国成立了MIKTA。经过一年的发展, MIKTA已经成为国际社会中一个新的组织。 MIKTA以非官方和开放的形式,借助5国都是G20成员地位,希望通过G20的国际治理能力,提高其成员国的国际地位,同时也在变化的世界中保持国际体系的稳定和有效。 MIKTA利用外交部长对话机制,致力于国际政治安全事务。 MIKTA 5国有共同愿望、集体实力、良好平台、国际认同等方面的优势,还有各国国内政治和对外战略的支持。因此, MIKTA如果能够处理好与相关国际机制的关系问题,就能够在全球发挥建设性作用。     

Martinique’s Accession to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States: A New Chapter in Caribbean Regionalism?

The admission of Martinique as an associate member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States in 2015 has been seen as an event of significance in the Caribbean region for a number of reasons. Among other things, it was the first example of a non-Anglophone country being accorded that status, and it was the first French territory allowed to join one of the core regional groupings of the Commonwealth Caribbean. This article argues that the deepening of Martinique’s relationship with its neighbours within a multilateral framework may offer new practical possibilities for regional integration.     

Weaponization of the Land and Property Rights system in the Syrian civil war: facilitating restitution?

The Syrian civil war has seen the weaponization of its land and property rights system by the primary combatant groups in the country. The government is the most robust in its use of the tenure system to locate, target, destroy, confiscate, cleanse and gain revenue by way of the institutions and attributes comprising the system. Based on fieldwork with Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, this article describes seven ways the Syrian government is currently using the land and property rights system in its military-on-civilian engagements. While the objective of such use is presumably to permanently prevail over opposition civilian constituencies, the article describes how this actually creates evidence usable for effective restitution of lands and properties subsequent to the war.