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American Media Depiction of Terrorism in the U.S After September 11 Attacks

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American Media Depiction of Terrorism in the U.S After September 11 Attacks Mississippi State University Scholars Junction Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 12-1-2020 American media depiction of terrorism in the U.S after September 11 Attacks Maria Thuy Trinh Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td Recommended Citation Trinh, Maria Thuy, "American media depiction of terrorism in the U.S after September 11 Attacks" (2020). Theses and Dissertations. 447. https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/447 This Dissertation - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Scholars Junction. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Junction. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Template B v4.0 (beta): Created by L. Threet 2/5/19 American media depiction of terrorism in the U.S after September 11 Attacks By TITLE PAGE Maria Thuy Trinh Approved by: Raymond Edward Barranco (Major Professor) Nicole E. Rader (Minor Professor) Kimberly C. Kelly David C. May Margaret Ann Hagerman (Graduate Coordinator) Rick Travis (Dean, College of Arts & Sciences) A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology. in the Department of Sociology Mississippi State, Mississippi November 2020 Copyright by COPYRIGHT PAGE Maria Thuy Trinh 2020 Name: Maria Thuy Trinh ABSTRACT Date of Degree: November 25, 2020 Institution: Mississippi State University Major Field: Sociology. Major Professor: Raymond Barranco Title of Study: American media depiction of terrorism in the U.S after September 11 Attacks Pages in Study: 192 Candidate for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The purpose of this dissertation was to analyze perceptions of terrorism through the analysis of two newspapers’ news coverage of terrorism after the September 11 attacks, a popular Kentucky newspaper, the Courier-Journal and the New York Times (NYT). The social construction of terrorism was reflected as a problem through moral panics or something that a society believed as wrong that needed to be eradicated. Previous research had found that newspapers have contributed to moral panics by exaggerating the scope of social problems such as school shootings. I used the theoretical framework of moral panics; Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s (2009) two criteria of moral panics, which were (1) concern and (2) volatility; portrayals of heroes, folk devils, and victims in moral panics; and war on terror as sensitizing concepts to find themes. I analyzed 500 the CJ newspaper articles and 500 the NYT articles from September 11, 2001 to August 30, 2018 to find the differences between both newspapers, identify portrayals, and determine how terrorism was socially constructed. Overall, I found differences between the two newspapers on how they depicted terrorism and themes on how both newspapers reported and described terrorism. The reporting on terrorism has implications to the overall handling of terrorism such as the Muslim Travel Ban. DEDICATION This is dedicated to my wonderful husband, Zac Lewis, my supportive parents, my brothers, my in-laws, and Jennifer Ling. Without them, I would not have been able to complete my dissertation and begin my academic career. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Barranco for all his advice and help with my dissertation. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Rader, Dr. Kelly, Dr. May, and Dr. Hossfeld for all the guidance. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 1 What is terrorism? ......................................................................................................... 1 Significance of Media ................................................................................................... 3 Social construction and its influence on perceptions of terrorism ................................... 4 Overview of dissertation ................................................................................................ 5 II. LITERATURE ............................................................................................................ 11 Why newspapers?........................................................................................................ 11 Media ........................................................................................................................ 13 Types of media and media platforms ..................................................................... 13 Media effects ......................................................................................................... 13 Typical offenders, victims, and crimes in the media ............................................... 17 Exaggerated examples ..................................................................................... 19 Post-September 11 news coverage on terrorism ..................................................... 21 Moral panics ............................................................................................................... 24 Social construction of reality ................................................................................. 24 Hegemony in news media ...................................................................................... 27 Theoretical framework of moral panics .................................................................. 28 Crimes as moral panics .......................................................................................... 32 How is terrorism used to create moral panic in news coverage? ............................. 33 War on terror ................................................................................................... 36 Islamophobia and the Muslim Other ................................................................ 37 Immigration as a moral panic after September 11 ............................................. 39 Summary of literature review ...................................................................................... 41 III. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................... 45 iv Introduction ................................................................................................................. 45 Sample ........................................................................................................................ 45 Data collection ............................................................................................................ 47 Qualitative data collection ..................................................................................... 51 Quantitative data collection ................................................................................... 55 Data analysis ............................................................................................................... 56 Quantitative: Descriptive analysis .......................................................................... 56 Qualitative: Sensitizing concepts analysis .............................................................. 57 Qualitative: Substantive area analysis .............................................................. 58 Qualitative: Conceptual frameworks analysis ................................................... 58 Quantitative: Content analysis ............................................................................... 59 Summary of methodology ........................................................................................... 60 IV. QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS .................................................................................... 62 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 62 Descriptive statistics .................................................................................................... 63 Top journalists ....................................................................................................... 67 Types of terrorism ................................................................................................. 69 Most mentioned terrorist attacks ............................................................................ 70 Quantitative analysis of sensitizing concepts ............................................................... 74 Summary of quantitative results .................................................................................. 82 V. QUALITATIVE FINDINGS ....................................................................................... 83 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 83 The “war on terror” ....................................................................................................
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