Unpacking cyberterrorism discourse: Specificity, status, and scale in news media constructions of threat

Jarvis, Lee ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4149-7135, Macdonald, Stuart and Whiting, Andrew (2017) Unpacking cyberterrorism discourse: Specificity, status, and scale in news media constructions of threat. European Journal of International Security, 2 (1). pp. 64-87. ISSN 2057-5645

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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
Uncontrolled Keywords:	cyberterrorism,discourse,media,construction,threat
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Critical Global Politics Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Political, Social and International Studies
Related URLs:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa2...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	21 Jun 2016 12:06
Last Modified:	27 Jan 2024 02:51
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/59432
DOI:	10.1017/eis.2016.14

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