ABSTRACT
From “embedded reporters” and round-the-clock images of Old Glory, to live broadcasts of the “shock and awe” bombing campaign and the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, the role of the mass media in the “war on terror” was central and pervasive. Although a flurry of recent scholarship examines the nexus of these two subjects (Chapter 23 in this volume; Kuypers 2006; Martin and Petro 2006; Schechter 2003), few have situated their analysis within larger theoretical frameworks that could explain a diverse array of related phenomena. In what follows, I sketch such a model, which operates on the premise first proposed by Giddens and Beck that many of the seemingly unrelated yet formidable problems facing the human community are in fact calculated, manufactured risks deemed acceptable by economic and political global leaders and generated by a small nexus of interlinked processes (Beck 1992). I further argue that the partnership of the mass media is essential to the effective functioning of this global process.
