Media Content Analysis of Governmental Impact on Terrorist Reporting

Terrorism would not be an issue without reactions from the media. Additionally, when terrorism occurs, the government has to respond to it. Therefore, if both have a connection to terrorism, how do they work together, how do they impact each other, and is the Agenda Setting Theory present? Using three recent attacks, the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Manchester Arena Attack, and the Orlando Nightclub Shooting, this paper analyzes the kind of wording used by the media and how the government influences that wording through press releases. The study hypothesizes that he neutral language of the media decreases after a government press release and is replaced by an increasing occurrence of charged language when the government provides an update or new information. Using four neutral words: bombing or shooting, incident/event, investigation, and attack, as well as four charged words: ‘terror’, Islamist, extremist, and criminal, a content analysis will be done on articles from CNN, Fox News, New York Times, The Times,Le Monde, and Irish Independentpublished before and after a government press release about each event. When comparing how often each word occurs, the hypothesis was not supported by the data, but through this research, the international relations and communications fields know that there is a dead end here that does not require more research