Date of Graduation
2002
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MA
Committee Chair
Lawrence T. Nichols
Abstract
This study follows the construction of terrorist bombings in four major United States’ newspapers. Data was collected from two sources, including a listing of the population of articles related to each attack and the first page full-length article of each attack. The population or articles were analyzed for date, length, and general intent and the individual articles were analyzed for keywords that corresponded to categories such as Aggressor, Victim, Motive, and Target. The data from these two sources were combined to provide a basis on which the mass media could be compared for the way in which terrorist bombings are constructed, based on two conditions the location of the bombing and the traditional political stance of the media. The findings illustrate that mass print media devotes coverage to bombings occurring within US borders and traditionally conservative media outlets contain more, but not necessarily longer, articles than traditionally liberal media outlets.
Recommended Citation
Leonette, Thomas Joseph, "When bombs explode: Mass print media's construction of the terrorist bombings of United States targets." (2002). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 10631.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/10631