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25/01/2012

The image and the construction of narratives in the conflicts (DIEEEO07-2012)

Public opinion has turned into a key element in conflicts; so, terrorism is fundamentally a bloody narrative addressed to it. Terrorist attack is more than a violent act, is an act of communication that gathers will, ideology, power and capability. Terrorist plays with advantage; his speech, simple, repeated is an understandable speech, better from the point of view of the political communication.
An image is always an apparently indisputable true directed to the emotional area. The selection of the image allows retaining and repeating the moment; it is a multiplier, very useful for the pedagogy that terrorism is looking for. So, it is necessary to have a media strategy in all the conflicts.
The key of new wars, paradoxically it is not in gaining the war but in winning the peace, what is equivalent to liquidate the narratives. Then fight loses its sense and image turns into the evidence of a crime.

Author: Federico Aznar Fernández-Montesinos
 

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