Terrorist attacks are sudden, violent and disturbing events. Journalists are not immune to their impact, and this can sometimes colour the media coverage they receive.
Marie-Eve Carignan, a communications researcher at the Université de Sherbrooke, and her team analyzed how journalists reported on the events surrounding five terrorist attacks claimed by the armed group Islamic State in Canada, the United States, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. In addition to reviewing nearly 1,500 articles, the team conducted interviews with five journalists and studied decisions made by me-dia self-regulatory bodies.
This rigorous examination highlighted certain shortcomings in the coverage. Nearly one-third of the articles associated Islam with violent extremism. Conjecture and uncon-firmed or even false information was sometimes published as established fact. In some articles, opinion was mixed with fact without a clear distinction being drawn between the two. Furthermore, journalists placed surviving victims, families of deceased victims or relatives of those responsible for the attacks at the centre of their articles without their consent.
Journalists highlighted the difficulties they face in covering such events. They are often required to write and publish quickly, when the facts are not yet clear and emotions are still running high. Reporting conditions are further complicated by the fact that they themselves are experiencing the attack that has taken place in their city, or even their neighbourhood.
Carignan’s team has presented its findings at conferences, notably to journalism stu-dents. The research was also the subject of an article in Le Trente, the publication of the Québec Professional Federation of Journalists.