posted on Dec, 30 2013 @ 06:48 PM
Last weekend in the Russian city of Volgograd turned out to be a real catastrophe for many families. There was one explosion in the railway station on
Sunday afternoon and another one in the trolley-bus during the morning rush hour on Monday. About one hundred people were affected by this terrorist
attack.
The Russians could see on leading TV channels only eyewitnesses, footage of dead and wounded, officials' and police statements all over the day. And
nothing more. Webcam mounted in front of the railway station captured the moment of explosion, broken windows, fire, smoke and running people. Russian
media have shown that video almost in every article and news broadcast about million times. When watching news on the state channel Russia24 I tried
to persuade myself that nothing strange is going on. But I had a strong feeling that Russian journalists just got pleasure from producing more
horrifying details of the attacks, discussing the feelings of relatives and interviewing the wounded.
At the same time, some Russian media when covering Volgograd terrorist attacks have focused on the individual heroism of 29-year-old police officer
who intercepted the suicide bomber and saved dozens of lives. Someone managed to leave the city by train before the explosion, someone missed the
fatal trolley bus. Every hour, there were more and more "life stories" and all the world events were left off-screen.
Such terrorist actions always have the same goal - to intimidate the society. Panic caused by the Russian media TV spots and publications is the best
result for terrorists. They don't care about the casualties while all that is important for them is media coverage.
Perhaps an abundance of information on the subject and the desire to show some exclusive materials completely deprived journalists of their sense of
moderation. Instead of consolidating the society in face of terrorist threat with their TV spots the Russian media have just increased the sense of
fear and helplessness. Could it be that the Russian journalists are in terrorists' information trap right now?