The cost of fair report

The prisoner, skeletal and hallowed like he has endured months of torture, kneels on the ground and hands bound behind his back. His orange robes hang off him giving the appearance they once fit the man he used to be. Beside him stand an Islamic state militant, clad in black, a balaclava covering his face. In his hand a haunting machete. We’ve seen it all too many times before, we know how this story ends. But still we watch.

Of course we watch, or listen, the message the videos are exactly as terrifying as they are meant to be. There is no reason we wouldn’t be scared and that’s exactly what they want.

In the past journalists have been used as Joe Blow’s window to the war. Previous military campaigns saw journalists play a vital role in showing the average white collar worker what was going on in distant lands where fighting took place. They often strived to bring home news of triumph and victory. But as the nature of both war and journalism have changed in recent years and perhaps it is time we reconsider the role of journalists in conflict.

While most of the wars the world has seen until now were about on the ground fighting, dropping bombs and governments exchanging threats, the conflict with the Islamic State is something entirely different. IS are an extremely tech-savvy organisation that employ strong social media tactics in almost everything they do from recruitment and propaganda to executions. It is not uncommon for IS militants to make social media declarations before, during, or after attacks. It is clear they are using it as a way to promote fear and exercise power. US security expert, Brian Jenkins once said that “terrorism is theatre” and this is exactly what he meant.

Scholars Alex Peter Schmid and Janny de Graaf explained terrorism in terms of communication. The success or failure of an act of terrorism is determined by the size of its audience, not the number of casualties. Using this logic we should think that if the media were to seize reporting on acts of terror by IS they might just seize to have the impact and influence they do.

But why then do we continue to feed into this terror cycle? Put simply, it sells. Of course there are more philosophical reasons about the public’s right to know and the duty of the journalist. But perhaps it was time we had the discussion of whether it is worth the toll it is taking.