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Analysis of News Coverage of Extremist Terror Attacks Between 2016 and 2017

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Analysis of News Coverage of Extremist Terror Attacks Between 2016 and 2017 Master’s Thesis 2020 30 ECTS Faculty of Landscape and Society Analysis of News Coverage of Extremist Terror Attacks Between 2016 and 2017 Ahmad Mansoor MSc International Relations This page intentionally left blank 1 The Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric,was established in 1986 and is the international gateway for the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). Noragric’s contribution to international development lies in the interface between research, education (Bachelor, Master and PhD programmes) and assignments. The Noragric Master’s theses are the final assignments submitted by students in order to fulfil the requirements under the Noragric Master programme ‘International Environmental Studies’, ‘International Development Studies’ and ‘International Relations’. This thesis is submitted as part of a Master’s degree in International Relations The findings in this thesis do not necessarily reflect the views of Noragric. Extracts from this publication may only be reproduced after prior consultation with the author and on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation, contact Noragric. © Ahmad Mansoor, August 2020 [email protected] Noragric Department of International Environment and Development Studies Faculty of Landscape and Society P.O. Box 5003 NO-1432 Ås Norway Tel: + 47 67 23 01 11 Fax: + 47 67 23 06 91 Web: www.nmbu.no/noragric 2 Declaration I, Ahmad Mansoor, declare that this thesis is a result of my research investigations and findings. Sources of information other than my own have been acknowledged and a reference list has been provided. This work has not been previously submitted to any other university for award of any type of academic degree. Signature: Ahmad Mansoor Date: 17th August 2020 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank God for helping me in every way throughout writing this thesis. There have been some truly difficult times this year and I am eternally grateful to have experienced spirituality that has kept me focused. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Paul Beaumont, for providing quick, in-depth and skilful feedback on my work. I have honestly learnt a lot from being supervised by him and I wish him the very best in his professional endeavours. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, who have always been supportive of my plans and always pushed me to study diligently. I hope I have made you both proud and always continue to do so. 4 Abstract Since September 11, Islamist terrorism has been widely represented by news broadcasters around the world. News coverage has consistently conflated Islam and Muslims with terrorism, focusing intrinsically on ‘War on Terror’ news frames. However, research has shown that transnational white nationalist terrorism is a recent and emerging threat to society. The point of departure is that news framings have typically victimised white supremacist terrorists in their news representations. Previously, scholars have examined news framings of terrorism, but research on this topic, the representation of white nationalist terrorism, remains scarce. This gap is addressed by assessing MailOnline, a bona fide right-wing British newspaper, and its representation of Islamist and white supremacist terror attacks in UK. Using discourse analysis, this thesis investigates news framings of the Jo Cox murder in 2016 and the Westminster Bridge attack in 2017, perpetrated by a white supremacist and Islamist respectively. Analysis was guided by four distinct categories; Self and Other, representations of ideology, representations of motivations of terrorists and identity of perpetrators. The findings show that MailOnline framed white supremacist terrorists in humanising terms, which was anticipated, but it was unexpected to see MailOnline portraying an Islamist terrorist in a similar, humanising and personalising way. It represents both terrorists as in need of help; MailOnline adopts a hybrid position to frame terrorists empathetically while maintaining labels of terrorist only for the Westminster Bridge attacker, even though both cases were legally defined as terrorism. These unexpected findings suggest that right-wing papers are moving away from the traditional ‘War on Terror’ frames established since September 11. Right- wing newspapers such as MailOnline are subtly shifting styles of reporting to be mindful of conflating Islam with terrorism. That being said, scholars need to place further emphasis on prominent threats within topics dealing with media representations of terrorism. A good place to start would be temporal comparisons of news framings of white nationalist terrorism. 5 Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 Literature Review .............................................................................................................. 14 Representation of Islam and terrorism in a global context ................................................ 14 Representation of white nationalists and terrorism in a global context ............................. 18 Dominant frames in the media surrounding reporting of terrorists .................................... 21 Sensationalising terrorism ............................................................................................... 22 War on Terror .................................................................................................................. 23 State of mind: mental health considerations of a terrorist ................................................. 24 Lone wolf versus collective extremist groups ................................................................... 25 Why these framings of terror attacks matter? .................................................................. 26 Why does it matter how Islamists and white nationalists are framed? .............................. 27 Why MailOnline? ............................................................................................................. 28 Gap in current research ................................................................................................... 30 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................................... 32 Self and Other ................................................................................................................. 32 Representations of ideology ............................................................................................ 33 Representations of motivations of terrorists ..................................................................... 34 Identity of perpetrators ..................................................................................................... 34 Framing ........................................................................................................................... 35 Methodology...................................................................................................................... 38 Selection of articles for discussion and analysis .............................................................. 38 Strategy for analysis ........................................................................................................ 43 Limitations of the research ............................................................................................... 44 Analysis and Discussion .................................................................................................. 46 Brief explanation of the Jo Cox attack .............................................................................. 46 Brief explanation of the Westminster Bridge attack .......................................................... 47 Self and Other ................................................................................................................. 47 Representations of ideology ............................................................................................ 51 Representations of motivations of terrorists ..................................................................... 56 Identity of perpetrators ..................................................................................................... 59 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 65 Implications for research .................................................................................................. 67 Limitations and future research ........................................................................................ 68 References ........................................................................................................................ 70 6 This page intentionally left blank 7 1. Introduction “Take an angry person, tell them you feel their pain, give them a target for their anger and help them to switch off their brain… Treat people as stupid, hate-filled, gullible and mean while simultaneously helping them to blame all their problems on ‘others’ and they will love you for it. So much so, that you could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single vote” - James O’Brien, How to be Right, 2018 Since September 11, white nationalist extremists have killed more people in USA than other types of domestic extremists (Waters, 2019). White nationalist extremists consist of individuals and groups that follow
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