A serene-looking man wearing white and gold, in a professional portrait; a yearbook photograph of a fresh-faced high school student with bright eyes and scruffy dark hair; a gesturing man mid-speech, wielding a blood-stained machete: these images, at first, have little in common. They communicate vastly different ideas about their subjects, and only the last has any obvious signals of violence or crime. But these images all present portrayals of terrorists which, taken together, form a complex and compelling narrative of what it means to be an iconic villain , a ‘terrorist’, in the post-9/11 political climate.
This book is a study of these images—specifically, the mainstream media ’s portrayal and punishment of terrorists (post-9/11) in a cultural, historical context. The research presented in the following chapters examines portrayals of Osama bin Laden , the Boston Bombers , Saddam Hussein , Michael Adebolajo , Abu Hamza and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—cases chosen as clear examples of individuals known as ‘terrorists’ (post-9/11), either through having committed acts of terrorism, or by representing the terrorist threat in the wider War on Terror .
It focuses, too, on images that emerged in mainstream British and American publications or broadcasters, both online and in print. Together, these publications and broadcasters have formed the dominant narratives around current political affairs, and terrorists especially. 1 The images chosen by media outlets, and the ways in which they are framed, creates a mosaic of ideas and assertions not only about what a terrorist represents, but about the cultural world from which this figure emerges. ‘The terrorist’ is a monster created by Western culture, as well as the term for an individual who has committed terrible crimes. This book looks at that monster, rather than the individuals who inspire it—it focusses on the caricaturish villain whose power and meaning goes beyond whatever a terrorist individual did or said. This is not to trivilialise or underplay the significance of any acts of terrorism, or to undermine the feelings directed at those individuals, particularly those of victims of terrorism. Rather, it is to acknowledge the difference between representation and reality, and to explore, in that context, the ritualistic and creative ways that society deals with trauma, anxiety and political conflict.
Indeed, this ‘terrorist’ figure serves a much wider purpose than is perhaps first apparent; he or she, transformed into an iconic villain , becomes, when living, a terrifying spectre onto which society’s fears and anxieties may be pinned. When dead, or captured, conversely, he or she is a means through which viewers may feel relieved and consoled. A monster has gone, a baddie captured. The children can sleep safely in their beds once more. It happens so often it is almost a bedtime routine.
In examining media portrayals of terrorists, this book aims to explain how representations of their punishment and death are used to scapegoat those figures in order to bring about narrative closure , and therein a sense of catharsis for a wider audience. By analysing the way that the media depicts terrorists with particular emphasis on their visual content, the following chapters reveal the myriad ways in which the meaning of ‘the terrorist’ is derived not only from a modern context, but also from a broader cultural, historical context—from iconic images and figures of the past who linger in the Western imagination and determine the ways in which certain visual motifs and codes are processed and understood.
Three central questions define the direction of this study, which are as follows: (1) What does a terrorist look like, and why does it matter? (2) What is the function of the public punishment of terrorists, as shown through the mainstream media ? And (3) how are neo-Orientalist ideas communicated through these portrayals? In order to answer these questions, a central aim of this book is the development of a theory of cathartic scapegoating, based on the ideas of René Girard , Stanley Cohen and Mary Douglas , but developed to highlight the importance of catharsis through narrative closure that is inherent to this social ritual , and its direct relevance to political ideas about Western unity and superiority. The Portrayal and Punishment of Terrorists in Western Media asserts that this scapegoating ritual works by invoking longstanding myths to its audience in a way that heightens and then relieves a sense of crisis, through its narrative arc. In repeating certain visual and narrative tropes, these myths are familiar and potent, and work to affect an audience on an emotional and subconscious level. In this sense, the scapegoating ritual functions in a way that is cathartic and builds national unity following social crisis. It is an emotional process with clearly political consequences, if an audience responds to the ritual—and the need for ‘closure ’—as they have been encouraged to.
A second central aim of this book is the development of a related methodological approach that is termed here as ‘intervisuality ’, and which combines elements of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis , genealogy , iconology and visual semiotics . This idea and method of intervisuality is related to the aforementioned theory of scapegoating in the sense that it enables the analysis of images in a way that accounts for the relevance of associated images and narratives, and the meaning acquired therein. In particular, the intervisual method used in this book enables a thorough investigation into the connections between portrayals of modern terrorists and past portrayals of witches, Guy Fawkes , and the victims of lynching in the American South.
While there are many other cases and images that may well have been included in such a study of portrayals of terrorists, it would be unrealistic to attempt to explore every relevant case with any real depth, within the confines of a single monograph. Rather, this book aims to show how these three cases contribute to the meaning and potency of modern portrayals of terrorists, therefore providing a blueprint with which one can consider how other images and cases may also contribute. This book suggests a way of thinking about modern iconic images, as much as it presents analysis itself. It is hoped that readers will consider this study as a green light to explore other key images (or even the same images) in an intervisual manner, exploring the myriad connections between images and the political implications therein.
Together, then, these theoretical and methodological foundations enable a study of portrayals of modern terrorists that can begin to explore the legacy of Western culture that contributes to their meaning, as well as the ritualistic and emotional nature of their function. Such a study is then able to answer those aforementioned key questions, ultimately arguing that the portrayal and punishment of terrorists in the Western media perpetuates colonialist attitudes, due to the visual connections between these modern images and past representations of iconic , punished villains , used as part of a wider scapegoating ritual that requires remembrance and emotional engagement with cultural history and mythology to function. In particular, neo-Orientalist notions of ‘evil ’, ‘barbarism ’ and ‘impurity ’ dominate modern discourse about terrorists, in a way that associates them with past villains, understood in a colonialist context.
The rest of this introduction provides an overview of the chapters and gives definitions of key terms and concepts. In particular, it explores the idea of the ‘terrorist’ further, drawing from Critical Terrorism Studies scholarship, as well as from the aesthetic movement in International Relations and the iconic turn in cultural sociology . Having discussed this particular context, it is then possible to ...