Page 15 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

4 Benjamin Cole
Deficiencies in media practice can also negatively impact on non-state combatants,
ability to access the media. These deficiencies include: partisanship, lack of
professionalism, willing collusion with the state or other elites, the pursuit of
sensationalism, corruption and reluctance to challenge hierarchies that pervade
the societies in which they operate (McCargo 2003: 16–17).
Over the past decade the advent of new media communications in Asia,
particularly the internet, has diminished the impact of censorship and added a
new dimension to the role of the media in sub-state conflict. One of the principal
advantages of the internet is that it offers combatants the opportunity to bypass
the media ‘gatekeepers’, ensuring that they can communicate their message when
and how they want. Consequently, it is widely believed that the new media is a
critical actor in facilitating social and political change in states across Asia.
The new media offers greater opportunities for non-state combatants to com-
municate their message, bring people together, incite violence, and legitimize
their struggle to a wider audience. Militant use of the internet has significantly
increased over the past decade. Since the war in Afghanistan in 2001–2002, al
Qaeda has increasingly focused on communicating through the internet, allegedly
moving between some 50 different web addresses (BBC News Online 2004a). Al
Qaeda primarily uses websites for general debate and for spreading its ideology.
In some cases, messages are issued to set broad strategic objectives or target lists
of places and people in the hope that independent cells, individuals and networks
will act on them. There is less evidence of the internet being used to issue spe-
cific orders or for fundraising, but some sites are used for training purposes.
Arguments also rage in chat rooms over the validity of different tactics and
methods, and some recruitment may also take place through chat rooms
(BBC News Online 2004b).
Despite this, the impact of the internet on conflicts in Asia remains unclear
because its role in cultural transformation is both complicated and unpredictable.
It can be used to extend and consolidate traditional values, as well as to challenge
dominant political visions and cultural traditions (Woodier 2002: 85 and 88). A
feature of news reporting on the internet is also its interactivity, with users being
significantly less trusting and more questioning than the users of traditional
media (Budha 2003: 79). This poses problems for groups trying to disseminate
militant ideologies as well as for governments striving to maintain political and
social stability.
The international dominance of the conceptual framework that the US has
established for its ‘war on terror’, combined with the operating constraints and
deficiencies of the local media, and the potential impact of the internet, raises a
number of issues concerning the role and impact of the media in sub-state con-
flicts across Asia. This book will assess how and to what extent non-state com-
batants in a number of states in Asia access the media and influence its outputs;
how the ‘war on terror’ influences media outputs on those conflicts; and the role
and impact of the media on those conflicts.