Terrorist Financing and the Role of the Media

Terrorism and Media
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Introduction
Terrorism is a global issue of concern. The growth of technology and the internet has increased terrorist activities. The terrorists have used the media as an asset and tool for their activities. As terrorism increased from 2001, governments had to design strategies and ways to counter it. Investment of significant efforts such as emotional, financial, and political is a major part of countering terrorism all around the globe. Counter-terrorism takes place from all the levels: local, regional, national and international. Most of these efforts and strategies by national security teams pertains countering violent extremism (CVE). These actions help in reducing resilience amongst the terrorist and decreasing the number of vulnerabilities resulting from terrorist activities (Elshimi, 2018).
Role and relationship of Media and Terrorism
The role of media in terrorism is enormous. The role the media plays is countering terrorist activities has not been exhaustively covered. This included film, print, and television media. The integration of digital media: social media, games, apps and the internet have increased the influence media has on terrorism. At first, the notion was that media would help counter terrorism by drawing awareness and spreading information on how to eliminate it. Transmission of messages through different media platforms regarding identifying and reporting terrorist activities increased.

However, this has led to an increase in the activities instead. In fact, media coverage may be the reason for increased terrorist activities (Elshimi, 2018). This is because the media is providing the terrorist with the type of publicity they need to grow their activities and pass their messages. Terrorist are focusing on areas why there is more publicity coverage so as to attract the attention of the media and hence of the public.
In the late nineteenth century, terrorists passed their messages and views by use of victims, for example in Central and Southern America. They have since they switched to media and publicity to achieve the same goal. The media and terrorist have a symbiotic relationship. This is because they both have a common goal; capture the attention of the public. The media gives the terrorists a platform through which their views reach the masses. On the other hand, the media gets news from the terrorist. Given that, coverage of big stories that affect the public measures the success of a media house, terrorism is one of the top stories. Therefore, media houses go to any length to extract information and report the news to the masses. The worse the news the more it sells. Therefore, the two benefit from each other and though unconsciously work towards the same goal of speaking the world (Eid, 2014). It is noteworthy that how the media tells their terrorism stories is the major determinant of the impact it has.
Conclusion
The media and terrorism, though on opposite sides of morality and social ideology, benefit from each other. It is hard to separate the two. This is because the use of media is inevitable. Media plays a key role in countering terrorism. We can consider its ability to increase terrorist activities as a collateral damage. However, media regulations should be strict on the coding of messages reaching the public and the extent of coverage. This will help lame terrorist if the messages do not serve their course. Although the relationship between media and terrorism seem inseparable, crippling it is the best solution such that the terrorists are disadvantaged.
References
Elshimi, M. (2018). Thinking about the Symbiotic Relationship between the Media and Terrorism.
Eid, M. (Ed.). (2014). Exchanging terrorism oxygen for media airwaves: The age of terroredia: The age of terroredia. IGI Global.