/ Media is at the heart of many public debates in the same way as terrorism and Islam are part of a global discourse since the events of 9/11 in the United States. This article attempts to use the social construction of social problems approach to understand the media's imaging of `terrorists' in the context of Singapore. Combining media research with social critical reflection provides the tools to identify the social rationale dimension. The application of such a procedure reveals the complex relationships between the media and their role in the process of `nationbuilding'. The city-state fits the order model of society, where social integration, order and stability are fundamental. The Singaporean population is predominantly non-Islamic Chinese; however, geographically Singapore is located between Malaysia, a Muslim country, and Indonesia, where 89 percent of the population are Muslims. The article looks at Singapore's mainstream English-language newspaper, The Straits Times , and its representation of terrorists following the events of 9/11. The data cover three periods: (1) immediately after 9/11; (2) between January and February 2002, when a group of men accused of `terrorism-related activities' were arrested in Singapore; and (3) September 2002, when Singapore's authorities announced the arrest of a second group of `suspect terrorists'.
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