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RESEARCH PRODUCT
‘Our words are stronger’ : re-enforcing boundaries through ritual work in a terrorist news event
Tiina RäisäJohanna Sumialasubject
Cultural StudiesHistoryuutisetmedia-antropologia518 Media and communicationsBerlin truck attack050801 communication & media studiesdigital media ethnography0603 philosophy ethics and religionEvent (philosophy)MEDIA0508 media and communicationsterrorterrorismiterrori-iskutMedia eventritual work060303 religions & theology05 social sciencesmediaMedia studiesmedia anthropology06 humanities and the arts16. Peace & justicejoukkoviestimetmedia eventonline newsWork (electrical)Terrorismotheringdescription
This article investigates the ritual work in terrorist news events, using the Berlin truck attack as a case in point. The article connects with the larger cluster of anthropologically inspired communication research on media events as public rituals in news media and applies digital media ethnography as its method. Fieldwork is conducted in 15 online news sites. The article identifies three key phases through which the ritual work was carried out: the rupture in the news event (ritualised as the strike), the liminal phase (ritualised as the manhunt) and the reconstitution of order following the attack (ritualised as the mourning). The article concludes with an interpretation of the broader social implications of the ritual work and related naturalisation of ‘friends’ and ‘foes’ and suggests that this type of ritual work contributes to a collective mythologisation of terrorism in news media and society at large.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-05-01 |