ABSTRACT
Terrorist theory was gradually realizing the potency of the mass media. Acts of terrorism were more and more perceived as means of persuasion, when the victim is "the skin on a drum beaten to achieve a calculated impact on a wider audience." The emergence of media-oriented terrorism led several communication and terrorism scholars to reconceptualize modern terrorism within the framework of symbolic communication theory. Media coverage of terrorist events must explain the motive for the cruel and brutal aggression, directed mainly against innocent victims. The motives of terrorists were found to have a good chance of being mentioned on the first page of a daily newspaper or among the first three stories in a nightly television newscast. The concept of a "Stockholm syndrome" entered the popular lexicon in the wake of a protracted bank robbery in Sweden's capital in August 1973. The event gained world attention because of the psychological transformation of the hostages held captive over a five-day period.
