How Online News Stories Have Shaped Public Perceptions on Terrorist Attacks
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In wake of the recent attacks against religious institutions, there has been a high concern for general public safety and wellbeing.
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However, with reporting such tragedies comes a great international concern on how these issues are discussed.
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There is ample dispute on reportage methods of these incidents, particularly during the mosque massacres in Afghanistan (with two attacks occurring in the same week) and Christchurch, and the church bombings in Sri Lanka.
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Online news stories are shaping how we see the world today
(Photography by Selin Kement)
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Within a three-month time period, these attacks have claimed more than 351 lives and injuring 553 others.
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Reportage on tragic events is meant to provide information for the public on what is happening around the world.
But what if that comes at a cost?
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A research paper argues that depending on social identity perceptions, predominant nationalities can perceive certain ethnicities in a negative light unconsciously.
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Alsultany says in her paper that, “there is an implicit association between terrorism, people of Middle Eastern descent, and Islam.”
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Take Christchurch, for instance.
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Numerous Australian newspaper publications have been scrutinised for their front-page headlines for reporting on the white supremacist 28-year old, who murdered 51 people during a Friday prayer at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
For example, The Courier Mail describes this man as “a working-class madman: how a kid who grew up in Grafton became a killer white supremacist."
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The Sunday Mail also titles their front page “Smirking Assassin, ‘terrorist warped by video games:' family."
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A similar article from The Conversation talks about how terrorist reporting in Australia, is automatically shifted towards the Islamic population, but is often “handled with caution” if the perpetuator comes from a Caucasian background.
This follows a close comparison to minority groups in some European countries.
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In many areas of Eastern Europe, a marginalised group known as “Romani” are discriminated in many parts of this region, labelled as ‘gypsies’ in multiple media outlets.
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Author of a Romanian discourse analysis paper Shannon Woodcock, says this has an effect on the attitudes in the European public sphere.
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“This interpretation was disseminated in the media… For actions that were contrary to the European image of Romania," she told TheMix.com.
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Chrisanthi Giotis, a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, stresses that the cause for alternative attitudes towards international stories, comes from a far too relaxed point of view.
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“I think Australians are probably ready to start hearing more complex stories and to hear more world stories. I think that’s the biggest issue that has remained in Australia, [is that], we don’t have a lot of world stories,” she says.
