Towards an Understanding of Convergent Terrorism (original) (raw)

Abstract

Western society typically regards terrorism, both practically and conceptually, as emergent. To specify, Western society prescribes terrorism as simply a ground-up, grassroots construct that only non-governmental individuals, groups, or organizations may perform. This philosophy of emergence-only terrorism limits our epistemological and ontological understanding of political communication. To combat this limitation, this paper—by examining terrorism as rhetoric, me-dia compliance in framing terrorism as only emergent, and previous understandings of state ter-rorism--presents an argument for terrorism as convergent in conjunction with our current, emer-gent conceptual framework. This argument compares the actions of the Police Department of Ferguson, MO. in the aftermath of the death of Michael Brown to Schmid and Jongman’s (1988) 22 definitional elements of terrorism. Herein, the author argues the rhetorical significance of the-se 22 definitional elements. Ultimately, this study seeks to create a new conceptual framework for convergent terrorism, parallel to that of emergent terrorism. By doing so, the author rhetori-cally justifies the necessity for a broader understanding. This paper also questions the epistemological and ontological assumptions inherent in the previous, emergent-centric belief, navigating the biases necessary in our understanding for this rigid hegemonic framework of emergent-only terrorism to occur.

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.