Terrorism and the mass media: A systemic analysis of a symbiotic process

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Abstract
The public role of the mass media in most Western industrialized societies is (in addition to making a profit) to inform and educate citizens in the ways of democracy. By contrast, the goal of organized terrorists groups is to upset these orderly processes and to achieve private, usually unpopular, political and informational goals. Along the way, these violent groups use and abuse the media and the state. They, in turn, are reciprocally used and abused in the process. Both terrorism's and media's roles, techniques, and expectations are explained and the media‐terrorist interactive system described. A case study of the Italian Red Brigades’ (Brigate Rosse or BR) 1978 kidnapping and murder of Aldo Mow is presented for illustrative purposes. Some conclusions and suggestions for changing the cycle‐of‐violence system through media, governmental, diplomatic, and rhetorical reforms are also offered for consideration in the context of future public/media policymaking and publicizing terrorism for informational, rather than exploitative, purposes.