Terrorism and the media A multi-country study of the media coverage of ISIS and the influence of geographic proximity

Ioli-Nektaria Taktikou s1689207 August 11th, 2016

Master thesis: MSc Crisis and Security Management

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Leiden University

Thesis supervisor: Dr. C.W. Hijzen

Second reader: Prof. E. Bakker

Table of contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………………..1 LIST OF TABLES ...………………..……………………………….…………….…2 1. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………….……………………3 2. BODY OF LITERATURE ……….………...………………………………………7 2.1. ISIS …………………………………………………………………….…7 2.2. Media and terrorism…………………………………..…………………12 2.3. Media, geographic proximity and terrorist attacks ……………….…….19 3. RESEARCH DESIGN ……………………………………………………………25 3.1. Operationalization ………………………………………………………25 3.2. Research type, methods & variables ……………………………………26 3.3. Case selection …………………………………………………………...28 3.4. Unit of analysis & Unit of observation …………………………………29 3.5. Data collection methods ……………………………………………...…29 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY …………………………………………………31 4.1. Quantitative media content analysis ……………………………….……31 4.2. Time Span & Data collection ………………………………………...…33 4.3. Variables of media content analysis ………………………………….…34 4.4. Coding scheme explanation ………………………………………….…35 4.5. Use of SPSS …………………………………………………………….43 4.6. Intercoder reliability check ……………………………………….……..44 5. RESULTS ………………………………………………………………………….45 6. DISCUSSION …………………………………………………………………….52 7. CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………...69 8. REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………74 9. APPENDICES ...………………………… ……………………………………...101 9.1. APPENDIX 1: Data from the Independent …………………………....101 9.2. APPENDIX 2: Data from La Libre ……………………………………106 9.3. APPENDIX 3: Data from Le Monde ……………………………….…111 9.4. APPENDIX 4: Data from CNN …………………………………….…116

1 List of tables 1. Table 1 - ISIS names through the years ……………………………………………9 2. Table 2 - The terrorists’ use of the media ………………………………………...19 3. Table 3 - The codification sheet ………………………………………………….36 4. Table 4 - The values of each variable …………………………………………….42 5. Table 5 - ISIS media coverage in the four news agencies ………………………..45

2 1. Introduction The issue of terrorism and the fight against it is one of the highest priorities of the United Nations and the international community (Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2006). Incidents, such as 9/11 and the Paris terror attacks, show the emerging dimensions of the phenomenon and the way it draws media attention, it influences the public opinion and governmental policies by the spread of fear. Many academics have examined the issue of risk perception, its influence on public health (Heneweer, Bertels & Meier, 2015), the role of the media (Gadarian, 2010) and the fear of terrorism (Lemyre, Turner, Lee & Krewski, 2006). Especially the case of ISIS has managed to draw the attention of the whole Western world due to its attacks on western soil. At first, “the emergence of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and ISIS/Da’ish in 2013 seemed to catch the world community by complete surprise” (Stathis, 2015, p.4). Gradually, ISIS (Islamic State in Syria and Iraq) drew the attention of the international community and the news media, because of its brutal activities -i.e. the beheadings of foreign journalists, the torture of hostages-, its successful recruitment tactics and the large amount of casualties following its attacks. Since 2014, the insurgency in the Middle East and the activities of ISIS have led to the death and the displacement of thousands of people (OHCHR, 2016). The intention of ISIS to create a new Caliphate and the war for the control of cities of strategic importance have led to the destabilization of the Middle East (Gonchar, 2014). ISIS poses a new threat not only to the Middle East, but also to the Western world and civilization as a whole. It has repeatedly threatened the Western countries and has rejected any element of the modern globalized society that does not coincide with the Sharia law. Only a month before the writing of this paper ISIS threatened the West of massive attacks, worse than those of 9/11 or the Paris attacks of November 2015 (Bhutia, 2016). Two alarming developments that increase the levels of uncertainty in western countries are the rising numbers of foreign fighters and the fear of them being transported to Europe among the influxes of refugees fleeing the war zones. The abovementioned events have led to the formation of an international coalition in 2014, aiming to fight the ISIS threat. More specifically, President Barack Obama announced the formation of the coalition in September 2014 and Resolutions 2170, 2178 and 2199 of the United Nations Security Council provide the legal framework for the

3 actions of the coalition (McInnis, 2016). The attacks on European and American soil have strengthened the actions taken against ISIS. The threat posed by ISIS to both the West and the Middle East is extremely alarming (Al-Oraibi, 2015; Hundal, 2014; Ross, 2014), because of the complex nature of the problem. ISIS is not a current threat only because of the declaration of the intention to create a global Caliphate, but also because of the implications that the group’s activities have to all levels of security. To be more precise, the group constitutes a threat to international, national, and individual security and this combination of issues can only explain the striking dimensions of the problem. At the international level, ISIS has managed to disrupt the effort for global peace and security, whereas at the national level, the group has provoked insurgencies, it has shown the ineffectiveness of current security measures and it has spread fear by executing terrorist attacks. Finally, ISIS has also a great influence on each individuals’ security, not only because of the execution of attacks, but also through the spread of its ideology, the exploitation of the unrest and rebel nature of the youth for recruitment purposes and the causation of humanitarian crisis in the areas it operates. Because of its actions, “ISIS is perceived as the personified evil abroad and by most Syrians alike – and ISIS takes pride in it” (Scheller, 2014, para.23). Taking into account the global reach and the high level of danger posed by ISIS, the media coverage of the new threat is of great importance. The global news agencies have the capacity to transmit images and narratives worldwide, informing people from different cultures and countries about the latest developments. This ability gives the media the unique opportunity to shape or alter people’s opinions by influencing their perception or interpretation of specific incidents (Herbert, 2001). However, it has been established that the coverage of incidents by the media is not unbiased; instead, it is influenced by a variety of factors that are called the determinants of the information diffusion process (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987; Dupree, 1971; Wu, 1997, 1998, 2000; Zipf, 1946). Geographic proximity has been acknowledged as a news value of great importance by communication scholars (Burns, 2002; DeLung, Magee, DeLauder & Maiorescu, 2012; Neveu, 2002). The notion that the media care more about events that take place close to them seems to prevail in determinant studies. In the case of terrorism, many authors argue that there is a symbiotic relationship between the media and terrorism (Hoffman, 1998, 2006; Juergensmeyer, 2000; Miller,

4 1982; Rohner & Frey, 2007; Wilkinson 2000). The media can serve either as the mediators of governments or as the facilitators’ of terrorist goals. On the one hand, through the projection of terrorist attacks, the victims and their families, the media can help governments in gaining support for counter-terrorism measures. On the other hand, by broadcasting such images or terrorist propaganda videos, the media serve the terrorists’ goal for publicity and make their messages known worldwide. Given the importance of the media-terrorism relationship, in this thesis, I seek to examine the relationship between the two in the case of ISIS through a multi-country comparative study. To be more precise, the research examines the media coverage of the ISIS threat in four different countries in order to outline the aspects of the threat posed by the group that are more salient in each country under examination based on their geographic proximity to France, which has been the target of ISIS attacks. Thus, the main research question is: ‘To what extent has geographic proximity influenced the media coverage of ISIS in the UK, Belgium, France, and the US?’. This question was based on the hypothesis that countries with geographic proximity to the country target of the recent ISIS attacks are more likely to be interested in the threat posed by the group. In other words, the main assumption is that media coverage is influenced by geographic proximity. Therefore, the thesis has four objectives: firstly, to outline the aspects of the ISIS threat that are more dominant in the media coverage of four countries, filling a knowledge gap; secondly, to enhance the literature on the concept of newsworthiness by examining whether geographic proximity to terrorist targets influences the media coverage of the threat; thirdly, to enhance the literature of determinant studies of information diffusion by examining the influence of one of those determinants not only on the media coverage of a security event, but also on particular aspects of the threat; finally, to contribute to media studies by conducting quantitative media content analysis on the coverage of a new terrorist threat. Researching the media coverage of security issues is of great societal importance, since it can lead to a better understanding of the role of the media in the creation of threat perceptions and more generally, in politics. Rogers et al. argue that communication is of great value in the case of security incidents, because it shapes risk perceptions, which can lead to the success or the failure of public policies (Rogers, Amlot, Rubin, Wessely & Krieger, 2007). By focusing on a specific security issue and on one of the factors that influences the media coverage of events, this

5 thesis can provide insights about our own considerations and perceptions of the world. If geographic proximity influences the coverage of terrorist attacks, the public is more likely to be emotionally affected by attacks that take place in close distance to them. Does that mean that we care more about the people dying and we fear more when we feel the threat closer to us? In order to examine the media coverage of ISIS and the importance of geographic proximity the thesis is divided into various chapters. In chapter 2, the body of literature is described in order to provide information about the subject under examination. For the purposes of the research, the development of ISIS is described and a timeline of the attacks executed by the group within the timespan of the thesis is provided. The chapter also offers a literature review concerning the relationship between media and terrorism, and the link between media coverage of terrorist attacks and geographic proximity. In chapter 3, the research design is outlined. Quantitative research is conducted in this thesis, based on a holistic multiple case study design. Next, the research methodology is explained in details in chapter 4. Content analysis is conducted at first in order to establish the salience of specific aspects of the ISIS threat in the media coverage of news agencies in the UK, Belgium, France and the US. In chapter 5 and 6, the results of the quantitative content analysis are presented and analyzed in order to answer to the research question and examine the validity of the hypothesis of the study. Last but not least, chapter 7 offers concluding remarks and discusses the contribution and the limitations of the thesis.

6 2. Body of Literature

2.1. ISIS Even though ISIS became widely known after the declaration of the Caliphate in 2014 and the capture of Mosul, the roots of the group go back in 1999. The group was first formed in 1999 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi under the name Jamaat al-Tawhid wa- l-Jihad (JTWJ). Al-Zarqawi’s goal was “first to topple the Jordanian monarchy, with the rest of the Levant presumably to follow” (Zelin, 2014, p.2). After the US-led Afghanistan invasion in 2001 al-Zarqawi became known because of his brutal beheadings and his group’s suicide bombings’ campaign (Zelin, 2014), which drew the attention of foreign fighters who were willing to fight against Iraqi and coalition forces. Concerning the power of JTWJ, Corera (2005) said: “Though Zarqawi and his fighters numerically make a small proportion of the resistance (estimates run from 50 to 500), they exercise an exaggerated degree of influence due to their coupling of extreme violence with an acute understanding of the power of the media” (para.9). In 2004, al-Zarqawi pledged alliance to Osama bin Laden and renamed his group to al-Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers (al-Qaeda in Iraq or AQI) (Corera, 2005; Pool, 2004). The new ‘partnership’ offered al-Zarqawi access to logistics, resources and donors. The group was responsible for the flow and recruitment of foreign fighters and had an important role to play in the Iraq insurgency (Zelin, 2014). In 2004, AQI took a Japanese citizen hostage and threatened to execute him if Japan did not withdraw from Iraq (“Group seizes Japanese man”, 2004). Besides the kidnappings and taking hostages, the group continued its suicide bombings campaign from 2004 to 2006 and declared war on Shiites, the Iraqi government and its forces (“Another wave of bombings”, 2005). In January 2006, al-Zarqawi tried to unify Sunni insurgent groups under the guidance of AQI, and for that reason he created the Mujahideen Shura Council as an umbrella organization (DeYoung & Pincus, 2007; Zelin, 2014). However, al-Zarqawi died in June 2006 by US airstrikes and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir assumed the leadership of the group (“Al-Qaeda in Iraq names new head”, 2006). A few months later, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) was established through the statement “Announcing the Establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq” (Roggio, 2006), and al-Muhajir pledged his alliance to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the new ISI’s leader and Emir.

7 ISI’s plan was to take over Sunni areas in Iraq in order to turn it into a Sunni Caliphate (Mahnaimi, 2007). The group soon expanded its control over the Iraqi governorates of Al Anbar, Diyala and Baghdad (Mahnaimi, 2007), and claimed Baqubah as its capital in 2007. From 2006 to 2007, ISI launched a series of attacks against Christians, Sunni Iraqi and American targets. Nonetheless, ISI has lost most of its strength by 2008 (Phillips, 2009). According to Phillips (2009), this was due to the group’s “ideological inflexibility, its penchant for indiscriminate violence, and its absolute unwillingness to accommodate the sensitivities and political interests of its host communities” (p.64). In 2010, ISI’s leader was killed in joint US-Iraqi raids near Tikrit (Arango, 2010) and Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi became the new Emir of the Caliphate. Al-Baghdadi changed the administrative structure of the organization and appointed former officers of Saddam Hussein’s regime to important positions (Hubbard & Schmitt, 2014). That way, the group’s success is based on “ its leaders augmented traditional military skill with terrorist techniques refined through years of fighting American troops, while also having deep local knowledge and contacts” (Hubbard & Schmitt, 2014, para.5). The plan of the new ISI’s leader was not only to re-take control over Iraq, but also to expand to Syria, which was tormented by a civil war. Al-Baghdadi aimed at bringing down the Assad regime and replacing it with an Islamic State (Abouzeid, 2014). For that reason, he authorized ISI member Abu Mohammad al-Golani to create a sub-organization in Syria. In 2012, al-Golani established the “Jabhat al-Nusra l’Ahl as-Sham” (Abouzeid, 2014; Benotman & Blake, 2013). In 2013, al-Baghdadi announced that Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) and ISI were merging into a new organization called “Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham” (ISIL/ISIS) (Gulmohamad, 2014). However, JN leader Abu Muhammad al-Julani rejected the mergence and pledged his alliance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda (Gulmohamad, 2014). A year later, ISIS declared the establishment of a worldwide Caliphate with al-Baghdadi as its leader/caliph and changed its name to Islamic State (Roggio, 2014; “This is the promise of Allah”, 2014; Withnall, 2014). IS captured the international attention after the declaration of the Caliphate and the capture of Mosul. ISIS mainly controls Iraq and Syria, but the group has also expanded its branches in Tunisia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Libya, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Egypt (BBC Monitoring, 2015). ISIS has extensive resources, generating from “robbery, kidnappings, extortions, and even arms and drug trafficking”

8 (Gulmohamad, 2014, p.2). In addition, the great number of foreign fighters that have travelled to Syria to join the group, estimated around 20,000 (Windrem, 2015) –with approximately 4000 of them coming from EU countries (Boutin et al., 2016) - is only one example of the group’s successful strategy.

Table 1 - ISIS names through the years (Zelin, 2014) GROUP NAMES YEARS Jamaat al-Tawhid wa-l-Jihad (JTWJ, Organization of 1999-2004 Monotheism and Jihad) Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (TQJBR, 2004-2006 Organization of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia, also referred to as al-Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers, al-Qaeda in Iraq or AQI) Majlis Shura al-Mujahedin (MSM, Mujahideen Shura Council) 2006 Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) 2006-2013 Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Islamic State of Iraq and the 2013-2014 Levant, ‘ISIL’, ‘ISIS’, ‘Daesh’) Islamic State (IS) 2014-present

Another example of ISIS’ success is its communication strategy. ISIS has realized the importance of the media and has exploited them to its favor so as to spread its messages around the world. In order to gain recruits and support to its goals the group realized that it needs publicity. As Milosevska & Taneski (2014) say: “The public attention is especially favorable for terrorist organizations when the groups can use it to garner sympathizers who otherwise would never have given support, as has been the case with the Islamic State” (p. 58). In any case, “the act of terrorism is first and foremost an act of communication” (Williams, 2016, p.6). The group’s media efforts aim at gaining supporters and also at spreading fear. The first goal is pursued by persuading Muslims around the world that establishing and serving the caliphate is their duty (Farwell, 2014) through media propaganda. In order to transmit this message ISIS uses its own media, mostly al-Hayat Media Center and the A’maq News Agency. Through videos produced by those channels and reproduced by the mass media, ISIS has the chance to recruit people to fight in Iraq

9 and Syria and/or mobilize extremists abroad to execute terrorist attacks (Williams, 2016). Williams (2016) argues that the communication strategy of ISIS focuses on three narratives: persecution, utopianism and brutality. Regarding persecution, ISIS propaganda creates the perception that Sunni Muslims are suffering because of the “Iranian-affiliated regimes in the Syria and Iraq” (Williams, 2016, p.4) and by coalition strikes so as to persuade people to fight for the Caliphate. Utopianism is achieved through the projection of idealized images of life within the Islamic State, so as to make it more attractive to people abroad (Williams, 2016). Lastly, the reproduction of terrorist attacks, executions or other brutal activities committed by the group help in spreading fear among its ‘enemies’. All the aforementioned goals of the group are accomplished through the reproduction of such messages, videos and images by the mass media. Since ISIS’ videos “are of a high quality”, using “cinematic production techniques, Hollywood- style special effects, ‘immersive’ video game-style media, and dramatic, apocalyptic narratives” (Williams, 2016, p.3), they guarantee the attention of the audience. Also, the high quality of the videos means that it does not cost the media much to cover the group’s activities and it spares them from the need to send reporters to the war zones. Thus, there is a symbiotic relationship between ISIS and the media: ISIS depends on the media to disseminate its messages and the media depend on ISIS so as to fulfil the demands of the audience with low cost.

Timeline of ISIS attacks from November to December 2015: (Glenn, 2016)

November 3: ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack close to the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, which left one police officer dead and another one wounded (Najar & Manik, 2015).

November 12: The Beirut bombings. On November 12, 2015 two suicide bombers detonated their explosives in Beirut, Lebanon. 43 people died because of the explosions and more than 200 were wounded (Barnard & Saad, 2015). ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

November 13: The November 2015 Paris attacks.

10 On November 13, 2015 a series of terrorist attacks took place in Paris, France, and its suburb Saint-Denis. Three suicide bombers detonated their explosives near the Stade de France, gunmen started shooting at people sitting at “Le Carillon” bar, the “Petit Cambodge” restaurant, the bar “A La Bonne Biere” and the restaurant “La Belle Equipe”. Gunmen also entered the Bataclan Theater and started shooting at the crowd (de la Hamaide & John, 2015). Overall, 130 people were killed (137 including the perpetrators) and more than 350 were wounded (de la Hamaide & John, 2015). ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

November 24: The Tunis bombing. On November 24, 2015 a bus carrying members of the Tunisian presidential guard exploded in Tunis, Tunisia. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack that killed 12 people (Zaghdoudi, Sidner, Botelho & Payne, 2015).

November 26: The Bangladesh Shiite mosque attack. On November 26, 2015 three ISIS militants entered a Shiite mosque in Bangladesh and opened fire on the people inside the mosque. A cleric was killed and three people were wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack (Ruma, 2015).

December 2: The San Bernardino attack. On December 2, 2015 a married coupled entered the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, shot and killed 14 people, and left 17 wounded (Reid & Whitcomb, 2015). After the attacks, FBI Director James Comey said that the two shooters were “homegrown violent extremists… inspired by foreign terrorist organizations” (as quoted by Williams & Abdullah, 2015). Tashfeen Malik pledged alliance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before the massacre through her Facebook account (Carroll & Walters, 2015) and the terrorist group called the perpetrators “soldiers of the caliphate” (Callimachi, 2015).

December 6: The Aden car bombing. On December 6, 2015 a car bomb killed the governor of Aden, Jaafar Mohammed Saad, and his entourage. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack (Al-Batati & Fahim, 2015; Mukhashaf, 2015).

11 December 11: The Tell Tamer bombings. On December 11, 2015 three car bombs exploded in the Town of Tell Tamer, Syria, killing 60 people and injuring more than 80. The attacks were orchestrated and executed by the Islamic State (Perry, Davison, Hashem & Jones, 2015).

2.2. Media and terrorism In order to examine the relationship between terrorism and the media a definition of terrorism should be given first. Terrorism as a concept is difficult to operationalize and difficult to define, since ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’. This observation has led to the conceptualization of many different definitions of terrorism that make the response to the terrorist threat even more difficult. For example, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly has defined terrorism as “criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes... whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be invoked to justify them” (UN General Assembly, 1994, para. 3). On the other hand, the US Justice Department defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (US Justice Department, 28 C.F.R. Section 0.85). The Federal Bureau of Investigation provides two definitions of terrorism, depending on whether it is international or domestic. More precisely, the FBI has defined international terrorism as “violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law… that appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping... and occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S., or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum” (Federal Bureau of Investigation, n.d.). Domestic terrorism is defined as “acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law... that appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of

12 a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping... and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S” (Federal Bureau of Investigation, n.d.). Given the large number of terrorism definitions and the lack of one universally accepted definition, Alex P. Schmid studied various definitions and, after identifying similarities among them, he defined terrorism as “an anxiety inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby—in contrast to assassination—the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative of symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators. Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist (organization), (imperiled) victims, and main targets are used to manipulate the main target (audience[s]), turning it into a target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention depending on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought” (Schmid, 1983, p.70). In the same wavelength, Karber (1971) has argued that “as a symbolic act, terrorism can be analyzed much like other media of communication, consisting of four basic components: transmitter (the terrorist), intended recipient (target), message (bombing, ambush) and feed-back (reaction of target audience). The terrorist’s message of violence necessitates a victim, whether personal or institutional, but the target or intended recipient of the communication may not be the victim” (p.529). Those conceptualizations of terrorism are extremely useful, because they create a link between the latter and communication. They acknowledge that the victims of terrorist acts are not necessarily the targeted recipients of the message and that the main function of terrorism is to communicate a message in order to gain attention and spread fear. These goals become even easier in the era of the mass media, which do not hesitate to reproduce images of terrorist incidents. In fact, the media have been considered to have a special relationship with terrorism, due to the newsworthiness of terrorist incidents. The latter provoke intense emotions and attract the interest of large audiences. Thus, the media cannot turn a blind eye to such events. “The combination of violence or the threat of violence, emotional intensity, suspense, conflict, confrontation between clearly defined sides, and heroism, offers all of the dramatic ingredients of a ‘good story’” (Weimann, 1987, p.27) that will increase the profit of

13 news agencies, which, in turn, explains why terrorist acts gain that high publicity from the media. Terrorists themselves have become aware of the interest of the media in their activities and have exploited that interest for their own purposes. Terrorist attacks are now orchestrated so as to attract the attention of the press, the media and the international community (Jenkins, 1975; Nacos, 1994; Weimann, 1987). As Jenkins states: “Taking and holding hostages increases the drama. Terrorism is aimed at the people watching, not at the actual victims. Terrorism is a theater” (Jenkins, 1975, p.4). Thus, the media offer small groups the chance to make their existence, goals and activities known to the whole world, which in turn helps to the spread of fear. Powell asserts that the media guarantee the success of terrorists’ goals. She says: “Maximum impact of an act of terrorism comes from widespread media coverage, which creates a climate of fear among the population, focusing government attention, economic resources, and military resources on fighting a ‘‘War on Terror’’ ” (Powell, 2011, p.92). This connection between the media and terrorism has been characterized by many scholars as symbiotic (Hoffman, 1998, 2003, 2006; Juergensmeyer, 2000; Miller,

1982; Rohner & Frey, 2007; Wilkinson, 2000). According to Hoffman (2003) the relationship between the two is based on the vast development in the field of mass communications and he identifies three events that have contributed to the increasing influence of terrorism. The first major event was the invention of the printing machine in the 19th century, which allowed the printing of a large number of papers. According to Hoffman, this invention was exploited by anarchic groups of the time in order to make their intentions known to the world and that is the starting point of the media- terrorism relationship. The second event that enhanced the relation between the two was the use of the first television satellite by the US. The last event that has shaped the media-terrorism relationship was the “CNN syndrome”, as Hoffman calls it, which refers to the intense and continuous coverage of major incidents. Miller (1982) notes that “terrorism and the media are entwined in an almost inexorable, symbiotic relationship. Terrorism is capable of writing any drama—no matter how horrible—to compel the media’s attention . . . . Terrorism, like an ill- mannered enfant terrible, is the media’s stepchild, a stepchild which the media, unfortunately, can neither completely ignore nor deny” (Miller, 1982, p.1). Lowenthal even states (1989) that terrorism would have been impossible without the contribution

14 of the media. This argument is also supported by Anita Perešin, who claims that “only after the information revolution has spurred the development of society in the direction of openness and new communication possibilities could this form of new or mega terrorism have come into existence” (Perešin, 2007, p.6). Mark Juergensmeyer also supports the idea of a symbiotic relationship between media and terrorism. He argues: “Without being noticed, in fact, terrorism would not exist. The sheer act of killing does not create a terrorist act: murders and willful assaults occur with such frequency in most societies that they are scarcely reported in the news media. What makes an act terrorism is that it terrifies. The acts to which we assign that label are deliberate events, bombings and attacks performed at such places and times that they are calculated to be observed. Terrorism without its horrified witnesses would be as pointless as a play without an audience” (Juergensmeyer, 2000, p.139). Wilkinson (2000) argues that the symbiotic relationship between the two builds upon the fact that terrorism feeds on publicity and that media freedom makes the agencies more prone to manipulation. According to Wilkinson (2000), the core of this relationship is the realization that terrorism is only a communication weapon, whose success depends on it being transmitted to the public. Therefore, the agents of both the media and terrorism are bound to a unique form of cooperation that is beneficial for both sides. The relationship between the media and terrorism is of great importance, because it can have tremendous consequences on both governments and the public, given the power and multiple functions that the media can perform. Since they have the capacity to cover international events and broadcast at the international level, they address a far greater audience than in the past, shaping views, creating perceptions and leading to the success or failure of governmental policies (Rogers, Amlot, Rubin, Wessely & Krieger, 2007). In the case of terrorism, the media can lead to the success or failure of policy measures by working as a mediator for governments, since they inform the public and create perceptions over the threat posed by terrorism. «As “a cornerstone institution in our democracies” (de Vreese, 2005, p.51), the media act as an “agenda setter” (Entman, 2007, p.164), simultaneously defining what problems and events are important and serving as the main source of information for the public» (Patrick, 2014, p.382).

15 For instance, citizens would instantly seek for information in the case of a terrorist attack. The coverage of the incident by the media, especially through visual imagery, can influence opinions and create perceptions much easier (Brader, 2006). The images and videos give rise to feelings of fear and vulnerability, increasing the possibility for persuasion (Marcus, Neuman & MacKuen, 2000). Research has shown that as the reports on terrorism increase, the public’s view of terrorism as a major national issue is also enhanced (Iyengar & Kinder, 1987; Nacos, 1996). That is of importance, because people who are concerned about terrorist attacks are more likely to support foreign policies presented by officials through the media (Bloch-Elkon & Nacos, 2014; Druckman & McDermott, 2008) and people who are upset about the harm that others have suffered, are more likely to support aggressive measures against the perpetrators (Gordijn, Yzerbyt, Wigboldus, & Dumont, 2006). Therefore, it is evident that the media can act as facilitators to governmental efforts to gain the support of their people towards foreign policies. It is not an overstatement to say that the media are the actors that create public perceptions on terrorism (Picard, 1993) and for that reason, governments try to cooperate with them in order to gain the support of the public for new policies. Besides being governments’ big helpers in the selling of foreign policy measures (Bloch-Elkon & Nacos, 2014), the media can also put pressure on governments for action through the so called “CNN effect”. According Neuman (1996), the CNN effect “suggests that when CNN floods the airwaves with news of a foreign crisis, policymakers have no choice but to redirect their attention to the crisis at hand. It also suggests that crisis coverage evokes an emotional outcry from the public to 'do something' about the latest incident, forcing political leaders to change course or risk unpopularity” (Neuman, 1996, pp. 15-16). Thus, the term implies the “elite decision makers' loss of policy control to news media” (Livingston & Eachus, 1995, p.413). It should be noted that the term does not only refer to the influence of the CNN TV network on governmental policies, but also of all real-time media. In the case of terrorism, the publicity that terrorist attacks or other activities gain increases the media and public pressure on governments to take actions against terrorism. Two are the most cited examples of this case in the literature: the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and the hijacking of TWA flight 847 in 1985. Regarding the Iran hostage crisis, former Congressman Tom Lantos stated about the consequences of the media coverage on the unfolding of the crisis: “Focusing on individual

16 tragedies, interviewing the families of people in anguish, completely debilitates national policymakers from making rational decisions in the national interest” (as quoted by Hoffman, 2006, p.176). In fact, both former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and his adviser during the crisis agreed that the media have undermined the strategies of the American government (Hoffman, 2006). The examination of the media coverage of the hijacking of TWA flight 847 led Alex P. Schmid (1989) to state that the media coverage of the incident undermined the American policies and that new journalistic rules and ethics should be introduced. It is evident that the media can challenge and put into risk governmental policies. As Milosevska & Taneski (2014) state: “The structure and competitiveness of the news industry appear to influence media attention to terrorism. As the media environment becomes more decentralized and competitive, news outlets may try to maintain market share by devoting more attention to terrorist attacks that employ novel tactics or that are particularly violent. Such a development could pose new challenges for the media relations of homeland security agencies by giving the public a distorted picture of the threat from terrorism and reducing the ability of the authorities to explain their policies and to put the problem of terrorism in an appropriate context” (Milosevska & Taneski, 2014, p. 58). On the other side, the media also facilitate the ‘work’ of the terrorists. Already in 1969, Carlos Marighella, a Brazilian terrorist, captured the importance of the media for terrorists and discussed the various ways that terrorists can use the media in his book, “Mini-manual of the Urban Guerrilla” (Marighella, 1969). Marighella established five principles to guide future terrorists’ activities: “Terrorist acts should be aimed at the audience, the general public; Victims should be chosen for their symbolic meaning; The media are eager to cover terrorist violence; The media can be activated, directed, and manipulated for propagandistic effect; Governments are at a disadvantage because their only choice is between censorship and letting terrorists make use of their media” (as quoted in Schmid, 2004, p.208). Thus, the importance of the media in the success of the goals of terrorists was acknowledged in an early stage of their relationship. The media also allow terrorists to initiate propaganda war (Perešin, 2007). Propaganda is a great psychological tool for terrorists, because it allows them to make their goals known and attract new supporters to their actions. According to Wilkinson (2002) terrorist propaganda has four objectives: “to convey the propaganda of the

17 deed and to create extreme fear among their target group; to mobilise wider support for their cause among the general population, and international opinion by emphasising such themes as righteousness of their cause and the inevitability of their victory; to frustrate and disrupt the response of the government and security forces; to mobilise, incite and boost their constituency of actual and potential supporters and in so doing to increase recruitment, raise more funds and inspire further attacks” (Wilkinson, 2002, p.192). Tanja Milosevska and Nenad Taneski (2014) have argued that terrorist groups do not even need to set up their own communication channels thanks to the mass media. By repeating propagandistic messages that terrorists post online and by projecting images and videos of their actions, the news agencies contribute to the dissemination of fear and panic, which is the main goal of terrorists. In addition, projecting propaganda videos only helps terrorists to make the public more familiar with their goals, which in turn is vital for the recruitment of new members, as it became evident in the case of ISIS. Thus, the media offer terrorists the kind of publicity they seek and offer them the means to obtain the ‘glorification’ they believe they deserve. It should be noted that by reporting on terrorist attacks, the media may even undermine the government in power by exposing policy failures, which also serves the terrorists’ goals. Nonetheless, what one should bear in mind when studying the media coverage of terrorist incidents is the fact that journalists choose words that offer “a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described” (Entman, 1993, p.52). Media labeling is intentionally chosen so as to create perceptions. The labels produced by the media are based on the national context they operate in (Dimitrova & Strömbäck, 2005), the characteristics of the audience and the society (Katzenstein, 2003) that they intend to communicate with. For example, the distinction between a freedom fighter and a terrorist is difficult across different countries and societies (Cohen-Almagor, 2005; Jackson, 1990). The means used by specific groups, as well as their goals, may seem barbaric to some countries, but holy to others. The main reason for that difference is that public perceptions for almost every issue, including terrorism, are based mainly on rhetorical biases employed by the media (Picard, 1993). Thus, the labels used by the press related to those methods may lead to either the demonization or the glorification of the perpetrators.

18 Table 2 – The terrorists’ use of the media (Paletz & Schmid, 1992, p.33; Schmid, 2004, p.209)

2.3. Media, geographic proximity and terrorist attacks Over the past decades, the diffusion process of international news has drawn the attention of international scholars, who have examined factors that may influence the media coverage of events. Academics have created and tested variables that may affect media coverage and may determine the newsworthiness of events (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987; Dupree, 1971; Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Hart, 1966; Hicks & Gordon, 1974; Semmel, 1977; Zipf, 1946). Their main assumption has been that there must be some factors that influence the diffusion of information. In other words, they assume that there are factors that dictate which events are newsworthy. Those factors are called determinants (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987; Dupree, 1971; Zipf, 1946) of the news flow. Even though many factors have been identified as influencing the flow of information in the media, the list is not exhaustive (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987). Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger (1987) created a categorization of those determinants that are mostly external to the journalistic process (He, 2003). They divided them into context-oriented and event-oriented factors. On the one hand, “the context-oriented perspective looks at the origin of foreign news and its relationship

19 with some contextual factors, such as economic relations, cultural similarity, political affiliation, social distance, and geographic proximity” (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987, p.400). On the other hand, “the event-oriented approach suggests that irrespective of the external factors, some characteristics inherent in foreign events, such as the degree of deviance and the negative nature of the events, tend to determine whether a foreign news event will be covered in the mass media” (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987, p.400). According to Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger (1987) and Shoemaker, Chang & Brendlinger (1987), influential determinants are “timeliness; proximity; importance, impact or consequence; interest, conflict or controversy; sensationalism; prominence; and novelty, oddity or the unusual” (p.398). Rosengren (1970, 1974) identified the factors influencing the diffusion of news between nations to be the “degree of the importance of the events, physical or cultural distance of the events, and degree of the predictability of the events” (as quoted by Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987, p.399). Östgaard (1965) argued that those determinants are embedded in the political and economic system of a country, and also derive from the news process. They can be simplification, identification (proximity in a geographic and cultural sense), sensationalism (how interesting an event is), and the news barrier (proximity in time) (Östgaard, 1965, pp.45-51). It is evident that among the various determinants, such as drama, negativity and pain (Nossek, 1994; Weimann and Brosius, 1991) academic scholarship on media coverage has recognized proximity as an important news value that influences newsworthiness (Burns, 2002; Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987; DeLung, Magee, DeLauder & Maiorescu, 2012; Dupree, 1971; MacLean and Pinna, 1958; Neveu, 2002; Östgaard, 1965; Wolpert, 1966; Zipf, 1946). Proximity is an influential factor of the way news agencies cover major events (DeLung, Magee, DeLauder & Maiorescu, 2012). Research has shown that proximity is of importance, because of its likelihood to trigger the audience’s emotions over an issue. Events that take place to a close distance are more likely to mobilize the public, provoke reactions and make them seek for information (Gantz, Krendl, & Robertson, 1986). For that reason, the media tend to focus on events with cultural or geographic proximity (Schaefer, 2003; Sparkes, 1978; Sreberny and Stevenson, 1999; Wu, 2000). Geographic proximity is a determinant that influences not only the nature, but also the volume of news coverage (Pande, 2010). “Findings in general suggest that

20 geographic distance correlates negatively with the amount of coverage one country receives in another country’s press. In other words, the more distant a country is, the less it will be covered” (Wu, 1998, p.253). Rosengren (1970) has defined geographic proximity as the distance “between the place of the event (or the capital of the country of the event) and the place of publication of the report of the event” (p.103). For instance, Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger (1987) have argued that the Western media tend to ignore incidents that have occurred to distanced countries. Thus, the media are more likely to focus on an event that takes place close to their country of operation. George Zipf (1946) constructed a formula in order to determine the diffusion of news on a dyadic basis, after “using population and distance statistics, correlated with 푃1푃2 inter-city passenger statistics” (Dupree, 1971, p.225). The formula is , where P1 푑 and P2 represent the two populations equivalently. According to the formula, the flow of information between two populations is the product of the populations divided by the distance between them. Thus, as the distance between the two examined populations increases, the volume of information decreases. In a similar study, MacLean and Pinna (1958) examined the interest of people in news about far places and found a link between distance from a place and interest in information from that place (Dupree, 1971). They found that there is a negative correlation between geographic distance and interest in news from other places. The actual correlation between distance and interest in foreign news was established at 0.88. Dupree (1971) explored the correlation between the number of news items registered in Atlas and factors that are believed to influence the flow of information. Concerning geographic proximity, the results from Dupree’s study suggested that “Zipf’s formula, if tempered with international factors affecting communication may in fact be valid” (Dupree, 1971, p.234). Sparkes (1978) examined the work of Hart (1963) who analyzed the media flow between Canada and the US. Sparkes raised concerns about some of the findings of Hart’s work. Among other issues, he argued that, despite the findings of Hart that geographic distance does not affect news coverage, “the distance hypothesis is applicable where psychological or functional distance factors have been neutralized” (Sparkes, 1978, pp.267-268). Wu (1998) examined the influence of geographic distance on the American media coverage of Canada and Mexico so as to determine whether geographic proximity is a

21 determinant of information diffusion. In order to do so, he examined the coverage of the two countries by various US newspapers from the West Coast, the Midwest, the East Coast and the South. He concluded that the closer the newspaper to the Canadian or Mexican border, the more intense the coverage of Canada and Mexico equivalently. In a different study, Wu (2000) examined the influence of nine determinants on the news coverage in 38 different countries. Specifically, he investigated the influence of “the guest country’s population, territorial size, level of economic development, language, degree of press freedom, presence of international news agency, geographic distance, trade volume and colonial ties with the country whose media” were analyzed (Wu, 2000, p.111). Among the nine hypotheses he set, the fourth assumed that “the closer a guest country and its host country are physically, the more media news coverage the guest country will receive in the host country” (Wu, 2000, p.117). However, this hypothesis was only partially supported. Wilke, Heimprecht & Cohen (2012) investigated the geography of news in 17 different countries. The geography of news, also known as map or mapping (Atwood & Buillon, 1982), describes “which countries or regions of the world are represented in the news” (Wilke, Heimprecht & Cohen, 2012, p.305). The researchers employed that concept in order to analyze the content of TV news in the 17 countries under examination, examine the audience’s perceptions about foreign news and explore the criteria that influence the flow of information among countries. Based on their findings, they concluded that countries tend to report more about nations within their geographic region and they asserted that “the coverage of foreign countries by the news is primarily determined by geographical proximity and the status of the covered country” (Wilke, Heimprecht & Cohen, 2012, p.306). Ruigrok & Van Atteveldt (2007) created a link between geographic proximity and the media coverage of terrorist attacks when they examined the framing of local and international terrorist attacks by American, British and Dutch newspapers. Their findings showed that geographic proximity is of importance. As an example, they presented “the murder of van Gogh, which was widely covered in the Dutch newspapers while relatively neglected on a global level” (p.85). However, they assert that 9/11 influenced the coverage of similar attacks (e.g. the Madrid attacks and the London bombings) more than geographic proximity itself. Jetter (2014) also examined the link between the media, geographic proximity and terrorist attacks. Specifically, he examined the attention that terrorist attacks receive

22 in the US and the factors that influence the coverage of such events. He examined whether the form of the attack (e.g. suicide attack), the political (e.g. regime form of the attacked nation), economic (e.g. trade relations between the attacked country and the US), and societal characteristics (e.g. religious composition of the attacked country), timeliness and geographic proximity (e.g. distance between the attacked country and the US) can be reported as the factors that influence the American media coverage of terrorist attacks (pp.9-11). He argued that maybe “we simply care more about events that happen closer to us” (Jetter, 2014, p.10). After conducting logit regression, he concluded that geographic distance to the US plays an important role to the coverage of attacks by the American media.

Counter views

Despite the academic works that show a connection between geographical distance and media coverage of events, there are also studies that support the idea that geographic proximity is not a determinant of international news flow (Hart, 1963; Hicks & Gordon, 1974; Johnson, 1997; Luttbeg, 1983; Vilanilam, 1983; Wu, 1997). For instance, Kariel & Rosenvall (1995) state that “when relatively short distances are involved, there is some relation to distance, in that news from that nearby sources could be considered local. When longer distances are involved, as in much international news flow, then distance is not an important variable” (p.136). In their work, “Foreign News Content in Israeli and U.S. Newspapers”, Hicks & Gordon (1974) examined American and Israeli newspapers and found no link between physical distance and international news flow. Similarly, Luttbeg (1983) investigated the assumption of previous studies that geographic proximity influences news flow. He examined and coded 17 news stories from 100 American newspapers and he found that “no bias for stories closer to home is evident” and that “actual distances to each day's events play little role in their rapidly reached judgment as to which stories to include in their paper” (Luttbeg, 1983, p. 732). Johnson (1997) investigated the influence that geographic and cultural proximity, and organizational norms have on the quantity of the American coverage of Mexico. She tried to identify whether those three factors have an impact on the length and the source of the articles about Mexico. The Pearson correlation showed that even though geographic and cultural proximity, and organizational norms were of importance,

23 there was no connection between geographic proximity and media coverage. Wu (1997) also found no link between the two, when he examined the media coverage of four industrialized nations in his study “Systemic Determinants of International News Coverage in Four Developed Nations: Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and the US”. Overall, this chapter thoroughly explained the elements of the concepts that are of value for the completion of the thesis. Specifically, the emergence of ISIS, its relationship with the media and its activities during the study’s timeframe were described in details, so that the reader can understand the nature of this new threat. The relationship between the media and terrorism was also analyzed so that its importance can be appreciated by the reader. Then, the concept of information flow and its determinants were explained by presenting examples of previous studies on that subject. The last section helped in creating a link between past research on geographic proximity and the current thesis and thus, contributes to the better apprehension of the research question and the formulation of the hypothesis of the thesis. The next chapter of this study focuses on the research design and moves into the technical characteristics of this paper.

24 3. Research Design 3.1. Operationalization This thesis examines whether geographic proximity influences the media coverage of ISIS in four different countries. For that reason, it identifies the topics regarding ISIS that have been mostly reported by four different news agencies. Thus, the concepts of the diffusion of information and media coverage as discussed in the previous chapter are of importance for purposes of the thesis. Based on the literature, the news flow among countries and the media coverage of events depends on the newsworthiness of the event itself (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987; Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Hester, 1973; Östgaard, 1965). The latter depends on a variety of factors that have been characterized as determinants of the news flow. Geographic proximity has been acknowledged as one of those factors (Burns, 2002; Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987; DeLung, Magee, DeLauder & Maiorescu, 2012; Dupree, 1971; MacLean and Pinna, 1958; Neveu, 2002; Östgaard, 1965; Wolpert, 1966; Zipf, 1946). For the purposes of this study, geographic proximity is operationalized into the distance between the city that the event has taken place and the city within which the news agency operates. This form of operationalization of geographic proximity was inspired by the work of Kwak & An (2014), who argue that studies on global news flow are mostly conducted based on a dyadic relationship between a guest and a host country. The former is the place where the event takes place, and the latter is where the media operate. Other studies on the diffusion of information and on news determinants have chosen to operationalize geographic proximity into the distance between the capitals of two countries (Gupta, 2012; Wu, 2000). However, this traditional way of estimating distance was not selected, because it does not provide accurate results. Even though in three of the cases examined for the thesis the news agencies are based on the capitals of those countries, this is not the case for the American news agency. For that reason, and in order to be as precise and as accurate as possible, the distance between the city that the event has taken place and the city within which the news agency operates was chosen as the best option for the operationalization of geographic proximity. Specifically, the thesis focuses on the distance between Paris (where the ISIS attacks took place) and London (where the headquarters of the Independent are located), Brussels (where La Libre is based), and Paris and Atlanta, Georgia (where

25 the headquarters of CNN are based). The distance between two cities was calculated automatically through the use of the website http://www.indo.com/distance, following the example of Wu’s (2000) study. The distance between Paris and London is 343 km, between Paris and Brussels is 266 km, and between Paris and Atlanta is 7054 km. Since the attacks took place in Paris and Le Monde is also based in Paris, it is assumed that this agency will focus more than the others on the aspects of ISIS. The same is assumed for Belgium, due to its proximity to Paris. Regarding the media coverage of ISIS, which is the second concept of interest for the study, it is operationalized into 17 variables that help in answering to the research question and examining the hypothesis. In general, 21 variables were constructed for the completion of the thesis. All variables were constructed prior to the content analysis, and after following the news about ISIS for a long time. However, only 17 of those variables help in operationalizing the coverage of ISIS. To be more precise, those variables are: 1. Length, 2. Main actor, 3. Immediate threat to security, 4. Fear for attacks, 5. Foreign fighters, 6. Radicalization, 7. Threat to democratic beliefs and values, 8. Refugee crisis, 9. Humanitarian crisis, 10. Attacks, war crimes and genocide, 11. CT policies, changes, and extra measures, 12. Anti-radicalization measures, 13. Military action/measures, 14. Change migration policy, 15. Humanitarian action, 16.War on terror and 17. Economic costs.

3.2. Research type, methods & variables For the purposes of the research, quantitative research is conducted, based on a holistic multiple case study design (Baxter & Jack, 2008; Bengtsson, 1999). To be more precise, quantitative content analysis of the reporting of ISIS is conducted in order to establish the main issues addressed by the news agencies of four different countries and examine whether geographic proximity has influenced the coverage of ISIS. The four different countries under examination serve as the four case studies of the thesis. The choice of the specific countries is explained in details on page 28. Even though case studies have received a lot of criticism (King, Keohane & Verba, 1994; Lieberson, 1992), the case study design has become the norm in the world of social sciences, because it offers researchers the opportunity of in-depth knowledge through comparative studying and contribute to explaining results and supporting theories. In this case, the comparative case study was chosen because it enhances the robustness of the conclusions deriving from the study (Robson, 1993; Yin, 1994).

26 Concerning the method, quantitative research through content analysis on the reporting of ISIS is conducted in order to establish whether the media coverage of ISIS is more intense in countries with greater proximity to France. This method is ideal for this research, because it is “a systematic, replicable and statistical method in which to describe the communication, draw references about its meaning or infer from the communication to its context, both production and consumption” (Riffle, Lacy & Fico, 2014, p. 19). As stated above, the thesis examines which aspects of the ISIS threat are more salient in in the UK, Belgium, France and the US, and tries to establish whether geographic proximity has influenced the coverage of ISIS. The phenomenon of ISIS was selected because of the focus of the media on this new threat and the specific countries were chosen because of their salience in terrorism related topics on the media. The input of this research is qualitative data, i.e., articles, whereas the output is statistical results that show frequencies. More specifically, 596 articles from the news agencies of The Independent, La Libre, Le Monde and CNN are examined and used as input. These news agencies were chosen because they are of the most influential in their countries and they had a large number of articles available online concerning ISIS. The choice of quantitative research is well-suited for the purposes of the research. The statistical results obtained from the quantitative media content analysis of the four case studies are used in order to examine the validity of the hypothesis that countries with geographic proximity to the country target of the recent ISIS attacks are more likely to be interested in the threat posed by the group and therefore, the influence of geographic proximity on the media coverage of terrorist threats. Thus, geographic proximity serves as the independent variable of this study and the media coverage of ISIS as the dependent variable. The choice of the quantitative research method is justified, since it provides the thesis with high external validity, which the qualitative approach lacks (Bryman, 2012), and its combination with the multiple case study design allows for the in-depth research of the subject and serve the objective for well-established insights on the topic. Moreover, the use of a triangulation of methods, contributes to countering deficiencies, such as reliability issues.

27 3.3. Case selection This thesis examines the media coverage of ISIS in four different case studies. The multiple case study design not only enables the in-depth examination of the cases, but also facilitates their comparison to each other. Comparative case studies are a great tool for analysis because they “involve the analysis and synthesis of the similarities, differences and patterns across two or more cases that share a common focus or goal” (Goodrick, 2014). It should be noted that the selection of the cases, i.e. the UK, Belgium, France, and the US is not random. Instead, each country is chosen for specific reasons related to terrorism experiences and geographic proximity to France, so as to help examine the hypothesis of the research. First of all, the US and the UK have both suffered from terrorist attacks in the past and have led the ‘War on terror’, which make the countries more likely to take measures against the ISIS threat and change their policies based on this new threat. However, given their great geographic distance from France, which has been the target of the November 2015 ISIS attacks, they are expected to experience the threat posed by ISIS in a different way than Belgium or France itself and their media coverage of the threat is expected to be lower than in the case of Belgium. Belgium was chosen, because of its geographic proximity to France and after taking into account the fact that it has become a country of great interest after the Paris attacks, since it has been accused of breeding terrorists and of inaction against the threat posed by radicalization and foreign fighters. In addition, the examination of a Belgian news agency was decided after taking into consideration the fact that Belgium has the highest number of foreign fighters per capita (Van Ostayen, 2015; Van Vlierden, 2015), which makes it of great importance. Finally, France is of great value for the thesis, because the country recently suffered from terrorist attacks organized by ISIS and its President, Francois Hollande, declared the war against ISIS soon after the attacks took place (FT Reporters, 2016). Moreover, the selection of specific news outlets for those countries was based on the fact that these news organizations have a high level of influential ability in their country of origin and are some of the most well-known agencies worldwide (Van Besien, 2013; Open Source Center (OSC), 2008; Silver, 2011). More precisely, according to a survey on English-language reporting of the news conducted by Nate Silver, CNN and the Independent are among the most frequently cited news agencies

28 for original reporting. In Google News and Google Blog search, CNN has been cited 1.950 times and the Independent has been cited 394 times, ranking 8th and 30th equivalently, among the 260 organizations (Silver, 2011). Concerning the French language news agencies, La Libre was selected because its printed version is considered as one of the two ‘quality’ news agencies in the French language, the other being Le Soir (Van Besien, 2013). Even though the most popular news agency in Belgium is De Standaard, it was not selected because the news are produced in Dutch and I have no qualifications to conduct research in the Dutch language. In addition, Le Monde was chosen because of its place in French history, given the fact that it was founded after World War II and is still one of the most influential news agencies in France (Open Source Center (OSC), 2008).

3.4. Unit of analysis & Unit of observation In this thesis, each news article about ISIS serves as the unit of analysis. Thus, the number (N) of articles that have been collected from the four different news sources represent the units of analysis. For the purposes of the study, a news item is a written piece of work about ISIS published by the news agencies under examination. Nonetheless, news items including video materials were excluded. The unit of observation shall be the period under examination, i.e. November 2015 to December 2015. The selection of the specific timeframe is explained on page 33.

3.5. Data collection methods For the completion of the thesis a triangulation of methods is used, following the words of Rothbauer who states “that the phenomena under study can be understood best when approached with a variety or a combination of research methods” (Rothbauer, 2008, p. 893). Thus, this approach allows for the analysis of different data sources, which, in turn, enhances the validity of the research. Firstly, desk top research was conducted and online scientific journals were studied for the gathering of information about the subject of analysis and the issues that needed to be elaborated. Academic articles were consulted, so as to become more familiar with the formation and activities of ISIS, and the relation between the media and terrorism. Secondly, online news agencies’ websites from the UK (The Independent), Belgium (La Libre), France (Le Monde) and the US (CNN) were visited in order to collect the online articles used for the media content analysis. In total, 596 articles were collected

29 and analyzed, 210 from The Independent, 122 from La Libre, 143 from Le Monde and 121 from CNN. It should be noted that only online articles were selected and the printed versions of those news agencies were not examined, as explained on page 34. Finally, primary and secondary sources, including speeches, reports, academic journals and previous similar studies, have been examined in order to guide the thesis and help with analyzing the data.

30 4. Research Methodology 4.1. Quantitative media content analysis This study employs quantitative media content analysis as a primary research method in order to answer to the main research question -‘To what extent has geographic proximity influenced the media coverage of ISIS in the UK, Belgium, France, and the US?’. Media content analysis is a method of increasing popularity (Neuendorf, 2002; Riffe & Freitag, 1997; Yale & Gilly, 1988). The method was introduced for the first time by Harold Lasswell (1927), who examined the media in order to find traits of propaganda. Content analysis can be conducted with interviews, speeches, media articles, TV programs and magazines. Berger (1991) defined content analysis as “a research technique that is based on measuring the amount of something (violence, negative portrayals of women, or whatever) in a representative sampling of some mass- mediated popular form of art” (Berger, 1991. p.25). Neuman (1997) defined it as “a technique for gathering and analysing the content of text. The ‘content’ refers to words, meanings, pictures, symbols, ideas, themes, or any message that can be communicated. The ‘text’ is anything written, visual, or spoken that serves as a medium for communication” (Neuman, 1997, pp. 272–273). Content analysis can be either quantitative or qualitative. Whether content analysis should be quantitative or qualitative is a current academic debate among media scholars. The quantitative method is guided by a scientific method and produces reliable results, whereas the qualitative method can better capture the effects of the media text on the audience (Macnamara, 2005). However, Kimberley Neuendorf (2002) argues that it can only be quantitative. She states: “Content analysis is a summarizing, quantitative analysis of messages that relies on the scientific method (including attention to objectivity-intersubjectivity, a priori design, reliability, validity, generalizability, replicability, and hypothesis testing) and is not limited as to the types of variables that may be measured or the context in which the messages are created or presented” (Neuendorf, 2002, p.10). Since this study does not look for media effects on the audience, quantitative media content analysis was chosen as being more appropriate for the purposes of the thesis. Quantitative content analysis refers to “the systematic assignment of communication content to categories according to rules, and the analysis of relationships involving those categories using statistical methods” (Riffle, Lacy &

31 Fico, 1998, p.3). According to Emmer & Barker (1989) “it involves a process of hypothesis formulation, sample selection, definition of categories, design and implementation of coding process, assessment of reliability and validity, and analyzing the output of the coding process” (as quoted by He, 2003, p.38). Specifically, a hypothesis should be formulated at first, which is used as the basis for the content analysis. “A hypothesis is an explicit statement predicting that a state or level of one variable is associated with a state in another variable” (Riffe, Lacy & Fico, 2014, p.44). For quantitative content analysis, it is advisable that the hypothesis or research questions are more explicit so as to better guide the researcher (Riffe, Lacy & Fico, 2014). Then, the researcher must choose a sample from the whole population to be studied for the purposes of the research, and define the time span and the census of the research (Riffe, Lacy & Fico, 2014). In a next step, and before the content analysis starts, the researcher should establish the list of messages or topics to be examined and construct a codification sheet. This can be realized based on either the inductive or the deductive approach to quantitative research. At the inductive approach, the variables are constructed during the content analysis, whereas the deductive approach is based on pre-determined variables (Macnamara, 2005). After the construction of the variables the researcher is able to create a coding scheme that will guide the codification process and help him collect the overall results. For the codification process the researcher has two options: machine coding and human coding. One who chooses machine coding should create a large set of key words that prove the presence of a specific variable in the text. This method is ‘easier’, but it “makes mostly arbitrary associations between words and phrases” (Macnamara, 2005, p.7). On the other side, human or manual coding is guided by schemata created by the researcher, which allow him to be more flexible and add new variables or remove others based on the findings. This flexibility however, undermines the validity of the research and makes checks for intercoder reliability necessary (Chong & Druckman, 2007; Neuendorf, 2002). After the completion of the content analysis, a reliability test is deemed necessary in order to secure the reliability of the results. As Neuendorf (2002) states: “There is growing acknowledgement in the research literature that the establishment of intercoder reliability is essential, a necessary criterion for valid and useful research when human coding is employed” (Neuendorf, 2002, p.142). If the results produced

32 by the inter-rater reliability test show that the results of the content analysis are reliable, then the findings of the content analysis can be reported and analyzed. This study tries to examine whether geographic proximity, as one of the determinants of news flow, influences the media coverage of ISIS. The main hypothesis is that the countries closer to France, which has been the victim of ISIS attacks, will report about ISIS more intensively compared to the others examined in this thesis. Thus, content analysis is employed here in order to identify the most salient topics about the ISIS threat reported by four different news agencies and examine the validity of the hypothesis of the thesis. The time span of the thesis is set to November 2015-December 2015 and the sample of analysis consists of articles retrieved form the Independent, La Libre, Le Monde and CNN. The analysis is based on variables that have been constructed prior to the research following the deductive approach to quantitative research. The deductive approach was chosen so as to avoid the pitfalls of the inductive method. Specifically, the inductive approach has been criticized as relying on too small samples and therefore giving results that cannot be generalized (Hertog & McLeod, 2001) and for having low levels of objectivity (Macnamara, 2005). For those reasons most researchers use the deductive approach (de Vreese, 2005). The content analysis has been conducted manually through a coding scheme for all 596 articles examined for the thesis. Manual coding was chosen, because computer coding cannot grasp “the context of the content” (Macnamara, 2005, p.8). Manual coding allows for changes to be made during the content analysis, if necessary, and offers a higher level of flexibility to the researcher. However, a check for intercoder reliability is necessary in order to avoid reliability and bias issues. All the aforementioned steps are explained thoroughly in the next sections of this chapter.

4.2. Time Span & Data collection The research is limited to the examination of articles about ISIS over a two months period, from November 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015. The selection of the specific timeframe was based on two reasons. Specifically, this period of examination was selected because the deadliest ISIS attacks on western soil took place in France in November 2015, which acted like a triggering event for the West’s response against the ISIS threat. The time span ends in December 2015 due to time constraints, because the articles collected for those two months under examination were already

33 much to codify, given the time available for research and the writing of this thesis. However, taking into account the time constraints, it was expected that the large number of the news items collected would serve the purposes of the research. With regards to the collection of the news articles, the process followed was the same for all news organizations. The word “ISIS” was typed in the search engines of both CNN and the Independent, whereas the words “Daech” and “Etat Islamique” (EI) were used as the key words for the two websites that are in the French language, i.e. La Libre and Le Monde. Also, the time period under examination was selected at the search engines of all four news agencies’ websites. All the articles were transferred to Word files, which facilitated the codification process, since the articles could be retrieved easily. By using this system, 210 articles were gathered from the Independent, 122 from La Libre, 143 from Le Monde, and 121 from CNN. In total, 596 articles were gathered and codified in their original language for the completion of the thesis. It should be noted though that articles that were not relevant to the topic of the thesis were not collected and therefore, they are not part of the final results. Also, the use of the aforementioned key-words could have led to the omission of some articles that may focus partly on ISIS or use other names to refer to the terrorist group, such as IS or Islamic terrorism. Nonetheless, the overall N of the thesis is that large (N=596) that even the omission of some articles could not have affected the validity of the results or the research. In addition, one could claim that there would be variations in the results if printed versions of the news agencies were selected. However, that would not be possible because Le Monde states that its online version reproduces the articles of the printed version, CNN is digital and the only variations to be expected could have come from La Libre and the Independent.

4.3. Variables of media content analysis Twenty one variables are used for the content analysis and the codification process that provide information about each article. All variables were established prior to the analysis, following the deductive approach to quantitative content analysis. Neuendorf argues that a researcher can “immerse himself or herself in the world of the message pool” by realizing “a qualitative scrutiny of a representative subset of the content to be examined” (Neuendorf, 2002, pp. 102-103).

34 Following this paradigm, the variables for this study were created after following the news about ISIS for a long time, prior to the writing of the thesis. The deductive approach was chosen because the variables are not influenced from the data, and therefore it has higher levels of objectivity than the inductive approach. As Macnamara says: “An inductive approach which measures variables after they have been observed leads to major biases and invalidity in a study. In effect, it allows issues, topics and messages to be added to the list of those tracked at the whim of the researcher, and those added during a study may have been present from the outset but not observed, leading to inaccuracies in data” (Macnamara, 2005, p.9). Here, twenty one different variables have been constructed prior to the content analysis and implemented for the examination of 596 articles. Those variables can be divided into article-specific variables and content-specific variables. The former refer to those variables that provide information about the article analyzed each time. The article-specific variables of this study are variables 1-5 (as shown in Table 3): 1. News agency, 2. Date, 3. Code, 4. Type and 5. Length. The content-specific variables are those that provide information about aspects of the ISIS threat addressed in each article. To be more precise, variables 6-21 of Table 3 fall into this category and they are: 6. Main actor, 7. Immediate threat to security, 8. Fear for attacks, 9. Foreign fighters, 10. Radicalization, 11. Threat to democratic beliefs and values, 12. Refugee crisis, 13. Humanitarian crisis, 14. Attacks, war crimes and genocide, 15. CT policies, changes, and extra measures, 16. Anti-radicalization measures, 17. Military action/measures, 18. Change migration policy, 19. Humanitarian action, 20.War on terror and 21. Economic costs.

4.4. Coding scheme explanation The codification sheet created for the thesis was used in a similar version in a previous research I have conducted with Professor Samaras A. at the University of Piraeus in Greece. Thus, the form of the sheet, as well as the construction of variables 1-6 (as presented in Table 3), and the codification process are based on the protocol of codification that he has created, entitled “Codification Protocol: State Mapping in the Press” (Samaras, 2012).

35 Table 3 - The codification sheet TEXT INFO Article Article Article Article Article 1. News agency 2. Date 3. Code 4. Type 5. Length ISIS TOPICS

6. Main actor 7. Immediate threat to security 8. Fear for attacks 9. Foreign fighters

10. Radicalization 11. Threat to democratic beliefs and values 12. Refugee crisis 13. Humanitarian crisis 14. Attacks, war crimes and genocide 15. CT policies, changes, and extra measures 16. Anti- radicalization measures 17. Military action/measures 18. Change migration policy 19. Humanitarian action 20.War on terror 21. Economic costs

For the purposes of the research, a codification sheet was created that includes all the variables constructed for the purposes of the thesis. Each column of the sheet covers the examination and codification of one news item. All variables presented in Table 3 were coded for each news item examined for the thesis, but only variables 5-

36 21 help with answering to the research question and with examining the hypothesis of the study. The rest provide information about the articles. The first variable, “news agency”, was created to identify the news outlet that each article was retrieved from. Numbers 1 to 4 were assigned as values in order to indicate the news agency’s name. Therefore, number 1 was assigned to CNN, number 2 to the Independent, number 3 to La Libre and number 4 to Le Monde accordingly. The second variable, “date”, was designed to register the publication date of each article. The “date” variable consists of 8 digits in the form of DD.MM.YYYY. The next variable, “code”, was designed in order to facilitate the identification of each news item under examination. The variable consists of 7 digits that represent different elements of the article. To be more precise, the first digit shows the number of the news agency (N) that the article has been retrieved from and therefore, it can take values from 1 to 4, depending on the news agency. The second and the third digits represent the month of publication (MM) and the fourth and fifth digits show the day of the publication (DD). Lastly, the sixth and seventh digits show the row by which an article was published on the same date (RD). For instance, for the fourth article published from La Libre on December 4, 2015 the code is “3120404”. The “type” variable was employed in order to indicate the type of each article. For that reason, three categories were created, i.e. correspondence/reportage, interview and analysis/opinion, which correspond to the values 1, 2 and 3 accordingly. The “length” variable provides information about the size of the article that refers to ISIS. This variable can take three values. Specifically, value 1 is assigned for articles from 0-400 words, value 2 is used for articles from 401-950 words and value 3 is codified for articles whose length exceeds 951 words. The title is not taken into account for the size of the article to be determined. Apart from those variables that provide information about the texts, 16 more categorical variables were designed that provide information about issues related to ISIS addressed by the Independent, La Libre, Le Monde, and CNN in their coverage regarding the ISIS threat. Those content-specific variables are variables 6-21, as presented in Table 3: 1. Main actor, 2. Immediate threat to security, 3. Fear for attacks, 4. Foreign fighters, 5. Radicalization, 6. Threat to democratic beliefs and values, 7. Refugee crisis, 8. Humanitarian crisis, 9. Attacks, war crimes, and genocide, 10. CT policies, changes, and extra measures, 11. Anti-radicalization

37 measures, 12. Military action/measures, 13. Change migration policy, 14. Humanitarian action, 15. War on terror and 16. Economic costs. As mentioned at an earlier stage, those variable were constructed prior to the analysis and were based on links stored in memory as a result of following ISIS related news for some time. Those content-specific variables were chosen and constructed, because they create links to a variety of aspects related to the ISIS threat, such as issues of security, migration, radicalization, terrorism, human rights, and measures taken as a response to those dimensions of the problem. They manage to capture the complex nature of ISIS and the consequences of its actions, given the fact that the latter have triggered a refugee and a humanitarian crisis with alarming dimensions (Coleman, 2014). The “main actor” variable was designed in order to indicate the main actor of the article. If the article refers to actions committed by ISIS or its plans, then ISIS is the main actor and the value 1 is used. However, if an official, a specialist or academic is providing information about the ISIS threat or, if the article focuses on actions taken by different countries in the fight against this threat, then the value 2 is used. The “immediate threat to security” variable is reported as existent when the threat posed by ISIS is presented as imminent or as existential within the article. This topic can be identified if the author reports on phrases used by specialists or officials that present the threat as such, if the author expresses his opinion about what makes ISIS an imminent threat or, for example, by portraying the ISIS expansion during the past few years and its territorial expansion in the Middle East. The variable was also used in cases where articles reported about other terrorist organizations that affiliated with ISIS. An example of this case is a CNN article where Frida Ghitis analyzes the reasons why, according to her opinion, ISIS poses a major threat and why the current situation should be perceived as a new World War (Ghitis, 2015). The “fear for attacks” variable can be identified when the article focuses on statements made by officials claiming that there is risk for new terrorist attacks planned by ISIS based on intelligence and other evidence. It is also identified in the case that an analyst gives reasons why the states should expect more attacks in their soil. For example, the Independent reported that Michael Fallon claimed that attacks, like those that took place in Paris, could easily happen in London as well (Henderson, 2015).

38 The “foreign fighters” variable is coded as existent, when the article focuses on this issue. The article could be emphasizing on the numbers of people leaving for Syria, on the lives of foreign fighters or on examples of foreign fighters. To give an example of this variable, an article from Le Monde focused on the life of Salah Abdeslam (“Ce que l’on sait de Salah Abdeslam”, 2015). The “radicalization” variable can be identified in articles writing about the issue of radicalization and its alarming dimensions. Interviews with officials or scholars about the development of radicalization and its root causes fall into this category. In addition, articles associating Molenbeek with the problem of radicalization are codified in this category, as well as articles reporting about radicalized persons. Thus, the identification of this variable should not be associated with the process of radicalization itself. An example of this category can be traced in an article of the Independent that focuses on the efforts made by a mother in Russia to prevent her daughter from joining ISIS after she became radicalized (Matharu, 2015). The “threat to democratic beliefs and values” variable refers to news items that present ISIS not only as a security threat, but also as a threat to some of the most core values of the West, such as its democracy, the values of freedom of expression, and freedom of speech. The threat can be presented as such either by officials or by the author himself in an opinion article. For example, Salma Abdelaziz claims in a CNN article that “the Western world's own values are at risk in this war”, meaning the war against ISIS (Abdelaziz, 2015). The “refugee crisis” variable corresponds to situations where the article links the refugee crisis and the refugees/migrants to the threat of ISIS. This variable is identified in the case where reports mention foreign fighters and terrorists entering Europe through the influxes of refugees and asylum seekers or by pointing out that the crimes committed by ISIS and the group’s expansion in Middle East have led many people to leave their homes and travel to Europe. Articles focusing on the acceptance of refugees by European countries also fall into this category. For example, an article from the Independent reports about the rise of far-right parties because of anti- immigration movements that have been created after the Paris attacks (Dearden, 2015a). The “humanitarian crisis” variable can be traced in articles that report about the conditions under which Syrians live and have been the result of the civil war ranging in Syria and the expansion of ISIS. It also applies to articles that refer to the

39 evacuation of camps or villages due to the ISIS threat. For example, Rose Troup Buchanan describes the difficulties that people living in the Yarmouk camp are faced with on a daily basis and she highlights the fact that they do not even have access to medicines (Troup Buchanan, 2015). The “attacks, war crimes and genocide” variable is suited for articles that report about terrorists attacks claimed by ISIS, but also about (mass) executions, torture, rape and other sorts of crimes that can be classified as ‘war crimes’. The variable is also used to identify articles that refer to the effort of the United Nations and leaders of different countries to classify crimes committed by ISIS as genocide. For instance, Eleanor Ross, a journalist from the Independent wrote on the pressure put on the UN to label the crimes committed by ISIS against the Yazidi community as “genocide” (Ross, 2015). The “CT policies, changes, and extra measures” variable refers to counter- terrorism (CT) measures taken by various states before and after the November Paris attacks. The variable includes actions such as raids, arrests, investigations, stricter border controls, intelligence gathering, and sharing that have been come across during the research process. A characteristic example is the implementation of supplementary counter-terrorism measures and the hiring of security staff by many governments in the wake of the Paris attacks (Kottasova, 2015; Wright, 2015). The “anti-radicalization measures” variable is designed to identify articles that focus on measures implemented to counter radicalization and extremism, such as the initiative to be taken by schools in the UK to surveil the school children’s use of the web (Cowburn, 2015). Next, the “military action/measures” variable is used to describe articles that emphasize on military measures, such as airstrikes against ISIS targets (Dearden, 2015b; Withnall, 2015a). It is also employed for articles that examine the long-term effectiveness of the military actions taken by the anti-ISIS coalition (Rescan & Ollivier, 2015) and also for those that refer to the plans and discussion to send ground troops against ISIS (Agiesta, 2015; Dearden, 2015c; Osborne, 2015). The “change migration policy” variable corresponds to the changes that have been introduced to national and European migration policies and practices, because of the fear that terrorists travel among refugees to Europe. In contrast to the refugee crisis topic-variable, which focuses on the flows of refugees as a result of the activities of ISIS in the Middle East, on the infiltration of ISIS members among the refugee

40 influxes in Europe or on the acceptance of refugees, this variable is identified in the case of reports about changes made in migration policies. For example, the most debated topic was the decision made by EU leaders to strengthen border controls despite the existence of the Schengen zone (Cendrowicz, 2015) and the decision of the American Congress to reject refugees in the US. The “humanitarian action” variable is reported when the news item highlights the need for third countries and international organizations to offer humanitarian aid to the people living in war zones in the Middle East, because of the activities of ISIS. For instance, in an opinion article William Pine argues why the West owes more humanitarian aid to Syria (Pine, 2015). The “War on terror” variable is used for articles that emphasize on the actions taken by the international coalition against ISIS, which include decisions about future plans and strategies, military measures jointly executed, UN resolutions etc. Articles specifically referring to the “War on terror”, the new kind of war the West is faced with and that list the measures taken so far by the members of the coalition also fall into this category. Last but not least, the “economic costs” variable is used for news items that discuss the costs of the fight against ISIS. Those articles explain the costs of hiring new staff for the police and the counter-terrorism units and the amount of money needed for new bombs, soldiers and airplanes. For example, a CNN article focused on the British plan to buy more Boeing planes for the fight against ISIS (Boulden, 2015). Concerning the codification process, each one of the variables 7-21 can only take two values, either 0 or 1, since they are binary variables. The 0 value is used when the variable cannot be identified as the main topic of the article, whereas 1 is used when it can be identified as the main topic of the storyline. However, it should be noted that only one variable can be reported per article and therefore, there is only one value 1 in each news item’s codification column. This practice is difficult, given the fact that journalists tend to focus on many aspects of the threat in their articles. Nonetheless, it still is employed because the thesis is interested in identifying the most salient aspects of the ISIS threat in every news agency under examination. The difficulties were overcome by concentrating on the main topic of each article, either in terms of each topic-specific variable’s length in the text or in terms of reference to the title.

41 Table 4 - The values of each variable Variables Values/Codes 1= CNN 2= The Independent 1. News agency 3= La Libre 4= Le Monde

2. Date DD.MM.YYYY 3. Code NMMDDRD 1= Correspondence, reportage

4. Type 2= Interview 3= Opinion, analysis 1= 0-400 words

5. Length 2= 401-950 words 3= 951+ 1= ISIS 6. Main actor 2= Others 0= Does not exist 7. Immediate threat to security 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 8. Fear for attacks 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 9. Foreign fighters 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 10. Radicalization 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 11. Threat to democratic beliefs and values 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 12. Refugee crisis 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 13. Humanitarian crisis 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 14. Attacks, war crimes, and genocide 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 15. CT policies, changes, and extra measures 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 16. Anti-radicalization measures 1= Exists

42 0= Does not exist 17. Military action/measures 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 18. Change migration policy 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 19. Humanitarian action 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 20. War on terror 1= Exists 0= Does not exist 21. Economic costs 1= Exists

4.5. Use of SPSS For the completion of the quantitative part of the thesis, the IBM SPSS Statistics software was used, because it helps with the realization of statistical analysis. In general, the program transforms data into frequencies and statistical results, which is the main purpose of the thesis. In the case of my study, the input is qualitative data, i.e. the articles, and the output is the frequencies and the statistical results. Four different output sheets were created for each news agency accordingly. This practice allows for the acquisition of results and frequencies per news outlet, which could then be compared to each other. In order to become more specific, a short description of the way the SPSS program was used is given in the next two paragraphs. In order to obtain the final results, the variables were first inserted to the “variable view” form of the program for each of the four different output sheets. At first, each one of the 21 different variables created for the research was written down at the box labelled as ‘name’ at the program. Then, all variables remained listed as numeric and only the date variable of the codification sheet was transformed into the date option at the ‘type’ box of the variable view option. The width box remained intact, whereas the decimals box was reduced to 0, because the study only employs integer numbers as values. In a next step, a short description for each variable was written at the label box of the variable view, and the values box was filled in for each variable as explained in Table 4. The rest five boxes of the variable view were not changed. After the completion of the variables view form, the values that were written by hand on the codification sheets were manually transferred to the four output sheets depending on the news agency, but this time at the ‘data view’ form of the program.

43 When all the data were transferred to SPSS, they were then analyzed in order to obtain information in the form of descriptive statistics, which in the case of the thesis are frequencies. However, only variables 5 to 21 are of importance for answering to the main research question and examining the hypothesis, and for that reason, these were the only data selected to be transformed into frequencies.

4.6. Intercoder reliability check In order to enhance the reliability of the results of the quantitative content analysis a sample of content should be examined by more coders (Macnamara, 2005). This process ensures that the “obtained ratings are not the idiosyncratic results of one rater’s subjective judgement” (Tinsley & Weiss, 1975, p. 359). Here, the results of the codification process were cross-examined by a second coder. More precisely, 60 articles, which account for approximately 10% of the total number of articles examined for the completion of the thesis, were randomly chosen and codified by a second coder. This process aimed to establish the level of agreement between the two coders regarding the most salient aspect of the ISIS threat in each article under research. Prior to coding, the different variables employed in this study were explained to the second coder, as well as the identification process and signs, so that he would become more familiar with the aim and the context of the thesis. Specific examples were given so that the second coder could better understand the use of each variable. In order to establish the inter-rater reliability Krippendorff’s alpha (KALPHA) method was employed and the level of agreement between the two coders was 0.8481. Cohen’s kappa index was also employed in order to check the reliability of the results and the ending value was 0.847. Thus, since “the range of the lowest acceptable level of reliability coefficients usually is between .80 and .90” (Wang, 2011, p.18), the results of this thesis should be perceived as satisfactory and reliable.

44 5. Results

In this chapter, the findings of the content analysis are presented, so as to determine whether geographic proximity to France has influenced the coverage of ISIS. In order to do so, each variable is examined separately. It is expected that France, as the country-target of the November 2015 attacks, and Belgium, as the country closest to France, will report about ISIS more intensively. In addition, possible explanations for the findings are given, so that the results can be seen from a different perspective. Nonetheless, it should be underlined that other explanations than the ones given in this chapter are also possible.

Table 5 – ISIS media coverage in the four news agencies

Independent La Libre Le Monde CNN Variables (N=210) (N=122) (N=143) (N=121)

Length 0-400 words 35,2% 52,5% 25,9% 22,3% 401-950 words 53,3% 43,4% 50,3% 47,1% 951+ words 11,4% 4,1% 23,8% 30,6% Main actor 15,2% 15,6% 14,7% 35,5% ISIS 84,8% 84,4% 85,3% 64,5% Others Immediate threat to security 7,1% 6,6% 7% 9,9% Fear for attacks 6,7% 2,5% 1,4% 2,5% Foreign fighters 4,3% 9% 7,7% 6,6% Radicalization 2,4% 0,8% 2,8% 2,5% Threat to democratic 1% 0 1,4% 0,8% beliefs and values Refugee crisis 15,7% 4,1% 7% 5,8% Humanitarian crisis 0,5% 0 0 0 Attacks, war crimes, 9,5% 13,1% 5,6% 3,3% and genocide CT policies, changes, 8,6% 17,2% 11,2% 6,6% and extra measures Anti-radicalization 1,4% 0,8% 2,1% 2,5% measures Military 11% 13,1% 12,6% 12,4% action/measures Change migration 4,3% 1,6% 2,1% 1,7% policy Humanitarian action 1,4% 0 0 0

45 War on terror 26,7% 31,1% 39,2% 43,8% Economic costs 0 0 0 1,7%

The coverage of ISIS differs greatly among the four news agencies in terms of the length of the articles produced and the attention paid to each topic. Concerning the length of the articles produced by each news outlet, it is evident that the Independent, Le Monde and CNN mostly produced articles of medium length (401-950 words) and in fact, CNN has the highest rates of large articles, estimated at 30,6%. Most of the articles of La Libre have a small size (0-400 words) and only 4,1% of the articles contain more than 951 words. Thus, the length of the articles is not influenced by the distance between France and the country of origin of the news agency. Next, all news organizations focused on the activities of the coalition countries towards ISIS and on statements made by officials, instead of portraying ISIS as the main actor in their articles. In more than 80% of the articles of the Independent, La Libre and Le Monde, ISIS was not the main actor. Only in CNN the percentage was relatively lower, reaching at 64,5%. This difference can be attributed to the fact that CNN, unlike the other news agencies examined, is a TV channel and thus, it is more likely to have reporters on the ground, so as to report on the activities of the group. In this category as well, it seems that geographic proximity was not an important factor of information flow. Concerning the content-specific variables, the latter received different amount of attention in the four news agencies. Specifically, it would be expected that the French and the Belgian news agencies would report on ISIS as an immediate threat to security, since France was the victim of the attacks and Belgium, because it became known that some of the attackers were living in Belgium and due to its proximity to France. However, it is surprising that this topic was more salient in the American news agency than in any other news organization. Among the 121 CNN articles, 9,9% reported about the fact that ISIS should be perceived as an immediate threat. A possible explanation for that could be given considering the impact of 9/11. After 9/11, Islam was portrayed as the main threat to the American and international security and the US vowed to eliminate the threat. The blow to the American honor was that severe, that the reproduction of the issue by officials and the media created the perception that America will never be safe again, unless the threat is eradicated

46 once and for all (Costi, 2012; Shapiro, 2005; Shapiro & Byman, 2006). Thus, the threat narrative is important for the public support to the interventionist counter- terrorism approach of the US. Some researchers have even stated that the American foreign policy would not work without threat narratives for justifying actions and measures (Campbell, 1998; Cox, 2004; Jackson, 2011). Despite the fact that Belgium was expected to produce articles reporting on fear for attacks due to its proximity to France, this was not the case. Such articles were mostly retrieved from the Independent and account for 6,7%.This development could be explained by the UK’s own fear for terrorist attacks within its territory. In all the articles examined, it was mostly British officials that claimed that terrorist attacks, like the ones in Paris, were likely to occur in London. In 2015, the Defense Secretary Michael Fallon warned for Paris-like attacks to occur in London and he added that Manchester and Glasgow are also potential targets (Henderson, 2015). For that reason, he argued that the use of force against ISIS is essential. The same argument was made by David Cameron during the ‘airstrikes debate’ in the Parliament (Dathan, 2015). However, it is not only the British officials, but also the public that fears that an attack against British targets is imminent. Based on a recent research 82% of the British citizens believe that an attack is likely or highly likely to occur in London (Watts, 2016). The next three content-specific variables, i.e. foreign fighters, radicalization and threat to democratic values, fulfil the initial expectations of the study. To be more precise, among all the news agencies examined La Libre was the one that paid the most attention to the issue of foreign fighters. This variable accounts for 9% of the articles of La Libre. This was expected, since Belgium, has the largest number of foreign fighters per capita in Europe (Van Ostayen, 2015; Van Vlierden, 2015). Also, Le Monde focused on the issue of radicalization and on articles picturing ISIS as a threat to the democratic values and beliefs of the Western world, as expected. The radicalization topic was identified in 2,8% of its articles. This emphasis can be explained not only by thinking of the attacks and focusing on the fact that France was their target, but also by considering the history that France has with issue of radicalization. Even though all European countries are now confronted with the problem of radicalization, France has a long history with Islamic extremism and terrorism. Already in the 1970s the country was exposed to the threat of religious terrorism and has been accused for providing opportunities for radicalization and for

47 breeding terrorists because of its ‘sanctuary doctrine’ (Chorev, 2006). The large number of Muslims in the country, the terrorist networks operating within its borders and the terrorist attacks in the 1970s and the 1990s quickly drew the attention of the authorities to this phenomenon. France is still tormented by the threat of radicalization, since it has one of the largest number of radicalized individuals and foreign fighters in the EU and the November attacks showed the alarming dimensions of threat posed by radicalization. In fact, it has been estimated that more than 2000 individuals have been radicalized and are linked to terrorist networks (Cazeneuve, 2015). The French concerns about the threat of radicalization were expressed by Manuel Valls, who said: “We have one enemy, who we have to name: it is radical Islam. And one of the elements of radical Islam is Salafism” (Chambraud, 2015). Given the threat of radicalization, the attacks and the large number of casualties, it is logical that the French news outlet presents ISIS as a threat to the values cherished by the Western world. The refugee crisis topic was expected to be emphasized by Le Monde, since one of the perpetrators of the Paris attacks entered the EU posing as a refugee. However, the British news agency focused on the refugee crisis as a consequence of the war in Syria and ISIS more than any other of the media under examination in this thesis. Precisely, 15,7% of the Independent’s articles linked the refugee crisis to ISIS. This focus can be attributed to the fact that Britain was one of the first countries to link migration-related issues to terrorism (Archick, 2006), due to the fact that it accommodates a large number of Muslims that live under poor conditions (Cuthbertson, 2006; Klausen, 2009). 9/11 raised some red flags for the UK, because the country realized that its past inviting migratory policies may cause similar problems within its territory. For that reason, for the past few years and especially after the 7/7 attacks, the British citizens have been experiencing increased feelings of Islamophobia (Saeed, 2011) and the refugee crisis came to complement such feelings. Also, the Independent focused more than any other news outlet on the humanitarian crisis ongoing in Syria and the need for more relief to be delivered by the international community. As a matter of fact, it is the only agency to focus on this issue, since the rates were 0 for all the others. In the Independent, the ‘humanitarian crisis’ and ‘humanitarian action’ variables account for 0,5% and 1,4% respectively. Britain has always considered itself responsible for the protection and spread of human rights at home and abroad, but the increased attention on the issue reflects a

48 shift in the country’s policies. In 2014 and 2015, the UK was the largest donor of humanitarian aid among all European countries with its total assistance reaching at $18.1 billion (Global Humanitarian Assistance, 2014) and $19.4 billion accordingly (EurActiv, 2015). Richard Harrington, the minister for Syrian refugees, told the Independent that “the UK has been at the forefront of the international response to the humanitarian crisis in Syria and we are providing more than £1.1 billion in humanitarian aid” (Dearden, 2015d). Proximity seems to have influenced the coverage of counter-terrorism issues, since the “attacks, war crimes and genocide” variable and the “CT policies, changes, and extra measures” variable are more salient in the Belgian news agency than in any other of the agencies examined. In fact, those topics stand for 13,1% and 17, 2% equivalently. A large amount of the coverage of La Libre focused on terrorist attacks and crimes committed by ISIS, such as executions, rapes or the genocide committed against the Yazidi community. Belgium’s interest in the attacks and war crimes executed by ISIS can be understood considering the fact that the country is at the heart of the EU and has set the respect of human rights as a top priority for both its national and foreign policy. The Belgian focus on counter-terrorism measures was anticipated, since the attacks in Paris triggered a series of raids and arrests in Belgium, after it became known that some of the perpetrators were living in Belgium and one of them crossed the border to Belgium after the attacks. It should be noted that past experiences that the country had with Islamic terrorist networks acting within its borders may have also influenced the salience of this topic. From the 1970s until today, Belgium had to re-organize its structures and train officers in order to be able to respond to Islamic terrorism. In the past four decades, the authorities have launched many operations and have conducted raids and arrests in order to disrupt terrorist cells that have been organizing, recruiting or planning attacks in its territory. This time, Charles Michel announced that Belgium would take new measures in order to deal with the problem of radicalization and terrorist cells in Molenbeek and other communes (“Charles Michel”, 2015). Nonetheless, it is surprising that France did not focus on this topic more than any other country, given the vast mobilization of the army, the declaration of a state of emergency, the raids and the arrests that took place after the attacks. The most unexpected finding of the content analysis is the fact that CNN was interested in anti-radicalization measures more than any other news organization.

49 Given the great radicalization threat that the European countries are faced with, the results are extremely surprising. A possible explanation of the result could be the recent attention paid by American leaders and officials on that issue. The San Bernardino attacks in December 2015 showed that it is not only Europe that has to face the threat of home-grown terrorism, but the US as well. The occurrence of those attacks within the timeframe of the thesis could be the reason for the high rates that anti-radicalization measures received by CNN. Proximity seems to play an important role regarding military measures, since La Libre focused on that issue more than the other agencies. The results account for 13,1%. It could be said that Belgium, due to its proximity to France, was interested in the military actions taken by coalition countries so as to contain the ISIS threat abroad and thus, prevent other such attacks from taking place in other countries. The use of force has been recognized as an important tool in the fight against ISIS. The Belgian Minister of Defense stated that he supports a variety of approaches to be implemented against ISIS, among which the use of military force is essential (“Charles Michel”, 2015). Given the fact that one of the Paris attackers entered the EU among the refugee influxes, it is also surprising that the issue of changes in migration policies mostly grasped the attention of the UK. The percentage of this topic is the highest in the case of the Independent, due to the British focus on the need for Europe to take extra measures so as to prevent violent extremists to enter Europe among the flows of refugees. The Independent focused on the decision for stricter border controls around the Schengen zone and the British preoccupation with migration issues is evident in the words of Britain’s former Home Secretary, Theresa May, who said about the Paris attacks: “There was a clear link between security of the EU’s external borders and security within the EU” (Cendrowicz, 2015). The high rates of the “War on terror” topic in CNN (43,8%) can be easily understood after taking into account the American tradition of leading counter- terrorism campaigns and interventions abroad. This was the case in 2001 and 2003 with the war on terror and the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nowadays, there is the war on ISIS (a term frequently employed by CNN). The Obama Administration has acknowledged the fact that the US have the responsibility to “lead the way” in the fight against terrorism, which should take place within multinational and cooperative

50 settings. This ascertainment is also expressed in the latest version of the American National Security Strategy. The American news agency also focused the most on the economic costs of the war against ISIS, which is unexpected since France intensified its airstrikes against ISIS targets after the attacks and activated article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty, which states that “if a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power” (Official Journal of the European Union, 2012, OJ C 326/39). For those reasons it was expected that the European news agencies would pay more attention to the economic costs of the fight against ISIS than the American organization. The American emphasis on the costs of the fight against ISIS can be attributed to the great military and counter-terrorism expenses made by the US. Specifically, the US spends a large amount of money of approximately $600 billion on military, operational, and intelligence expenses (National Priorities Project, 2015). In a recent study it was found that 1271 governmental agencies and 1931 private companies cooperate in order to counter terrorism in the US, “employing nearly a million people and costing the taxpayer tens of billions of dollars” (Jackson, 2011, p.395; Pilkington, 2010).This amount of money and the large numbers of people and agencies working on counter-terrorism increase the capacity of the country to project power abroad for a long period of time and in the end, it supports the goal of the US to pursue a more global approach in countering terrorism. Overall, it is evident that geographic proximity did not influence the media coverage of ISIS in the four countries under examination. It did not affect article characteristics, like the length of the articles, nor the reportage itself. Even the topic- specific categories show that the results vary among countries, instead of having the topics mostly being reported by France or Belgium, as it was initially expected. Thus, the hypothesis of the thesis is not valid, based on the findings of the media content analysis. In the next chapter, an explanation of the reasons why proximity does not influence the coverage of terrorist events is given so as to complete the examination of this subject.

51 6. Discussion The findings of the study indicate that, despite the inclusion of geographic proximity in the determinants of communication flow by previous studies, its value is of low importance in the case of terrorist activities. For that reason, other factors that could have influenced the coverage of ISIS related to the November 2015 Paris attacks will be examined in this chapter. Based on the literature, scholars seem to agree that “timeliness; proximity; importance, impact or consequence; interest, conflict or controversy; sensationalism; prominence; and novelty, oddity or the unusual” (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987, p.398; Eberhard, 1982; Shoemaker, Chang & Bredlinger, 1987; Shoemaker, Chang & Bredlinger, 2012, p.351; Shoemaker & Vos, 2009, p.25) are all factors that influence the flow of information and the newsworthiness of an event. In this chapter, I will try to establish per factor to what extent each of the aforementioned factors was present in the case of the media coverage of the Paris attacks. In each section, an explanation of the factor will be given first, and then, the presence of each factor in the case of the Paris attacks, and in relation to the finding of Chapter 5 will be examined.

Timeliness Timeliness refers to the “recency of the action” (Johnson-Cartee, 2005, p.128). “The newer the information in a news story, the timelier it is” (Kolodzy, 2006, p.59). For the news media timeliness is a value of great importance, because it allows them to cover events first and draw the audience’s attention, increasing trust to their agency. The fact that terrorist attacks instantly receive media coverage at the international level shows that they are acknowledged as newsworthy events globally. For instance, the November 2015 Paris attacks were broadcasted live by many TV networks and articles walking the audience through the details of the attacks and the hostage situation were published continuously so as to keep the public updated. Timeliness though should always be considered in relation to currency. Currency refers to the revision, and reproduction of a specific event or aspects of it by the media, because of its lasting interest for the audience (Alexander & Tate, 1999; Savoy, 2008). To state it in a different way, the concept refers to the duration of the projection of an event, due to its importance for the public. Terrorist events are not only covered, but also reproduced and used as references constantly by the media, due to their ability to give rise to emotions given their brutal, novel and unexpected

52 character, which in turn guarantees the viewers’/readers’ attention. Thus, terrorist groups and their activities remain at the top of the news and are a topic continuously covered by the news agencies, because of their ability to easily attract the audience’s interest. This was evident after the Paris attacks. Even though ISIS and its activities were at the top of the news before the attacks, after the attacks images of wounded people were constantly reproduced by the global media. The attacks, their impact, and severity were used as a reference by all the examined news agencies, and in fact, details about them were reported even forty days after they took place. Even at the end of the timeframe of the thesis (December 31, 2015), the news were still reporting about the attacks and were constantly seeking for new details, because of their oddity and controversial nature.

Proximity The studies of news determinants have given several definitions of proximity. Golding & Elliot have stated: “Like size, the criterion of proximity derives partly from considerations of the audience, partly from problems of accessibility. Proximity has two senses, cultural and geographic. The first depends on what is familiar and within the experience of journalists and their audience, while the second may depend on where correspondent are based. As a rule of thumb, nearby events take precedence over similar events at a distance” (Golding & Elliott, 1979, p.119). The regular definitions of proximity focus on the distance between the news agency and the place that the event takes place and it is generally accepted that “the further removed an event from the news centre the less relevance it has for the news outlet” (Montgomery, 2007, p.8-9). However, proximity, in its literal sense, has no influence on the news coverage of this particular study for two reasons: proximity can be conceptualized in a “world systems” manner, where all the countries under examination belong to the core of this system; and, the transnational character of modern terrorism has the capacity to transcend national borders, making terrorist acts newsworthy. Firstly, many communication studies scholars have applied Immanuel Wallerstein’s (1974) world system theory to media research and used it as a determinant of the diffusion of information. According to Wallerstein the world is hierarchically divided into three categories of nations: the core, the semi-peripheral, and the peripheral nations. At the core one can find the Western industrialized and

53 developed nations, at the semi- periphery there are those nations that take actions to industrialize and diversify their economies and have links with the core, whereas at the periphery exist the nations that have relatively weak governments and economies (Barfield, 1997; Halsall, 1997; Wallerstein, 2004). The “structural disparity of national status is considered an important factor in shaping the content, direction, and volume of traffic of news, entertainment, and information from country to country, especially between developed and developing nations” (Chang, 1998, p.529). In their research about the world system as a determinant of news flow, Chang, Lau & Hao (2000) found that the media coverage of events in one core nation is two times higher than the coverage of events semi-peripheral countries and seven times higher than the coverage of peripheral countries. Galtung (1971) argued that this imbalance in international news coverage derives from the power relationships among core, semi-peripheral and peripheral nations. Most studies that have tested the world system as a determinant of news flow have argued that there are more interactions among core nations, between core and semi-peripheral nations than interactions among peripheral nations (Chang, 1998; Chang, Lau & Hao, 2000; Kim & Barnett, 1996). After applying the world system theory to this research, the results of the thesis can be better understood and explained. In other words, if proximity is not viewed as the distance between nations, but as belonging to either the core, the periphery or the semi-periphery of the world system, the results can be easily understood. All the examined countries belong to the core, since they all are Western industrialized nations, guided by the capitalist economic system, linked through interactions with each other. Since all the examined nations belong to the core and also, share the same goal, by being a part of the international coalition against ISIS, it is reasonable that the coverage of the threat of ISIS is intense, regardless the actual distance from France. The fact that the victim of the attacks was one of those core countries is a factor of great value regarding the news flow, because it shows that even powerful countries are vulnerable. The people of the Western nations share common characteristics and therefore, are more likely to be interested in such news and feel all threatened by the attacks. Thus, if proximity is conceptualized in a different way that reflects the proximity to the core of the world system, the findings of the study can be better apprehended.

54 A second reason that explains why proximity, in the traditional sense, failed to influence the coverage of ISIS can be attributed to the nature of modern terrorism. In the past decades, terrorists have shown the ability to transcend national boundaries, by organizing, acting and orchestrating attacks in different countries through terrorist cells or lone wolves. The media have helped in the creation of the transnational character of modern terrorism, by reproducing the terrorists’ messages and slowly, they have become an accomplice to the terrorists’ main psychological aim (Williams, 2016): to spread fear at a global level. Since terrorism has no boundaries in the globalized world, at the same time, the coverage of terrorist acts cannot be restrained by boundaries. Globalization has given the media the capacity to act transnationally, and as a result, the coverage of events has been de-territorialized, depending on the interactions among nations and global actors (Beer, 2010). Thus, geographical spaces have been blurred due to the nature of transnational terrorism and global journalism (Gerodimos, 2013).

Importance, impact or consequence Importance as a news value can be estimated thinking of the event’s impact on the audience and of whether the event will draw the attention of a small audience, such as the local residents, or a huge audience, such as the global community. As Golding & Elliott (1979) state: “Importance is usually taken to mean that the reported event has considerable significance for large numbers of people in the audience” (Golding & Elliott, 1979, p.117). The importance of an event is also estimated based on whether the audience can relate to the people that have been affected by it, like in the case of natural disasters. In their book, Johnson-Cartee (2005) captured the essence of importance. They argue: “As audience members, people assign importance or consequence to those things that are likely to affect their lives and their loved ones’ lives either positively or negatively. And those things that are judged important are considered to be significant. Often such stories are personalized in order that people may relate to the specific people who have experienced, in this example, tragedies” (Johnson-Cartee, 2005, p.127). Terrorism attracts worldwide attention, because of its importance and impact. In the case of terrorist attacks, the attacks are reported worldwide by the media because they cause large numbers of casualties, they give rise to various emotions ranging from shock, sadness, and sympathy to grief and because it is easier for the public to

55 relate to the victims of the attacks and their families. Terrorism, if seen as a form of communication, necessitates a victim for the message to be transmitted, but in reality, the recipient is not the victim itself, but the wider public (Karber, 1971). Unfortunately, “some people have to perish at the hands of terrorists so that editors will publicize the existence, demands, and goals of terrorists” (Schmid, 2004, p.208), and will help making them known to large audiences, affecting their lives through the spread of fear. The great impact of terrorist events not only on the victims and their families, but also on the larger population is what makes the attacks newsworthy. As Conley & Lamble (2006) say: “For many journalists impact is synonymous with newsworthiness: the bigger the impact, the bigger the story.... Impact reflects the sum total of all of a story’s parts. It represents its weight and importance. It reflects the wider significance of a decision or event” (p.43). In the case of the November Paris attacks, the impact and thus, the importance of the attacks was great, which justifies the intense coverage of the attacks and ISIS. Concerning their impact, one should not only focus on the great number of casualties. Undoubtedly, the Paris attacks were one of the deadliest attacks of 2015 with more than 130 people dead and more than 350 injured (Brophy Marcus, 2015). However, their impact was far greater. In the aftermath of the attacks, the French President declared a state of emergency to last for three months, which was later extended to the end of July (Breeden, 2016a, 2016b; De Sakutin, 2016). The state of emergency gives the authorities the right to prohibit the movement of people and vehicles in fixed places and times, to establish secure zones, where the presence of individuals is monitored, to close theaters, pubs, museums and other meeting places (Bonaventure, 2015; Johannès, 2015). The state of emergency also gives the authorities the power to conduct raids, house searches and arrests, and impose increased penalties (Bonaventure, 2015; Johannès, 2015). Under the state of emergency, the French Parliament also voted for changes to the country’s constitution and in favor of revoking the citizenship of people suspected to be involved in terrorism related crimes (Dearden, 2016). France also invoked Article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty for the first time, which states that “if a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power” (Official Journal of the European Union, 2012, OJ C 326/39). By stating “member states”, the article allows for actions to be taken by the

56 member-states alone and it does not include the European Institutions that could pose problems due to their bureaucratic and cumbersome structure. The article allows for bilateral agreements for individual support for the first time. France has been the only European state taking part in strikes against ISIS and the use of that article gave France the opportunity to ask from other European member-states to join its efforts, which is against the long-lasting principle of the EU to avoid the use military force. The UK was of the first European member-states to respond to France’s call and a few weeks after the attacks the British Parliament authorized airstrikes against ISIS targets. The Paris attacks had a major impact on other European states as well. The attacks led to the lockdown of Belgium, after indications that Salah Abdeslam, the ringleader of the Paris attacks, was hiding in Brussels and after fears for attacks with Brussels as the target were raised (Jamieson, Winter, Akyavas & Lavanga, 2015; Traynor, 2015). Those developments forced the Belgian government to raise the country’s threat level to 4, and led to a series of raids, the closure of shops, bars and the subway system (Higgins & De Freytas-Tamura, 2015; Jamieson, Winter, Akyavas & Lavanga, 2015; Traynor, 2015). In addition, despite the increased security measures, the Paris attacks showed policy failures. The attacks showed that Belgian counter-terrorism measures have failed, since some of the perpetrators were born and raised in Belgium and managed to operate without being detected from the authorities. Many are those who argued that Belgium is a failed state (Burns, 2016; Graham, 2016; King, 2015), because of its inaction and inability to implement measures against the terrorist cells operating within its territory (Higgins, 2015). The attacks also had a great impact on migration policies and the cohesion of the EU. In the past few years, because of the civil war in Syria and the actions of ISIS in the Middle East, huge influxes of refugees have been arriving in Europe, which in turn, have made Europe to increase the humanitarian aid offered to its member-states for migration reasons and also reconsider its migration policies (Carrera, Blockmans, Gros & Guild, 2015). The attacks created divisions and tensions among European nations, because of the refusal of many EU countries to accept any refugees (Carrera, Blockmans, Gros & Guild, 2015; Heisbourg, 2015) out of fear of terrorists entering to Europe along with the refugees, as it was the case with one of the perpetrators of the Paris attacks. For instance, the Polish Minister for European Affairs, Konrad Szymanski, stated that Poland would not accept any refugees without security

57 guarantees after the Paris attacks (Pempel, 2015). At the same wavelength, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, stated that “mandatory resettlement quotas are dangerous because they would spread terrorism across Europe” (Maurice, 2015). As a result, terrorism and counter-terrorism views and approaches gradually became linked to humanitarian and migration issues (Zalan, 2015).

Interest, conflict or controversy Storylines that include conflicts or controversies are more likely to attract the attention of the public, due to their intriguing nature. The term conflict refers to “any form of conflict, not just the physical violence that goes with war. This means any difference of opinion between individuals or groups, including physical (war, sport), legal (court case crime), intellectual or psychological (protest groups or individuals expressing disagreement over any subject)” (Masterton, 2005, p.47). Conflict and controversy always attract media attention because of their ability to challenge norms, values, and beliefs, and cause changes to the status quo (Dennis & Ismach, 1981; Izard, Culbertson & Lambert, 1973; Shoemaker, Chang & Brendlinger, 2012). Weimann (1987) argues that a new kind of conflict has been created, due to “the emergence of media-oriented terrorism, and the success of terrorists to get the message across” (p.32). This new type of conflict is multi-faceted: it consists of a violent, a psychological and an ideological aspect. More precisely, terrorist activities are violent in their nature and involve the element of conflict, since they are guided by the confrontation between the perpetrators and the victims, and the perpetrators and the authorities. This is the pragmatic view of the conflict element of terrorist attacks. However, conflict should also be perceived in its psychological nature: Terrorist activities give rise to emotions of thrill and excitement for the supporters of the terrorist organizations, but cause shock, panic, fear and grief to the general population. Lastly, terrorism is characterized by a battle of ideas. This ideological aspect of conflict builds upon images of “Us” against “Them”, where on the one side there are the democratic values and beliefs and on the other side, there are the views of radicalized cells that grow because of the hatred towards the symbols of the Western civilization. Like with the case of communism in the Cold War era, radical Islam, its ideology and propaganda are now seen as the ‘new evil’ and as “a cancer that must be extirpated” (Shapiro & Byman, 2006, p.44). Terrorist attacks do not only cause a

58 large number of casualties, and give rise to drama, but also put into question the foundations of modern societies, such as freedom and human rights. “They involve a dramatic confrontation of person against person, and person against society and culture. They convey a social message that functions positively on behalf of the forces maintaining the social order by condemning violence and aggression and reinforcing existing values” (Weimann, 1987, p.33). Therefore, the idea of conflict is newsworthy itself, but the multi-faceted nature of conflict incorporated in terrorism makes its manifestations even more interesting and intriguing. The Paris attacks fulfilled the conditions of conflict and controversy for them to be newsworthy. The terrorists employed various tactics, such as shootings and suicide bombings and caused the death of hundreds of people. In addition, several attacks took place in various places almost simultaneously, creating social unrest and chaos. The response of the French President enhanced the conflict narrative. He characterized the attacks as an act of war and he added: “We will be merciless toward the barbarians of Islamic State group. Faced with war, the country must take appropriate action” (Henley & Chrisafis, 2015, para.7). Adding to the ideological aspect of the conflict he said that these were attacks “against France, against the values that we defend everywhere in the world, against what we are: a free country that means something to the whole planet” (Henley & Chrisafis, 2015, para.8). In the next few days, France launched some of its more intense airstrikes against ISIS (Brumfield, Lister & Paton Walsh, 2015). The attacks also sparked controversial debates of whether Belgium was to blame for the attacks, after it became known that the latter were planned and orchestrated from supporters of ISIS living in both France and Belgium and that Belgium was already warned about some of the attackers having connections with ISIS militants (Higgins, 2015). Belgium was accused of being a failed state, because its structure leads to lack of coordination and inaction. The main argument is that the reason for the failure of national counter-terrorism efforts is the country’s political structure. Belgium is a federal state that consists of three communities (the French Community, the Flemish Community and the German-speaking Community), three regions (the Flemish Region, the Brussels Capital Region and the Walloon Region) and the Federal State. The Regions cover a great number of communes and the Flemish and the Walloon Regions consist of provinces. The regions have their own judicial and law enforcement authorities, and the provinces and the communes have extensive

59 duties and the ability to work autonomously (Belgian Federal Government, 2016). This multilayered structure of Belgium’ political system has resulted to a weak federal state, and has made impossible the cooperation between the different authorities for counter-terrorism purposes.

Sensationalism Sensationalism can be described as “a characteristic of the news packaging process that places emphasis upon those elements that could provoke an effect on the human sensory system” (Uribe & Gunter, 2007, p.209). Sensationalism is closely linked to human emotions and its main aim is to capture the attention of the audience. As a news value, sensationalism is that important that even if a story is not dramatic itself, journalists may feel obliged to frame it in a melodramatic way, so as to capture the public’s attention. Izard, Culbertson & Lambert (1973) argue that there is a link between sensationalism and conflict/controversy, because the latter include elements of deviance that make events newsworthy. Hendriks Vettehen, Nuijten, & Beentjes (2005) argue that the concept of sensationalism could be divided into different categories that all aim to make a story exciting and interesting for large audiences. Even though their study focuses on television news, the categories that they identify can be generalized and applied to the case of all news media. Precisely, they argue that sensationalism in the media can be divided into specific “categories of content and formal features that are expected to attract attention: (a) basic needs content, (b) tabloid packaging, (c) concreteness” (Hendriks Vettehen, Nuijten, & Beentjes, 2005, p.285) or as Kleemans (2007) describes them: the arousing content, the packaging of the event and the vivid storyline. The first category, the arousing content, also referred to as the ‘basic needs content’ (Grabe, Lang, & Zhao, 2003; Grabe, Zhou, & Barnett, 2001; Hendriks Vettehen, Nuijten, & Beentjes, 2005), can be identified in news stories where people are presented as struggling for their survival because of violent events, disasters and catastrophes (Hendriks Vettehen, Nuijten, & Beentjes, 2005). Stories that appeal to the instinct of human survival are more likely to attract the attention of large audiences (Davis & McLeod, 2003; Shoemaker, 1996). To put it in a different and more cynical way, ‘if it bleeds, it leads’. Grabe, Lang, & Zhao (2003) acknowledged that sensationalism cannot only be identified in the content, but also in the form of the story. Borrowing elements of the

60 the Limited Capacity Model, which is used in order to examine how media messages are processed by the audience (Lang, 2000), Hendriks Vettehen, Nuijten, & Beentjes (2005) argue that techniques used in order to transmit messages of novel content can help in grasping the attention of the public more easily. Such techniques are called tabloid packaging (Grabe, Lang, & Zhao, 2003; Hendriks Vettehen, Nuijten, & Beentjes, 2005). According to Grabe, Lang, & Zhao (2003), “several scholars have argued (Fiske, 1987; Grabe, 1996; Kepplinger, 1982) that camera and editing techniques, as the form-giving components of news packaging, might be the bearers of meaning in the same way that the content of messages convey meaning” (p.388). The last category of sensationalism is related to the concept of vividness as described by Nisbett and Ross (1980): “Information may be described as vivid, that is, as likely to attract and hold our attention and to excite the imagination to the extent that it is (a) emotionally interesting, (b) concrete and imagery-provoking, and (c) proximate in a sensory, temporal, or spatial way” (p. 45). It is generally argued that exemplification contributes to the reception of information better than the transmission of general information concerning an event (Aust & Zillmann, 1996; Brosius & Bathelt, 1994; Gan, Hill, Pschernig & Zillmann, 1996; Perry & Gonzenbach, 1997; Zillmann & Brosius, 2000). As a result, the media tend to use examples and personal testimonies in order to make a story more vivid, so that the message can have a more profound impact on the audience. Applying the aforementioned conceptualization of sensationalism to news agencies and the coverage of the November 2015 Paris attacks, it is evident that the latter fulfilled all the conditions of a sensational media event. To be more specific, the attacks incorporated the element of violence and the human struggle for survival, providing all the ingredients necessary for the creation of an arousing coverage by the media. During the attacks and the days after that, photos of people hanging from the windows of the Bataclan Theater were released, testimonies of people playing dead in order to survive were reported (Milmo, 2015; Quinn, 2015) and other such statements were made that transmitted the feelings of panic and fear that the victims suffered to the wider public . The packaging of the attacks, as presented in the websites of the four news agencies, was accomplished not only through the arousing and melodramatic character of the journalists’ writing, but also through the attachment of photos capturing the moment of the attacks or the fleeing efforts made by the victims, all

61 accompanying the texts that provided details about the incident. Lastly, besides the emotional content and visual materials re-produced by the news agencies concerning the attacks, sensationalism was guaranteed through the publication of testimonies of eyewitnesses and victims and through the personification of the event. For example, Chris Green from the Independent made a tribute to the survivors of the attacks and wrote an article collecting the testimonies of six different people that witnessed the attacks and lost some of their loved ones (Green, 2015).

Prominence Prominence “relates to a person who is highly recognisable on a local, state, national or international basis” (Conley & Lamble, 2006, p.51). It refers to events that involve people or groups that are widely known or notorious (Shoemaker, Chang & Bredlinger, 2012), and therefore are more likely to attract the audience’s attention. The general rule seems to be that the more famous a person/group is, the more coverage an event involving that person/group is likely to receive. However, prominence should not only be linked to ‘fame’. The term is also related to the amount of coverage that an event receives by the media. In general ‘bad news is good news, good news is bad news, and no news is bad news’ (Schmid, 2004, p.207) for the media. In the past few decades, media-oriented terrorism and terrorist attacks have created such spectacular events that the media cannot resist to cover. As Bell (1978) states: “These new transnational gunmen are, in fact, television producers constructing a package so spectacular, so violent, so compelling that the networks, acting as executives, supplying cameramen and the audience, cannot refuse the offer” (p.50). Schmid (2004) argues that this is due to the fact that terrorism has high levels of negativity and is “different, new, change- inducing, unexpected, disruptive, dramatic, surprising and full of what is termed ‘human interest’” (Schmid, 2004, p.216). All these elements combined make terrorist attacks an event that the media cannot turn a blind eye to. Negative and dramatic events become even more newsworthy when they involve people or groups known to the public. The Paris attacks were reported and re- produced with prominence, not only because they were dramatic, unexpected and violent, but also because they combined some other elements that guarantee the public’s attention. Specifically, three of the attacks took place outside the Stade de France, where the national teams of France and Germany were playing a friendly

62 match. The match was broadcasted live and the first explosions were heard during its conduct. The match itself was already covered by the media and that secured publicity for the perpetrators’ actions. More importantly, the French President, Francois Hollande, and the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, were in the Stadium, watching the game. After the attacks took place, the media focused on the moment Francois Hollande was informed about the attacks and evacuated the Stadium (Lichfield & Buncombe, 2015) and compared that moment to the one when the former US President, George W. Bush, was informed about 9/11 (Audureau, 2015; Stack, 2015). In addition, the media reported on the players of the two national teams, who spent the night inside the stadium due to threats made earlier that day against the German national team (De Menezes, 2015). Moreover, some of the perpetrators decided to execute their attacks at the Bataclan Theater, where the well-known rock band ‘Eagles of Death Metal’ was performing on stage. The popularity of the group made the coverage of the attacks even more prominent. After the attacks, many news agencies reported on the testimonies of the members of the band (Carissimo, 2015) and the way they experienced the attacks. Other articles focused on the tragic death of one of the crew members of the band and his last moments (Withnall, 2015b) in an effort to intrigue and move the audience.

Novelty, oddity or the unusual Among the various news values, novel, odd or unusual components of an event have been acknowledged to make the event newsworthy (Dennis & Ismach, 1981; Galtung & Ruge, 1965; Izard, Culbertson & Lambert, 1973). An event is considered to be unexpected when “the actual course of the event deviates from previous expectations” (Schulz, 1982, p.153). It is suggested that events that happen in a habitual manner are not likely to become news, because people are more interested in the unusual and the unexpected (Masterton, 2005). The ‘man bites dog’ phrase, commonly reported by journalistic studies, captures the importance of the unusual for the media: “When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news” (John B. Bogart as quoted by Mott, 1941, p.376). In their study of news determinants, Galtung & Ruge (1965) suggest that the rare and the unexpected is more likely to draw the attention of the public and thus, be

63 reported by the media. They argue that “what is regular and institutionalized, continuing and repetitive at regular and short intervals does not attract nearly so much attention, ceteris paribus, as the unexpected and ad hoc - a circumstance that is probably well known to the planners of summit meetings. Events have to be unexpected or rare, or preferably both, to become good news” (Galtung & Ruge, 1965, p.67). Terrorists have captured the importance of the media for the achievement of their goals. The media can broadcast terrorist attacks, helping in spreading fear, reproduce propagandistic material leaked by terrorist organizations, contributing to the recruitment of new supporters, and exposing governmental failures, discrediting the government in power. This special relationship between terrorists and the media have made the former become more and more innovative, so as to secure media coverage for their activities. Terrorist groups today exploit technological developments, and societal and political insurgences to their advantage in order to be able to secure publicity. Despite the novelty and the innovative forms of manifestation of modern media- oriented terrorism, terrorist attacks are newsworthy because “they have no fixed timing. Their dramatic value relies on the effects of surprise and shock” (Weimann, 1987, p.33). Terrorist attacks take a long time to be planned and orchestrated, and demand great efforts from the counter-terrorism units in order to be prevented. This makes the attacks rare, at least at the Western parts of the world that have stronger political structures, and extremely unusual. Their rare nature makes their occurrence a newsworthy event, because of the elements of unexpectedness and shock that they incorporate. The Paris attacks constitute an example of a newsworthy event, due to their unexpectedness, novelty and unusual methods. To be more precise, it was not expected that a few months after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, ISIS supporters would target France again. Even though all European countries are on alert out of fear of terrorist attacks, it was not expected that a small group of people would manage to execute such well-coordinated attacks and cause that many casualties. Unexpected and unusual were also the methods employed by the perpetrators. The latter used both suicide bombings and guns in order to execute the attacks. At first, two suicide bombers detonated their vests outside the Stade de France. Minutes later, gunmen opened fire at the people sitting at ‘Le Carillon’ and ‘Le Petit Cambodge’.

64 Next, gunmen started shooting at people at the bar ‘A La Bonne Biere’ and the restaurant ‘La Belle Equipe’. Another suicide bomber blew himself up inside the restaurant ‘Comptoir Voltaire’ at the same time as three gunmen entered the Bataclan Theater and started shooting at the crowd. The gunmen took people hostages until the police entered the building and shot them dead (Khan, 2015; Martinez, 2015). The last explosion took place near the Stade de France. All these attacks were well orchestrated, since in less than an hour the perpetrators managed to kill 130 people and injured more than 350 (de la Hamaide & John, 2015). The almost simultaneous execution of such a large number of attacks made the event even more surprising and unusual, raising the attacks at the top of the news.

Emotionality Lastly, emotionality is an important determinant of the media coverage of events. Some events are dramatic or exciting by their nature, and thus can trigger a series of emotions to the audience with no interference of the journalist. However, in most cases journalists tend to use specific techniques that aim at drawing the attention of the audience to specific events. Specifically, journalists tend to seek for the personification of an event in order to achieve familiarity. Personification “emphasizes the need to make stories comprehensible by reducing complex processes and institutions to the actions of individuals” (Golding & Elliott, 1979, p.122), and helps to the association with the victims and therefore, the dramatization of the event. This method makes an event even more memorable for the public. As Johnson-Cartee (2005) state: “Fundamentally, people identify with other people, and they are more able to understand and remember stories that are concretized by such examples than those that are not” (Johnson-Cartee, 2005, p.129). In order to achieve emotionality, the media also try to create images of heroes and villains. The audience must be presented with the situation, the choices and the problems that the heroes were faced with so as to relate to them more easily (Shoemaker, 2006; Weimann, 1987). The media employ narratives that allow for such conceptualizations to be made, because as humans “we like to see and hear about people who face threatening situations and yet come out on top” (Shoemaker, 2006, p.107). We like to read about stories that prove the resilience of our societies and the altruism that people show when exposed to difficult situations.

65 Terrorist attacks offer the ideal opportunity for such narratives to be produced and such messages to be transmitted to the public, because they give rise to various emotions. Weimann summarized all the feelings triggered during and after a terrorist attack: “(a) thrill, tension, fear, and anger at being humiliated; (b) grief for the victims; (c) identification with the hostages and with the nation; and (d) relief after the episode is over and during the mass-mediated celebrations” (Weimann, 1987, p.30). These emotional responses are expected to be experienced by millions of people, and the best way to overcome shocking events is by emphasizing on good news at the end of the story (Shoemaker, 2006). In the case of terrorist events, the villains are the terrorists and the police or survivors trying to save others represent the heroes emerging from the situation. The media are expected to present details of the lives of both the villains and the heroes so as to make the public understand the unusual event and its causes, and also help the audience associate with the victims and their families. Testimonies of the survivors, interviews with them and pictures taken during the incident are usually employed by the media in order to achieve the aforementioned goal. The Paris attacks were no exception to the rule. During the attacks, images of people fleeing from the Bataclan Theater were projected by most news agencies, followed by reports about shots and explosions heard in many areas in Paris. People dragging others out of the Theater, who were probably unable to walk, were viewed all around the world. Those images were used in order to attract the readers’ attention and helped in triggering human emotions by exposing the dramatic nature of the event. People were interested in learning more about what was happening in France that day, they felt shocked by the events and anxious about the fate of the hostages and the other victims of the attacks. Those who had friends or relatives more likely panicked over the condition of their loved ones. After the police entered the Bataclan Theater and the perpetrators were killed, pictures of the places where the attacks took place were released, along with photographs of numerous body bags. All the articles reporting on the attacks tried to create a timeline of the event so as to make the information easily accessible to the public and wrote in a melodramatic manner on the details of the attacks. Those narratives and the packaging of the event through those pictures caused the grief of the international audience over the victims of the attacks. However, after the attacks,

66 information was released about the perpetrators as well, which possibly fueled the anger of the public. After the attacks took place, photographs of the victims were released so as to humanize them and make the public relate to them. In fact, CNN dedicated an article to the victims, where one can find the names and photographs of each victim along with short biographical notes (Stapleton, et al., 2015). Hundreds of testimonies were recorded, giving survivors the opportunity to describe their experiences and feelings during the attacks (Green, 2015; Leicester, 2015; Milmo, 2015). This kind of reportage made the division between villains and heroes much clearer for the audience. Over the next days and months, more and more details related to the attacks were reported by the media, allowing for the continuation of the dramatization of the event. A photograph that gained international media attention because it captured the struggle for human survival, was that of a pregnant woman hanging from a window of the Bataclan Theater in an effort to escape from the terrorists. Later it was reported that the woman was saved by a man who immediately became the hero of the story. The media extensively wrote on that incident and re-produced the testimony of both the woman and her savior (Quinn, 2015). This event led to the personification of the attacks, as a story of human interest, and grasped the public’s attention because we all want to hear about people who manage to overcome the most difficult situations. In the end, “good triumphs over evil, good news defeats bad news” (Shoemaker, 2006, p.107).

~ * ~

Overall, the study showed that geographic proximity to France did not play an important role in the coverage of ISIS as related to the November 2015 Paris attacks. After examining the coverage of ISIS in the four news organizations and conducting content analysis, it became evident that the initial hypothesis that countries closer to France would report more intensively about ISIS proved to be invalid. In fact, all the countries examined for the thesis focused on the ISIS threat, and each news agency covered some aspects of the threat more than the other agencies. The differences can be attributed to national and societal characteristics that guide the interest of each

67 country to specific aspects of the threat due to internal considerations, as presented in Chapter 5. More importantly, the study discouraged the initial expectations and showed that terrorist attacks are newsworthy regardless the proximity to the target, because they carry all the elements needed for an event to be newsworthy: “timeliness; proximity; importance, impact or consequence; interest, conflict or controversy; sensationalism; prominence; and novelty, oddity or the unusual” (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987, p.398; Eberhard, 1982; Shoemaker, Chang & Bredlinger, 1987; Shoemaker, Chang & Bredlinger, 2012, p.351; Shoemaker & Vos, 2009, p.25). All these factors, also called determinants and news values in the literature, could be identified in the coverage of the Paris attacks as the analysis showed, making the attacks an event of great newsworthiness for the international media. Thus, proximity in its traditional sense, could not have influenced the coverage of the attacks. However, it should be noted that proximity can influence the coverage of such major events if conceptualized in a different manner. If we take into account the division of the world into core, semi-peripheral and peripheral nations, which is the structure that Wallerstein (1974) argues that guides the power changes and the status of each country within the international system, and apply it to the flow of information following the example of past studies (Chang, 1998; Chang, Lau & Hao, 2000; Kim & Barnett, 1996), then the results of the thesis are actually not surprising. Since all the examined news agencies are based on industrialized Western nations linked with cultural and economic bonds, the fact that they all covered the ISIS threat shows a level of cultural proximity to France. In other words, all four countries covered the threat posed by ISIS, not only because of the prominence of the group, but also because the attacks were perceived as a threat to the values that all Western nations stand for.

68 7. Conclusion This thesis identified the media coverage of ISIS in the news agencies of four different countries in order to establish the aspects of the threat that were more salient in each country and whether geographic proximity to France, which suffered from attacks orchestrated by ISIS in November 2015, influenced the coverage of ISIS. In other words, the study examined whether geographic proximity is a factor that should be considered of value in the coverage of ISIS related to the recent Paris attacks. Geographic proximity has already been acknowledged as a factor influential to news coverage. However, its influence has never been tested on topic-specific variables constructed over a specific security issue. The results showed that despite past agreement regarding the influence of proximity to the news coverage of events, the coverage of ISIS was evenly distributed among the different news organizations and the aspects of the threat were not mostly reported by Belgium and France as it was initially expected. The coverage of ISIS was based on different variables created prior to the analysis. At the initial stages of the thesis it was expected that those variables would be more salient in France, since it was the target of ISIS attacks, and Belgium, since it is closer to the country-target of the attacks. However, the results prove that the initial hypothesis of the thesis is invalid. Specifically, the variable concerning the length of the articles provided the more profound results in the case of the American news agency, since CNN was the agency with the highest rates of long-length articles. Striking was the fact that most of the articles of the Belgian news agency had a small size (less than 400 words), despite the country’s proximity to France. Also, ISIS was not portrayed as the main actor in the articles of any of the news agencies examined. Instead, the latter focused on the actions of the coalition and officials concerning the ISIS threat. The results also showed that despite the recentness of the attacks, ISIS was not perceived as an immediate threat by France, nor by Belgium, despite the fact that the country was on lockdown after the attacks took place, due to the links of some of the perpetrators with Belgium. Instead, it was the American news agency where that variable was the most salient. In the same wavelength, the fear for attacks variable was mostly reported by the British agency and not by the Belgian news agency as expected at first, given that there were fears of Paris-style attacks taking place in

69 Brussels according to officials, (Jamieson, Winter, Akyavas & Lavanga, 2015; Traynor, 2015). In addition, the topics of the refugee crisis and the changes in migration policies were addressed the most by the Independent. Given the fact that one of the Paris attackers entered the EU among the refugee influxes through Greece, it is surprising that those two topics were mostly emphasized by the British news agency. Also, the issues linked to the refugee crisis, i.e. the humanitarian crisis ongoing in Syria and the need for more humanitarian aid to be provided by the international community grasped the attention of only the Independent, and were not reported by any other news agency. One of the most striking and unexpected results retrieved from the content analysis was the high rates of the topic of anti-radicalization measures in the case of CNN. Taking into account the fact that the perpetrators of the Paris attacks were French and Belgian citizens, it was expected that the news outlets of the two countries would focus on this issue more than any other agency. Also, the topics regarding the actions of the international coalition against ISIS and of the costs of the fight against ISIS were mostly addressed by the American news agency, despite the great distance from France. Among the variables examined for the thesis, geographic proximity seems to have had an influence on only a few variables. More precisely, those variables were referring to the topics of: foreign fighters, radicalization, threat to democratic values, attacks, war crimes and genocide, counter-terrorism and extra measures, and military measures. All these topic-specific variables were reported the most by the French and the Belgian news agencies and seem to fulfil the initial expectations of the thesis. However, since only six of the seventeen variables examined seem to be driven by proximity, it cannot be stated that geographic proximity had an important role to play to the media coverage of ISIS in the four examined countries. Thus, the hypothesis of the thesis is invalid. A possible explanation for the results could be the fact that terrorist attacks are newsworthy regardless the target, because of their brutal nature and the images of high drama that they offer. Terrorist attacks arouse the interest of the public because they are unexpected and violent, they give rise to a huge variety of emotions, they trigger reactions and they have great societal and political impact. To state it in a different manner, terrorist attacks incorporate all the elements that past studies have

70 established that make an incident newsworthy: “timeliness; proximity; importance, impact or consequence; interest, conflict or controversy; sensationalism; prominence; and novelty, oddity or the unusual” (Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987, p.398; Eberhard, 1982; Shoemaker, Chang & Bredlinger, 1987; Shoemaker, Chang & Bredlinger, 2012, p.351; Shoemaker & Vos, 2009, p.25). Moreover, the transnational character of modern terrorism means that no country should be perceived as invincible, and that ascertainment makes terrorism newsworthy for international journalism. If we focus more on the notion of proximity than on the newsworthiness of terrorism, another possible explanation for the findings can be retrieved. Instead of thinking of proximity and distance in their traditional sense, proximity could be seen as the part of the world where each country is included. To be more specific, Wallerstein (1974) divided the world into the nations belonging to the core, the semi- periphery and the periphery. Applying the world system theory of Wallerstein (1974) to the flow of information, it is understood that since all the news agencies examined are based on countries belonging to the core of the system, the information and reporting about events taking place within this region will be intense. This is not necessarily true only because of them belonging to the same group of nations, but also because of their cultural proximity. All the countries examined are Western industrialized nations that stand for the respect of the values of human rights, freedom, equality and democracy. Therefore, an attack to one of those nations could be perceived as an attack to all of them, to what concerns the ideological level of analysis. Thus far, the literature concerning the influence of geographic proximity on the flow of information has been divisive. Some scholars have identified proximity as a factor of great value concerning the flow of information (Burns, 2002; Chang, Shoemaker & Bredlinger, 1987; DeLung, Magee, DeLauder & Maiorescu, 2012; Dupree, 1971; MacLean and Pinna, 1958; Neveu, 2002; Östgaard, 1965; Wolpert, 1966; Zipf, 1946), whereas others has dismissed the concept as of low importance (Hart, 1963; Hicks & Gordon, 1974; Johnson, 1997; Luttbeg, 1983; Vilanilam, 1983; Wu, 1997). Driven from that realization, this thesis tried to contribute to the debate over the influence of geographic proximity and relate that concept to a security- related issue. The combination of proximity to a terrorist attack and media coverage

71 offered the opportunity to study in depth terrorism as a media event and the factors that make terrorist attacks so newsworthy. Another contribution of the thesis is the conduct of media content analysis on the coverage of a relatively new terrorist threat. This study used statistical data, obtained from quantitative media content analysis in order to examine whether geographic proximity influenced the coverage of ISIS in four different news organizations. By following that path, the thesis contributed to the literature of news determinants by investigating the influence of one of those news values not only on the media coverage of a security treat, but also on particular aspects of that threat. However, the link between geographic proximity and media coverage of events is rather complex. In order to come up with more accurate conclusions about the relation between the two, there is the need for further research on the same or on different case studies. This study only examined the articles of Western news agencies. In order to increase the analytical value of the research, the paper should be expanded so as to include news organizations from other parts of the world. For example, it would be interesting to explore the importance of proximity in the case of news agencies stationed in the Middle East, which are though part of the international coalition against ISIS. In addition, future studies could compare the coverage of the Paris attacks with the coverage of the Beirut bombings in the same four news agencies. Proximity is more likely to influence that coverage and it is expected that the four news agencies will report more intensively about ISIS in the first case due to the countries’ inclusion in the category of core nations than in the second, where there is great geographical distance and no strong ties between those nations. Such practices would allow for a more extensive assessment of the validity of the hypothesis of the thesis. Notwithstanding the contribution of this paper, the study has limitations that should be outlined. As discussed above, the limitations of the study come from the selection of media based on Western nations. Geographic proximity is likely not going to affect the coverage of tragic events taking place in a Western nation, if the news organizations are also stationed in such countries. Terrorist attacks are so dramatic and violent that seem to make the components of the international community to work together so as to contain the threat, and this is even more evident in the case of Western nations, due to their ideological affinity. Because of their cultural proximity, Western nations are more likely to perceive a terrorist attack in

72 one of them as a threat to the Western system of values and beliefs as a whole. For that reason, the thesis should be expanded so as to either include agencies from non- Western countries, or focus on an attack to a non-Western nation. That way, the results would be more accurate and less deterministic, since the hypothesis would be re-examined from a different perspective. Guided by the debate over the importance of proximity to the news coverage of events, and the relationship between the media and terrorism, this thesis examined the relation between the two in the case of a terrorist attack. Specifically, the thesis tried to establish whether the media coverage of ISIS in four different countries was influenced by the proximity to France, which was the country-target of terrorist attacks claimed by that group. The analysis and the results discourage any claims of relationship between the two concepts in the case of terrorist incidents. The thesis has suggested that since the agencies examined are based on Western nations and the country targeted by ISIS also belongs to the category of Western industrialized nations, proximity is of low value. Rather than proximity, the fact that terrorist attacks fulfill all the conditions of newsworthy events seems to have influenced the media coverage of ISIS.

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100 9. Appendices

9.1. APPENDIX 1: Data from the Independent

This Appendix includes the results obtained from the conduct of content analysis to the articles of ‘The Independent’ from November 2015 to December 2015 on the topic of ISIS.

Statistics

Length of the Main actor Threat to states' Fear for attacks Foreign fighters article security

Valid 210 210 210 210 210 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

Radicalization Threat to Link to refugee Humanitarian Attacks, democratic crisis crisis executions, war values and crimes, beliefs genocide

Valid 210 210 210 210 210 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

Ct policies, Anti- Military action: Change in Need for measures, radicalization bombings, migration humanitarian changes measures troops etc. policies and action needed plans

Valid 210 210 210 210 210 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

Coalition actions, UN resolutions Economic costs of War on terror etc.

Valid 210 210 N Missing 0 0

101 Frequency Table

Length of the article

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

0-400 words 74 35,2 35,2 35,2

401-950 words 112 53,3 53,3 88,6 Valid 951+ words 24 11,4 11,4 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Main actor

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

ISIS 32 15,2 15,2 15,2

Valid Other countries, persons 178 84,8 84,8 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Threat to states' security

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 195 92,9 92,9 92,9

Valid Exists 15 7,1 7,1 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Fear for attacks

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 196 93,3 93,3 93,3 Valid Exists 14 6,7 6,7 100,0

102 Total 210 100,0 100,0

Foreign fighters

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 201 95,7 95,7 95,7

Valid Exists 9 4,3 4,3 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Radicalization

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 205 97,6 97,6 97,6

Valid Exists 5 2,4 2,4 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Threat to democratic values and beliefs

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 208 99,0 99,0 99,0

Valid Exists 2 1,0 1,0 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Link to refugee crisis

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 177 84,3 84,3 84,3

103 Exists 33 15,7 15,7 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Humanitarian crisis

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 209 99,5 99,5 99,5

Valid Exists 1 ,5 ,5 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Attacks, executions, war crimes, genocide

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 190 90,5 90,5 90,5

Valid Exists 20 9,5 9,5 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Ct policies, measures, changes needed

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 192 91,4 91,4 91,4

Valid Exists 18 8,6 8,6 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Anti-radicalization measures

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

104 Does not exist 207 98,6 98,6 98,6

Valid Exists 3 1,4 1,4 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Military action: bombings, troops etc.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 187 89,0 89,0 89,0

Valid Exists 23 11,0 11,0 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Change in migration policies and plans

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 201 95,7 95,7 95,7

Valid Exists 9 4,3 4,3 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Need for humanitarian action

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 207 98,6 98,6 98,6

Valid Exists 3 1,4 1,4 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Coalition actions, UN resolutions etc.

105 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 154 73,3 73,3 73,3

Valid Exists 56 26,7 26,7 100,0

Total 210 100,0 100,0

Economic costs of War on terror

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 210 100,0 100,0 100,0

9.2. APPENDIX 2: Data from ‘La Libre’

This Appendix includes the results obtained from the conduct of content analysis to the articles of ‘La Libre’ from November 2015 to December 2015 on the topic of ISIS.

Statistics

Length of the Main actor Threat to states' Fear for attacks Foreign fighters article security

Valid 122 122 122 122 122 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

Radicalization Threat to Link to refugee Humanitarian Attacks, democratic crisis crisis executions, war values and crimes, beliefs genocide

Valid 122 122 122 122 122 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

106 Ct policies, Anti- Military action: Change in Need for measures, radicalization bombings, migration humanitarian changes measures troops etc. policies and action needed plans

Valid 122 122 122 122 122 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

Coalition actions, UN resolutions Economic costs of War on terror etc.

Valid 122 122 N Missing 0 0

Frequency Table

Length of the article

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

0-400 words 64 52,5 52,5 52,5

401-950 words 53 43,4 43,4 95,9 Valid 951+ words 5 4,1 4,1 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Main actor

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

ISIS 19 15,6 15,6 15,6

Valid Other countries, persons 103 84,4 84,4 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Threat to states' security

107 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 114 93,4 93,4 93,4

Valid Exists 8 6,6 6,6 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Fear for attacks

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 119 97,5 97,5 97,5

Valid Exists 3 2,5 2,5 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Foreign fighters

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 111 91,0 91,0 91,0

Valid Exists 11 9,0 9,0 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Radicalization

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 121 99,2 99,2 99,2

Valid Exists 1 ,8 ,8 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Threat to democratic values and beliefs

108 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 122 100,0 100,0 100,0

Link to refugee crisis

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 117 95,9 95,9 95,9

Valid Exists 5 4,1 4,1 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Humanitarian crisis

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 122 100,0 100,0 100,0

Attacks, executions, war crimes, genocide

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 106 86,9 86,9 86,9

Valid Exists 16 13,1 13,1 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Ct policies, measures, changes needed

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 101 82,8 82,8 82,8 Valid Exists 21 17,2 17,2 100,0

109 Total 122 100,0 100,0

Anti-radicalization measures

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 121 99,2 99,2 99,2

Valid Exists 1 ,8 ,8 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Military action: bombings, troops etc.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 106 86,9 86,9 86,9

Valid Exists 16 13,1 13,1 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Change in migration policies and plans

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 120 98,4 98,4 98,4

Valid Exists 2 1,6 1,6 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Need for humanitarian action

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 122 100,0 100,0 100,0

110 Coalition actions, UN resolutions etc.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 84 68,9 68,9 68,9

Valid Exists 38 31,1 31,1 100,0

Total 122 100,0 100,0

Economic costs of War on terror

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 122 100,0 100,0 100,0

9.3. APPENDIX 3: Data from ‘Le Monde’

This Appendix includes the results obtained from the conduct of content analysis to the articles of ‘Le Monde’ from November 2015 to December 2015 on the topic of ISIS.

Statistics

Length of the Main actor Threat to states' Fear for attacks Foreign fighters article security

Valid 143 143 143 143 143 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

Radicalization Threat to Link to refugee Humanitarian Attacks, democratic crisis crisis executions, war values and crimes, beliefs genocide

Valid 143 143 143 143 143 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

111 Statistics

Ct policies, Anti- Military action: Change in Need for measures, radicalization bombings, migration humanitarian changes measures troops etc. policies and action needed plans

Valid 143 143 143 143 143 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

Coalition actions, UN resolutions Economic costs of War on terror etc.

Valid 143 143 N Missing 0 0

Frequency Table

Length of the article

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

0-400 words 37 25,9 25,9 25,9

401-950 words 72 50,3 50,3 76,2 Valid 951+ words 34 23,8 23,8 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Main actor

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

ISIS 21 14,7 14,7 14,7

Valid Other countries, persons 122 85,3 85,3 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

112 Threat to states' security

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 133 93,0 93,0 93,0

Valid Exists 10 7,0 7,0 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Fear for attacks

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 141 98,6 98,6 98,6

Valid Exists 2 1,4 1,4 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Foreign fighters

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 132 92,3 92,3 92,3

Valid Exists 11 7,7 7,7 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Radicalization

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 139 97,2 97,2 97,2

Valid Exists 4 2,8 2,8 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

113 Threat to democratic values and beliefs

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 141 98,6 98,6 98,6

Valid Exists 2 1,4 1,4 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Link to refugee crisis

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 133 93,0 93,0 93,0

Valid Exists 10 7,0 7,0 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Humanitarian crisis

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 143 100,0 100,0 100,0

Attacks, executions, war crimes, genocide

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 135 94,4 94,4 94,4

Valid Exists 8 5,6 5,6 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Ct policies, measures, changes needed

114 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 127 88,8 88,8 88,8

Valid Exists 16 11,2 11,2 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Anti-radicalization measures

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 140 97,9 97,9 97,9

Valid Exists 3 2,1 2,1 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Military action: bombings, troops etc.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 125 87,4 87,4 87,4

Valid Exists 18 12,6 12,6 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Change in migration policies and plans

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 140 97,9 97,9 97,9

Valid Exists 3 2,1 2,1 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Need for humanitarian action

115 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 143 100,0 100,0 100,0

Coalition actions, UN resolutions etc.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 87 60,8 60,8 60,8

Valid Exists 56 39,2 39,2 100,0

Total 143 100,0 100,0

Economic costs of War on terror

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 143 100,0 100,0 100,0

9.4. APPENDIX 4: Data from CNN

This Appendix includes the results obtained from the conduct of content analysis to the articles of ‘CNN’ from November 2015 to December 2015 on the topic of ISIS.

Statistics

Length of the Main actor Threat to states' Fear for attacks Foreign fighters article security

Valid 121 121 121 121 121 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

116 Radicalization Threat to Link to refugee Humanitarian Attacks, democratic crisis crisis executions, war values and crimes, beliefs genocide

Valid 121 121 121 121 121 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

Ct policies, Anti- Military action: Change in Need for measures, radicalization bombings, migration humanitarian changes measures troops etc. policies and action needed plans

Valid 121 121 121 121 121 N Missing 0 0 0 0 0

Statistics

Coalition actions, UN resolutions Economic costs of War on terror etc.

Valid 121 121 N Missing 0 0

Frequency Table

Length of the article

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

0-400 words 27 22,3 22,3 22,3

401-950 words 57 47,1 47,1 69,4 Valid 951+ words 37 30,6 30,6 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Main actor

117 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

ISIS 43 35,5 35,5 35,5

Valid Other countries, persons 78 64,5 64,5 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Threat to states' security

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 109 90,1 90,1 90,1

Valid Exists 12 9,9 9,9 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Fear for attacks

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 118 97,5 97,5 97,5

Valid Exists 3 2,5 2,5 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Foreign fighters

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 113 93,4 93,4 93,4

Valid Exists 8 6,6 6,6 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Radicalization

118 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 118 97,5 97,5 97,5

Valid Exists 3 2,5 2,5 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Threat to democratic values and beliefs

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 120 99,2 99,2 99,2

Valid Exists 1 ,8 ,8 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Link to refugee crisis

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 114 94,2 94,2 94,2

Valid Exists 7 5,8 5,8 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Humanitarian crisis

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 121 100,0 100,0 100,0

Attacks, executions, war crimes, genocide

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

119 Does not exist 117 96,7 96,7 96,7

Valid Exists 4 3,3 3,3 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Ct policies, measures, changes needed

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 113 93,4 93,4 93,4

Valid Exists 8 6,6 6,6 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Anti-radicalization measures

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 118 97,5 97,5 97,5

Valid Exists 3 2,5 2,5 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Military action: bombings, troops etc.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 106 87,6 87,6 87,6

Valid Exists 15 12,4 12,4 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Change in migration policies and plans

120 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 119 98,3 98,3 98,3

Valid Exists 2 1,7 1,7 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Need for humanitarian action

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Does not exist 121 100,0 100,0 100,0

Coalition actions, UN resolutions etc.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 68 56,2 56,2 56,2

Valid Exists 53 43,8 43,8 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

Economic costs of War on terror

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Does not exist 119 98,3 98,3 98,3

Valid Exists 2 1,7 1,7 100,0

Total 121 100,0 100,0

121