Government officials, media critics, and the public at large appear to believe that the media "cause" or strongly motivate acts of terrorism. However, analysis using Kenneth Burke's dramatistic method can explain political terrorism without reference to desire for coverage. Terrorism would occur because of its symbolic value even with no…

Rhetorical critics must examine terrorism to determine what contributions they can make to the understanding of rhetoric and to the evaluation of proposed responses to the terrorist threat. Not only must the rhetorical acts of crusader terrorists be viewed as rhetoric, but they must also be considered a rhetorical genre. This genre, with the…

This paper explores the idea that the media "cause" or strongly motivate acts of terrorism. In an effort to refute this view the paper applies Kenneth Burke's dramatistic theory of communication to show that the motives and behavior of political terrorists can be explained without reference to the media coverage terrorism produces. The…

Based on the premise that existing research into terrorism shows great promise, this paper notes that, despite widespread recognition of terrorism's communicative dimensions, few studies have been done from within the discipline of speech communication. The paper defines the discipline of speech communication and rhetorical studies, reviews the…

The attention of Americans and their mass media to the lengthy hostage-taking episode known as the "Iran Hostage Crisis" was unprecedented, especially in light of the apparently limited significance of the hostage-taking as a geo-political event. A study used fantasy-theme analysis of print news coverage (news stories, editorials,…