One of the most recent news hitting the web and all sorts of Media alike within the past couple weeks has been an issue about a group called ISIS. A recent article found on the New York Times by Mark Landler and Eric Schmidt talks about a recent claim maid by the Islamist group. ISIS uses many forms of media like video footage to alarm and scare the public. In it, members of ISIS blame President Obama for the killing of Steven Sotloff , a former prisoner of ISIS, that ISIS murdered because of the bombings made on Northern Iraq. This happened a couple days before the president went on his trip to Europe to meet with a couple leaders. Unfortunately, it looks like the U.S will become more involved in the middle east.
This whole problem with ISIS in the middle east brought to my attention the film we saw in class called Control Room. The most significant difference between this news article and that of the scenes found in the documentary is that of actual proof of Middle eastern terrorists attacking Americans and taking some Americans as prisoners. In the film, most American Media had little to no evidence of middle eastern terrorists attacking or making alarming claims, however, this article contains images of members of ISIS about to behead an American Citizen. This in itself is proof enough to convince people of the current threat that ISIS holds in the middle east. There are also enough sources of evidence to convince world leaders to take immediate action. Which, could itself help president Obama in his meetings with UN and with European Leaders.
Another aspect of this dilemma is shown through the usage of media. I find it very interesting how both Americans Journalist and ISIS take advantage of media to either inform the public or threaten certain groups. We have seen this be the case a couple of time within groups like the Al Qaeda in Iraq. Theses small groups seem to try to use film and other forms of media to inform people of what they could do, or will do if their demands are not met. However, this is a bit problematic because it can get out of control if others groups want to start an insurgence. There has to be some way to regulate this kind of media to prevent people from getting fearful and having anxiety attacks.