Terrorism

     According to statistics from the FBI, there were two terrorism related deaths in the US in the years from 2002 to 2005.  During this time, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that we were in a yellow or orange terror threat.  According to the chart put out by DHS, this meant there was a high or significant risk of terrorist attack during this entire time. 

     As can be seen in the FBI graph, with the exception of three major attacks (1993 World Trade Center attack, Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing, and the 2001 World Trade Center attack) which were responsible for 3151 deaths, very few people have been injured much less died in the US because of terrorist attacks.  To put these deaths in perspective, an estimated 450 people die each year from falling out of bed*.  Considering this data, it is unlikely that the US was made safer because of lives saved from the new terror prevention techniques.  What about terrorist attacks?  Surely with an estimated $4 trillion spent on the war on terror, those must be at record lows (Baum, 2011). 

     As can be seen in the above graph, there was one more terrorist attack during the years 1981 and 1982 than there were in the 15 years between 1991 and 2005 with the safest time being the mid to late '90s (FBI).  Also, according to the NCTC (2012), in the year 2011, 17 US civilians were killed from terrorist attacks with an additional 14 wounded and 3 kidnapped none of which occurred on US soil.  Of those killed, 15 were in Afghanistan, 1 was in Jerusalem, and 1 was in Iraq.  With the estimated US population around 311 million people, that means that there were .0045 deaths per hundred thousand people.
     So if, with the exception of three major incidents in which those who committed these acts (in my opinion) got lucky, there have been few attacks and even fewer fatalities, why is it that the media over the past 12 years would constantly discuss terrorism.  Even if you go onto Fox News' website and looked for "terror threat" you find 3893 videos which, as far as i could find, were posted within the past few years (Fox News Search)?   Fox News (and other news channels) uses the culture of fear (which they help to produce) in order to boost ratings.  If someone is afraid that the world is coming to an end they will most likely want to keep up on current events and will watch more Fox News.

The excitement of fighting terrorists isn't limited to news, over the past 12 years countless shows have had episodes or, in the case of 24, have been created around a plot involving terrorist threats.  I feel this works to constantly keep these thoughts in peoples heads and increase fear about these topics.  In both of these cases, news and prime-time TV, increased fear means increased interest and increased interest means more viewership.

Department of Homeland Security. n.d. "Chronology of Changes to the Homeland Security Advisory System" http://www.dhs.gov/homeland-security-advisory-system
Fox News Search http://video.foxnews.com/search?q=terror%20threat&sort=0
FBI. n.d. "Terrorism 2002-2005" http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005
Baum, Deborah. 2011. "Estimated Cost of Post 9/11 Wars" Brown University  http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2011/06/warcosts
NCTC. 2012. "2011 Annual Report Final" http://www.nctc.gov/docs/2011_NCTC_Annual_Report_Final.pdf
*Unable to cite due to lack of reliable source.  Several sites (all with the same statistic), however, cite the WHO and CDC as the source of this information.