© Media Watch 11 (1) 83-96, 2020
ISSN 0976-0911 | E-ISSN 2249-8818
DOI: 10.15655/mw/2020/v11i1/49763
Terrorism as a Media Specific Event: Performative Frames of
Uri and Pulwama Reportage in Indian News Media
Raj Thakur1 & Isha Malhotra2
1 Central University of Jammu, India
2 Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India
The Uri attack in 2016 and the Pulwama attack in 2019 by terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir have brought to the center-stage the Kashmir conflict as a core issue between the two South Asian neighbors, India and Pakistan. This research analyzes the mediatized indulgence of terror in reporting of these two incidents in television and print media. The politics of representation in this analysis entails that these frames do not just involve reportage but an act of performance, how events are choreographed and predated on emotions and sentiments as cultural practices mobilizing its effective economy. This paper through the prism of media-industrial-terror complex draws upon the theory of critical events and focuses on how particular events – Uri and Pulwama activate and mobilize a discursive master narrative of Pakistan inspired/directed terrorism by ascribing a particular meaning to the war on terror. The semiotics of media reporting of Uri and Pulwama is analyzed through the tripartite motive quotient of gham (remorse), gussa (anger), and garv (pride).
Keywords: terror attacks, counter-terror attacks, media, Uri and Pulwama, performance
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Raj Thakur (Ph.D., Panjab University, India, 2017) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Central University of Jammu, India. His research focuses on cultural studies, sports literature, popular culture, and media studies.
Isha Malhotra (Ph.D., University of Jammu, India, 2019) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Languages and Literature at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India. Her research focuses on gender studies and cultural studies.