Comparing How Different News Networks Report Terror Attacks

• In Event: Research in Five (Undergraduate Students)

Abstract

The press plays a vital role in information sharing in America’s modern society. It is now widely accepted that Republicans watch Fox, Democrats watch MSNBC, and CNN is sort of a middle ground. To get to this point, these channels have created programming and shaped their coverage to appeal to these different groups. Social science literature has echoed this; Fox News coverage of events such as the Iraq War and national elections - as well as reporting on climate change - have been more supportive of Republican and conservative interests than their competitors. MSNBC, on the other hand, has been found to be more supportive of liberal and Democratic interests. For this project, I will analyze the different ways that these three networks report, portray, and describe terrorism. In particular, I focus on three significant, but distinct, acts of terrorism: the attacks of 9/11 (an attack by foreign nationals on a domestic target), the 2015 Paris attacks (an attack by foreign nationals on foreign targets), and the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting (an attack by an American on an American target). I will look at the tone of reporting, the use of experts, and what the reports focus on, for example, if the report is more about the victims or the attacker(s). From this, we will be able to detect a pattern of bias within each network and study how it influences that networks viewers. I will compare media representation on different attacks of terrorism by studying three different American News Networks- CNN, MSNBC, and FOX.

Authors

• Dara E Evans

• Stephen C. Nemeth, Oklahoma State University