Despite the broad inquiries done on the negative effects of media violence specifically in movies, my bachelor thesis focuses on the influence of television coverage of real-life violence on Lebanese young adults. It examines the criteria of selection of shocking visuals in terrorist attacks reporting. As such, several news stories that show disturbing images of terrorist activities in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) were analyzed to deduce their role in desensitizing viewers to violence and changing the attitudes of young audiences.
The cultivation theory and its bystander effect were applied to investigate whether or not constant repetitions of visuals related to terrorism make viewers jaded towards violence. My study employed a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods. I conducted three in-depth interviews to analyze the relationship between media and terrorism from psychological and journalistic perspectives. This was complemented by the circulation of an online survey along with a case study of two terrorist attacks: one in Turkey and the other in Syria.
The findings of my paper prove that Lebanese media only focus on specific types of terrorist acts. Attacks that are situated in the limelight and that involve Lebanese citizens receive more media attention than non-trending attacks. Regardless of gender, television channels act as an influential agent in the society by slightly changing youth’s perception of reality even if they are light viewers. However, media alone are not responsible for people’s resilience to terrorism. Although relevant, these results cannot be generalized due to a small sample size and a limited number of past researches about this topic.
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Tracy Saade 