About the Book

The book examines the 'new' environment of conflict in the post-9/11 age, in which there appear to be emerging threats to security and stability in the shape of individuals and groups holding or espousing 'radical' views about religion, ideology, often represented in the media as oppositional to 'Western values'. This book asks what, if anything, is 'new' about these 'radicalising' discourses, how and why do these relate to 'political' acts of violence and terror, and what is the role of the mass media in promoting or hindering them?

The book looks into the nature of radicalising discourses in Web 2.0 spaces and how these communications as well as acts of political violence broadcast on the web are supported and 'legitimised'. This includes exploring how the acts themselves and explanations for them on the web are 'picked up' and represented in mainstream television news media or Big Media, through the journalistic and editorial uses of words, phrases, graphics, images, and videos. It analyses how interpretations of the term 'radicalisation' are shaped by news representations through investigating audience responses, understandings and misunderstandings. Transnational in scope, this book seeks to contribute to an understanding of the connectivities and relationships that make up the new media ecology, especially those that appear to transcend the local and the global, accelerate the dissemination of radicalising discourses, and amplify media/public fears of political violence.

This book will be of great interest to students of political violence/terrorism, security studies, media studies and politics.