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Framing Online Communications of Civil and Uncivil Groups in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland

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Framing Online Communications of Civil and Uncivil Groups in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland FRAMING ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS OF CIVIL AND UNCIVIL GROUPS IN POST-CONFLICT NORTHERN IRELAND PAUL REILLY PHD POLITICS DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW NOVEMBER 2007 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Sarah Oates and the Department of Politics for their assistance and advice over the past few years. In addition, this undertaking could not have been realised without the support of my family and friends. I would like to thank all concerned. ii CONTENTS ABSTRACT viii INTRODUCTION 1 Terrorists use of the Internet 2 Internet governance and anti-terrorist legislation 11 Defining Terrorism Internationally 15 The Panopticon: Do terrorists self-regulate? 19 The Internet and political mobilization 21 The Cyber paradigms 22 MEDIA AND TERRORISM: CAN POLITICAL VIOLENCE BE CHARACTERISED AS A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY? 30 Do the norms that influence the media encourage terrorism? 30 The Hallin and Mancini media models 33 Terrorism and the Media 36 Can terrorists really be indifferent to the mass media? 42 The effects of media reporting: Pro-Terrorist 44 The effects of media reporting: Anti-Terrorist 46 News Framing and Terrorism 49 The Effect of News Framing on Support for Terrorism 51 The Troubles: An Overview 52 Unionist Control: 1921-1972 54 From Sunningdale to the Anglo-Irish Agreement: Unionist Divisions 55 The ‘Civil Society’ Paradigm: The 1990s 56 The Good Friday Agreement: Post Conflict? 57 Northern Irish terrorists and the media: Information Management 58 The UK Broadcasting Ban: Direct Censorship 61 ‘Qualified Humanisation’ of Terrorists and Megaphone Diplomacy 62 From war to peace frame? 64 THE PEACE FRAME? COMPARING THE WEBSITES OF NORTHERN IRISH POLITICAL FRONTS AND POLITCAL PARTIES 68 The peace frame 68 The Media and the peace frame 70 Megaphone diplomacy: antecedent for the peace frame? 71 Terrorist frames after the Good Friday Agreement 73 Anti-Agreement Groups and the Peace Frame 74 The Civil Web: Political fronts and political parties online 76 Results 81 Discussion: Tactical Frames 92 iii Online framing and public opinion 93 Information vs. Interaction 95 Organisational Linkage: Critical Multiplier Effect? 96 Conclusion 97 GOOGLING TERRORISM: HOW VISIBLE ARE NORTHERN IRISH TERRORISTS ON THE INTERNET? 108 Internet usage patterns: the United Kingdom and the United States 108 The role of search engines in computer-mediated communication 114 How do search engines work? 115 Do search engines suppress controversy on the Internet? 118 Northern Irish terrorists and search engines 121 Results 126 Do search engines limit the audience for Northern Irish terrorists online? 130 Have Internet users lost interest in Northern Irish terrorists? 132 Terrorist Framing and search engine visibility 133 Conclusion 135 AMATEUR TERRORISTS? LOYALISTS AND REPUBLICAN SOLIDARITY ACTORS ONLINE 145 Amateur terrorists and the Internet 145 Loyalist and Republican solidarity websites 147 Results 151 Discussion: Amateur terrorists? 165 The Zapatista Effect? 167 Conclusion 171 COMPETING VICTIMHOODS: THE WEBSITES OF NORTHERN IRISH RESIDENTS’ GROUPS 184 Segregation: An Inevitable product of Consociationalism? 184 Defining the problems of interface communities: what is an interface? 186 Cross-Community Contact 187 Perceptions of the ‘Other’ Community 188 Managing Interface Violence: ‘Good fences make Good Neighbours’ 189 The Civil Society Paradigm: Community Development 190 Community Relations and Dialogic Democracy 192 Interface communities and the Internet 193 Results 197 Why might residents’ groups conceal their links to terrorist organisations online? 206 Bonding or Bridging Social Capital? 207 Are these websites a manifestation of consociationalism? 208 The Internet: A primary tool of political communication? 209 iv Conclusion 211 CONCLUSIONS 222 All Northern Irish political parties use the Web to establish their credentials as cultural democrats 222 The Internet provides a space for supporters and opponents of the peace process. 223 Loyalist and Republican websites will attract a limited audience 224 The threat of amateur terrorism online may be illusory 224 Loyalist and Republicans use the Web to further their competition of victimhood 225 Do existing patterns of Internet Governance allow terrorists to act with 225 impunity online? Terrorists, ICTs and soft power: is there a cyber-optimist solution for terrorism? 227 The Internet and Ethnic communities: narrowcasting? 230 Do the Cyber paradigms have limitations as analytical tools? 233 A Thematic approach to content analysis? 236 Suggestions for future research 236 Summary 240 ENDNOTES 242 BIBLIOGRAPHY 265 APPENDIX 1: Email sent to webmasters responsible for websites used in thesis 289 APPENDIX 2: Screenshots of websites used in thesis 290 APPENDIX 3: Images of sectarian interfaces in Belfast 302 v ILLUSTRATIONS Table 2.1: Siebert, Peterson and Schramm’s media models 66 Table 2.2: Relationships between Terrorism and the Mass Media 67 Table 3.1: Northern Irish Political Parties (November 2003) 99 Table 3.2: Northern Irish terrorist organisations and political fronts 100 Table 3.3: Website registration data provided by Northern Irish political parties 101 Table 3.4: Coding Scheme 102 Table.3.5: Organisational Linkages exhibited on official Northern Irish 104 political websites Table.3.6: Interactive features available on official Northern Irish 105 political websites Table.3.7: Online recruitment resources of official Northern Irish 106 political websites Table.3.8: Presentation and delivery of official Northern Irish 107 political websites Table 4.1: Northern Irish Terrorist Groups proscribed in the United Kingdom. 137 Table 4.2: Categories of Website generated by search engines 138 Table.4.3: Number of results generated by words ‘Irish Republican’ 138 and ‘Ulster Loyalist’ Table.4.4: Number of results for searches conducted using Republican 139 group names Table.4.5: Number of results for searches conducted using Loyalist group names 140 Table.4.6: ‘Irish Republican’ search results by website category 141 Table.4.7: ‘Ulster Loyalist’ results by website category 142 Table.4.8: ‘Irish Republican Army’ results by website category 143 Table.4.9: ‘Ulster Volunteer Force’ results by website category 144 Table 5.1: Loyalist and Republican solidarity websites 173 Table 5.2: Website registration data provided by Loyalist solidarity actors 174 Table 5.3: Website registration data provided by Republican solidarity actors 175 Table.5.4: Organisational Linkages exhibited on Republican solidarity websites 176 Table.5.5: Organisational Linkages exhibited on Loyalist solidarity websites 177 Table 5.6: Interactive features available on Republican solidarity websites 178 Table.5.7: Interactive features available on Loyalist solidarity websites 179 Table.5.8: Online recruitment resources on Loyalist solidarity websites 180 Table.5.9: Online recruitment resources on Republican solidarity websites 181 Table.5.10: Presentation methods used on Republican solidarity websites 182 Table.5.11: Presentation methods used on Loyalist solidarity websites 183 Table 6.1: Loyalist and Republican residents’ groups 212 Table 6.2 Website registration data provided by Northern Irish residents’ groups 213 Table 6.3: Organisational Linkages visible on Loyalist Residents’ group websites 214 Table 6.4: Organisational Linkages visible on Republican Residents’ group 215 vi websites Table.6.5: Interactive features available on Republican Residents’ group 216 websites Table.6.6: Interactive features available on Loyalist Residents’ group 217 websites Table.6.7: Online recruitment resources of Loyalist Residents’ group 218 websites Table.6.8: Online recruitment resources of Republican Residents’ group 219 websites Table.6.9: Presentation and delivery of Loyalist Residents’ group 220 websites Table 6.10: Presentation and delivery of Republican Residents’ group 221 Website vii ABSTRACT This thesis explores the ways in which civil and uncivil groups in Northern Ireland use the Internet to generate soft power. This research assesses whether the Internet creates a critical multiplier effect for marginal groups, such as terrorists and interface communities. A coding scheme, adapted from previous studies of political part websites, is used to determine whether these groups have realised the potential of the Internet as a tool for political mobilisation. The dissertation considers whether there are any qualitative differences between the online framing of terrorist-linked parties and the constitutional parties in the region. The phenomenon of amateur terrorism is also analysed through the lens of Loyalist and Republican solidarity actors. The analysis determines whether solidarity actors were more likely to justify political violence on their websites than their respective political fronts. In addition, the websites of rival residents’ groups are examined to determine whether the Internet can help generate social capital across sectarian interfaces. The analysis determines whether residents’ groups use the Web to strengthen in-group identities, or to engage in dialogue with rival interface communities. In doing so, the research tests the cyberoptimist assertion that the Internet will facilitate forms of communication that undermine unequal power relations within nation-states. The online audience for Northern Irish terrorists is modelled using Internet usage patterns and the ranking systems used by Internet search engines. Internet usage patterns are examined to define the potential audience available to Northern Irish terrorists via their
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