Asymmetric coverage of asymmetric violence: How US print news media report far-right terrorism

Examining print media coverge of far-right terror attacks in the U.S.

Abstract

Until recently, terrorism perpetrated by far-right actors garnered relatively little attention from the public and policymakers. The nascent literature on news media and terrorism focuses on Muslim-perpetrated versus non-Muslim-perpetrated attacks, finding that Muslim-perpetrated attacks receive more news coverage, and that coverage is more likely to frame the attack as terrorism. Yet, little is known about how media cover far-right terrorism. In this chapter, we examine print media coverage of far-right terror attacks in the U.S. from 2006 to 2015 as coded in the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). First, we focus on far-right versus other types of attacks to examine differences in both the amount of coverage received and whether that coverage mentions terrorism. Next, we examine differences in media coverage between sub-motives of far-right attacks. Relative to other attacks, far-right attacks in the U.S. receive far less coverage on average and that coverage is significantly less likely to frame the attack as terrorism. Yet, there is less variance in both agenda-setting and framing between sub-motivations of the broader far-right umbrella. Together, this suggests that attention is being overly focused on some terrorist threats while other real threats to our security are underplayed.

Relative to other attacks, far-right attacks in the U.S. receive far less coverage on average and that coverage is significantly less likely to frame the attack as terrorism.

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