News Coverage of Foiled Terrorist Plots

• In Event: Media Representations of Mass Shootings and Violent Episodic Crime

Abstract

Research on crime and the news has found that not all criminal events are treated equally. Scholars have demonstrated that certain features of victims, offenders, and law enforcement response make some criminal events more newsworthy than others. However, this body of research has yet to examine how terrorist plots foiled by law enforcement are covered by the news. This study aims to expand knowledge in this area by providing a media distortion analysis of failed terrorist plots. All failed and foiled plot data from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) will be examined on whether an incident was covered and how much coverage it received in the New York Times. Predictors of prominence and salience will be identified. Findings will advance our understanding of what makes a failed terrorist attack newsworthy, and further inform how the public is exposed to terrorism and law enforcement efforts.

Authors

• Meagan Abel, Michigan State University

• Steven M. Chermak, Michigan State University

• Jeff Gruenewald, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis

• Joshua D. Freilich, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY

• Brent Klein, Michigan State University