The circle of terror: strategic localizations of global media terror meta-discourses in the US,India and Scotland

Abstract

This critical discourse analysis (CDA) examines media commentary on terror events in three countries in which the events occurred – the US, India and Scotland – to explore and compare the media’s role in the construction, ideological conception, and recommended response to terrorism. Media commentary in each of the three countries is juxtaposed to expose similarities and differences in editorials about the 11 September 2001 (9/11) attacks in the US, the 26 November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, and the release of the Lockerbie bomber on 20 August 2009 in Scotland. The authors argue that the collective (inter)national media construction of ‘terrorism event spheres’ transcends a specific terrorist event, national boundary and time to confine and define what is, and is not, terrorism. They discursively exclude from public discourse ‘reality zones’ associated with the political, historical, social, religious, cultural and ideological positions, and justifications of terrorism. There are also observed localizations of the global terror discourse suggesting internal particularities and contexts within which the terror events occur.