Terrorism and the Information Security of Media Content

Abstract

Terrorism in our days poses new challenges to the European governments and citizens as well, because it operates with new tools, much more professional leaders with presumably strategic thinking – compared to previous times – and with a communication activity involving the media, especially the electronic media. Out of the range of terrorist organisations, the present study chooses and discusses ISIS in detail. Although recently the citizens in Europe have also witnessed some terrorist acts, the large majority of them (fortunately) meet only the mediatized reality. However, the information content of news, fake news and hoaxes can often be questioned. The authors choose the transformation model from the communication models in order to demonstrate how many actors are needed to transfer the – edited - messages about terrorism, violence, suffering, etc. to the final (media) consumer, who can also act as a forwarder or sharer of messages. The model also reflects on the forwarders of messages related to terrorism as well as the main differences among shared topics. The categorised target groups consuming media content are also defined. The study also covers the ISIS message sent to the people in the Balkans and the target groups – which are supposed to be receptive to the message. Russia can also be an important factor in the war against terrorism – due to its world power status and geopolitical location – as it is discussed in the last section of the paper. The closing chapter of the study gives an analysis of the possible responses given by the European societies to the activities of terrorist organisations.