Terrorism and the Media: Toward a New Measure of Media-Orientation

Numerous studies have shown that there is a "symbiotic relationship" between terrorism and the media, and that media-oriented terrorist attacks can help terrorism gain more media coverage, thereby producing the social impact it needs, ultimately achieving its longer term goals. This paper proposes a ten variable measurement scale for media-oriented terrorism. The variables and their theoretical rationale are set out and the reliability and validity of the measurement tool are tested. The ten variables were defined with a good level of inter-rater reliability, and the external validity of the scale is demonstrated through the difference in media-orientation scores between lone actor and terrorist organisation attacks. Furthermore, an increase in media-oriented terrorism is demonstrated over a period of three decades from the 1990s through to the 2010s.