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The shift in warfare & in geopolitics since the cold war has made it difficult for Americans to identify the "good guys" & the "bad guys" in international affairs. The "Evil Empire" is no longer reflexively the Soviet Union or its proxies, for example. Without a clear sense of who needs protection, the media & other political actors have tried to identify who is innocent. In many cases, children have been portrayed as the only "pure" victims. For many conflicts & crises, children, seen generically, have filled up the American empathy vacuum -- that void that used to be taken up by the Natan Sharanskys, the Alexander Solzhenitsens, the Jacobo Timmermans, the Nelson Mandelas: men, typically, who stood for the values of democracy, equality, & freedom. Now, often, conflicts are depicted in the media less as political confrontations than as brutal & ideologically senseless battles, & how better to communicate that than to show a damaged child? 22 References. [Copyright 2002 Sage Publications, Inc.]

The shift in warfare and in geopolitics since the Cold War has made it difficult for Americans to identify the "good guys" and the "bad guys" in international affairs. The "Evil Empire" is no longer reflexively the Soviet Union or its proxies, for example. Without a clear sense of who needs protection, the media and other political actors have tried to identify who is innocent. In many cases, children have been portrayed as the only "pure" victims. For many conflicts and crises, children, seen generically, have filled up the American empathy vacuum—that void that used to be taken up by the Natan Sharanskys, the Alexander Solzhenitsyns, the Jacobo Timmermans, the Nelson Mandelas: men, typically, who stood for the values of democracy, equality, and freedom. Now, often, conflicts are depicted in the media less as political confrontations than as brutal and ideologically senseless battles, and how better to communicate that than to show a damaged child?

Packaging Terrorisminvestigates how American media have identified and covered international terrorism and violence since September 11, 2001.Compares US coverage with that of British and Arab mediaDiscusses the priorities, assumptions, political debates, deadline pressures and bottom-line considerations that will continue to influence coverage in the futureSuggests how terrorism could be better covered by the media going forwards

This exploratory, mixed-methods study uses data gathered during the previous U.S. presidential election in 2012 to evaluate student political engagement and digital culture. Survey results and media diary entries revealed that college students enrolled in a media literacy course during Super Tuesday or Election Day gravitated toward low-barrier political actions and expressive modes of citizenship, and they were most engaged when there was a social component to following election news. These results, coupled with recent data on political engagement and media consumption, present an opportunity to consider the role of digital platforms and online communities in the 2016 election.