Terrorism, Media, Liberation: (Rutgers Depth of Field Series)

September 11, 2001 made the dangers of terrorism horrifyingly real for Americans. Although not the first or only attack on U.S. soil, its magnitude renewed old debates and raised fresh concerns about the relations between media and such events. How should the news-print, cable, network, radio, Internet-cover stories? What visual evidence does the public have the "right" to see and what is not acceptable to show to the viewing public at home? How can-or should-such events be retold cinematically? Bringing together fifteen classic essays by prominent scholars in a variety of fields, including history, international relations, communications, American studies, anthropology, political science, and cultural studies, Terrorism, Media, Liberation explores the relationship between violent political actions and the technological media that present and frame them for mass audiences. Fundamental to the idea of terrorism is the psychological impact that violent acts have on those not directly involved. Essays examine concerns over the creation of spectacle and the propagation of fear and argue that the mediated ways the public learns about these events unavoidably shape our understanding of terrorism as a contemporary threat. With a thoughtful introduction by J. David Slocum, this timely and important collection provides a historical, rather than simplistically moral perspective on the current, thoroughly mediated, "war on terrorism."

Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: The Recurrent Return to Algiers by J. David Slocum Film and the Anarchist Peril by Richard Porton Disruption, Destruction, Denial: Hitchcock as Saboteur by Susan Smith Two Faces of 1950s Terrorism: The Film Presentation of Mau Mau and the Malayan Emergency by Susan Carruthers The Battle of Algiers: Colonial Struggle and Collective Allegiance by Murray Smith Discourses of Terrorism, Feminism, and the Family in von Trotta's Marianne and Juliane by E. Ann Kaplan The Television Terrorist by Bethami A. Dobkin Iran, Islam, and the Terrorist Threat, 1979-1989 by Melani McAlister Simulations and Terrors of Our Time by Robert Merrill  Mass-Mediated Terrorism in the New World (Dis)Order by Brigitte L. Nacos Traditions of Representation: Political Violence and the Myth of Atavism by Martin McLoone Fragmenting the Nation: Images of Terrorism in Indian Popular Cinema by Sumita S. Chakravarty Who Was Afraid of Patrice Lumumba? Terror and the Ethical Imagination in Lumumba: La Mort du Prophet by Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg Violence and Vision: The Prosthetics and Aesthetics of Terror by Allen Feldman Theses on the Questions of War: History, Media, Terror by Rosalind C. Morris 9/11: Before, After, and In Between by James Der Derian Contributors Index

About the Author :
J. DAVID SLOCUM is associate dean in the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University. He is the editor of Violence and American Cinema.