ABSTRACT
As terrorism becomes increasingly transnational, one of the "two-edged weapons" used both by it and against it is the media. Terrorists seek to use the media for specific purposes; the governments against which groups and individuals commit terrorist acts want to use the media for different but equally important reasons; and the media itself have goals in the context of reporting terrorist events. Brigette Nacos suggests that the media and terrorism do not simply have compatible goals but that communication and propaganda have an inevitable and primary role in both the terrorist's planning and contemporary mass media's appetite for "feeding" the public. Tactical gains in publicity are usually measured in terms of getting information concerning demands that must be met within a time frame to more than just the law enforcement officers at the scene. To recruit effectively, groups must convey legitimacy and identity, a clear sense of purpose and identity to those who might be seeking similar political goals.
