The rise of Al Qaeda, religious militancy and terrorism Essay

The rise of Al Qaeda, religious combativeness and act of terrorist act - Essay ExampleAccording to Marshall McLuhan, one of the pillars of mass media theory, without communication, terrorism would not exist. Certainly, terrorism existed well before mass media but the latter definitely gave the former a great advantage. Before, terrorism is limited to the area that goons, thugs or soldiers sack up reach. Today, one can just create a newsworthy event and the scope of exposure is limitless. This was what bin Laden and radix exploited. He saw that mass media can be used to get attention, to gain recognition, and even to obtain a certain degree of respectfulness and legitimacy. It can be said that al-Qaedas rise to power were determined by how bin Laden used the media to get his message across to the valet de chambre. He knew that his organization needed an internationalistic audience to gain legitimacy because without it, he would not be able to get funding and enlisting would be more difficult to accomplish. With malicious precision in manipulating the media, bin Laden was able to spark al-Qaeda as an organization that the world needs to take seriously. Hoffman states that terrorists, as exemplified by bin Laden, aims to rein and control by sending a message of fearand there is no better room to bring fear to the masses than through the media. Bin Laden recognized that when the masses are white-lipped for their lives, it propagates uncertainty and chaos, not scarce to a large population, but more importantly, to the nations democratic leaders.... 5). Hoffman (as cited in Fiore, 2011, p. 27) states that terrorists, as exemplified by bin Laden, aims to dominate and control by sending a message of fearand there is no better way to instill fear to the masses than through the media. But why instill fear? Bin Laden recognized that when the masses are afraid for their lives, it propagates uncertainty and chaos, not only to a large population, but more impor tantly, to the nations democratic leaders (p. 27 Soriano, 2008, p. 2). This instability can motivate people, and even governments, to think and react differently than they would have otherwise, making them lean towards making decisions that would favor al-Qaeda (p. 27). Aside from exploiting this strategy, al-Qaeda also became infamous for making good on their threats and doing it in a optical manner that would gain the most attention and implant the most fear and hatred. The organizations attacks were justly in that it was grand yet personal, vast yet meaningful. This can perfectly be seen in the 9/11 attacks, in which the entire world was treated to a visual overload of exploding buildingsthe World deal Center and the Pentagon, no lessplanes crashing, and hundreds of people dying or jumping to their deaths. Every channel for the contiguous few daysand even yearsbroadcasted the attacks. The attacks were large-scale, in a country considered to be a world power, against a buildin g that is a symbol of international collaboration, and they came at a time the world to the lowest degree expected them. The attention al-Qaeda got was monumental. If people were not awake of the existence of al-Qaeda, they sure were made aware on the morning of September 11, 2001. And the message was clear and powerful.