In light of the recent terrorist attacks that have taken place in many places around the world in the past month, our chapter would like to express our deepest condolences with the families of loved ones lost in these tragic events. A multitude of different attacks took place in these locations Paris, Beirut, Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of people were unjustly killed while going about their day to day activities. ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) claimed responsibility for many of these attacks.
An issue associated with the attacks is the overwhelming media coverage for one of the terrorist attacks, and a lack for the several others that occurred. Paris, by far received the most coverage, as it was the breaking news story on news outlets across America. Facebook faced some heated questions about its decision to implement the Safety Check feature and the France flag profile picture overlay for only the attacks on Paris while there was virtually no mention of the devastating attacks in other countries in the Middle East. Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Independent Party, criticized the media outlets saying that there was more focus on the Paris attacks than on Beirut and Syria.
Many statements have been put forth about how the media was solely focused on the fact that Paris is considered a Western country like the US and that is the reason why there was no coverage of the other attacks. The Washington Post has published several articles on this subject and one in particular addresses the other possible reasons for this lack of media coverage and ensuing dangers of ISIS. Nonetheless, the months of October and November 2015 have been utterly heartbreaking for many places in our world, and as President Obama said “the bonds of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité are not only values that the French people care so deeply about, but they are values we share, and those values are going to endure far beyond any act of terrorism.”