The media is a powerful tool these days as you all know. I was reading some research that said the governments/opposition can influence media and sometimes force them to adopt their own terminology. Thus, once a media organization adopts the terminology of a particular group it becomes a biased and effectively enhances the view of one particular group of another. Various u Western Media used the word terrorism, which is widespread word used to label many different actions. More interesting is the use of the word "Insurgent", to my understanding that this is a word which has become like a household word when discussing any news particularly related to the Muslim world. One could say this word is biased in its nature, but more a little bit more neutral then the word terrorist. An insurgent still conjures up images of a somewhat scary character. Words are important specially in this day and age because someone people are informed by the media, also the interest in politics especially in liberal western states is declining, so politicians can spread their terminology to the media and set the ball rolling in the court so to speak. The average person isn't going to question were these words and terminologies originate from or what purpose they serve. Iraq is classic example of how has this been used.
The types of words used can sometimes explain what end of the political spectrum a person sits on, or at least one can gain an insight into whether they support the American invasion or not. Those typically on the left such as George Galloway will refer to the Iraqi fighters as "Resistance", which can be imagined as something heroic, legitimate and organized. This is also the case with various Arab media that label the Iraqi fighters in particular the Arab speaking Aljazeera channel who use the Arabic word “Muqawamah" meaning resistance in English to denote certain conflicts in the Middle East such as Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon. Again these conjure up images of Arab heroes, legitimate struggles and foreign invaders. It is also interesting that the Aljazeera network is said to have used the word, "shuhadah" or martyr in English. For example they are said to have used headlines such as, “6 Shuhuda martyred in Palestine today". One can detect an element of religion creeping into their broadcasts. Compare this to other media who would have covered the same story as, " 6 Palestinian Militants killed" or simply, " 6 Palestinians killed". The former draws to mind imagery of heroism, sacrifice and bravery, whilst the latter is simply 6 Palestinians dying, which isn't considered particularly important in light of world politics.
Those on the right or even far right will tend to use the word terrorist more often then others. In fact they would use a range of vocabulary to demonize their opponents including, terrorist, islamofacist (comparison to Hitler), and extremist, backwards, uncivilized, and barbaric. The other group which even used the word terrorist more-so than that group is the rulers of the countries under occupation such as in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. They have a vested interest in demonizing their opponents because the threat of terrorism is the main sole reason that they can use to justify their countries are under occupation and they happen to be the favorite boys of the occupiers so to speak.
This is very important because it would be damaging for the American administration if the entire media defined their opponents as resistance. The average man might not even differentiate between resistance and insurgency. But in terms of legitimacy when it comes to armed rebellions against invaders or governments this definition is of extreme importance:
Omar Mukhtar!
Quote: Insurgency
An insurgency, or insurrection, is an armed uprising, or revolt against an
established civil or political authority. Persons engaging in insurgency are called insurgents, and typically engage in regular or guerrilla combat against the armed forces of the established regime, or conduct sabotage and harassment in the land in order to undermine the government's position as leader.
Military definition
According to United States Department of Defense Joint Publication (JP) 1-02, Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, an insurgency is defined as an organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through use of subversion and armed conflict.
An
insurgency differs from a resistance both in its political overtones and in the nature of the conflict: an insurgency connotes an internal struggle against a
standing, established government, whereas a resistance connotates a struggle against
invading or occupying foreign forces and their collaboration.
US government definition of resistance:
According to Joint Publication 1-02, The United States Department of Defense defines a resistance movement as: An organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to resist the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability.
In strict military terminology, a resistance movement is simply that; it seeks to resist (change) the policies of a government or occupying power. This may be accomplished though violent or non-violent means. It must be noted that a resistance movement is specifically limited to changing the nature of current power, not to overthrow it. The correct military term for removing or overthrowing a government is an insurgency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resista...ent_definition