Unpacking cyberterrorism discourse: Specificity, status, and scale in news media constructions of threat
Jarvis, Lee and Macdonald, Stuart and Whiting, Andrew (2016) Unpacking cyberterrorism discourse: Specificity, status, and scale in news media constructions of threat. European Journal of International Security, 2 (1). pp. 64-87. ISSN 2057-5637
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Abstract
This article explores original empirical findings from a research project investigating representations of cyberterrorism in the international news media. Drawing on a sample of 535 items published by 31 outlets between 2008 and 2013, it focuses on four questions. First, how individuated a presence is cyberterrorism given within news media coverage? Second, how significant a threat is cyberterrorism deemed to pose? Third, how is the identity of ‘cyberterrorists’ portrayed? And, fourth, who or what is identified as the referent – that which is threatened – within this coverage? The article argues that constructions of specificity, status and scale play an important, yet hitherto under-explored, role within articulations of concern about the threat posed by cyberterrorism. Moreover, unpacking news coverage of cyberterrorism in this way leads to a more variegated picture than that of the vague and hyperbolic media discourse often identified by critics. The article concludes by pointing to several promising future research agendas to build on this work.
| Item Type: | Article | ||||||
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| Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1017/eis.2016.14 | ||||||
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| Subjects: | CAH15 - social sciences > CAH15-03 - politics > CAH15-03-01 - politics | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Law, Social and Criminal Justice | ||||||
| Depositing User: | Andrew Whiting | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 04 Jan 2018 08:52 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 11 Jun 2024 12:50 | ||||||
| URI: | https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/5431 |
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