Terrorism and the media: An empirical analysis

The conventional wisdom is that media attention causes terrorism, yet empirical investigation of this widely held belief has been sparse. This research uses a terrorism micro data set with media variables to explore the link between terrorism and media attention. Using coverage of terrorist incidents in the New York Times as a proxy for media attention, we determine which specific characteristics of terrorist events attract notice by the media and measure the effects that these characteristics have on media coverage. We also investigate whether media coverage empirically causes terrorism. Results indicate that media attention does not Granger cause terrorism.