The impact of new media and the internet on terrorism

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to critically analyse the impact of new media on terrorism. Hence, this essay will firstly focus on the characteristics of new media that make them a powerful tool in the hands of terrorists as well as how new media profoundly transformed the ways in which terrorists operate; secondly, the essay will then look at how various state and international actors are tackling terrorist activity in the new media environment and how new media also transformed the terrain of counterterrorism; thirdly, the essay will weigh whether the rapidly growing landscape of new media and its use by terrorists actually translate into the increase in the number of actual attacks.