Lawrence Peter Ampofo
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Final AnalysisThe empirical research conducted has provided valuable information that helped to shape the findings contained within this thesis and provide a more nuanced hypothesis that would justify additional study. This was illustrated in the above analysis examining the understandings that exist concerning the relationships between technology, terrorism and counter-terrorism within discussions of the death of Osama bin Laden. The high volume of content from general online users and the broad collection of narratives generated emphasise that a large base of online users exists who are extremely active and can be engaged by a comprehensive online communications strategy that develops positive, long-term relationships with them. This is important because as digital diplomacy programmes in other countries such as the UK and the US have shown, if strong relationships can be cultivated amongst online users by governments, then they are more likely to be perceived as credible counter-terrorism communication strategies. In addition, such communications strategies would ensure that in an age of many-to-many communication, counter-terrorism organisations would deliver core narratives to a more targeted group of “new intellectuals” who could ensure that the content of the narratives was delivered to members of their networks. Not possessing a clear understanding of the identity of important audiences (journalists, activists and other potential conduits or “influencers”, as well as publics) when conducting important online communication strategies, and a clear strategy on how best to engage them, potentially presents opportunities for other actors to co-opt online discussions and influence the opinions of others. Different types of emotion were exhibited by online communities, which at times were comprised of comfort, catharsis and support from wider online group members as well as feelings of reproach and frustration. This is significant because an opportunity was presented to the Spanish Government to positively engage with citizens who, for over six years, have called for the presence of a representative to engage with them online. It is clear that an influential representative from the Government could have actively engaged with people to show the Government’s support to the public in a time of national crisis. The internet research of the death of Osama bin Laden has shown that it is imperative, at a time when the internet and the Web are undergoing significant changes to their technological architecture which will in turn lead to new and innovative ways of using them, that a more complete understanding of online behaviour is obtained in this new context of Terrorism 3.0. As an increasing amount of people become connected to the Web with access to a host of new services, it is imperative that measures are taken to understand how people behave and the optimal ways of engaging with them. As seen, it is critical that any attempt to engage with online users and communities implements an engagement strategy supported with a comprehensive influence attainment strategy. The purpose of this strategy would not be to simply engage with every online user or community that comments on this particular issue. Rather, it is important that counter-terrorist practitioners factor into their strategies an overarching plan of the most optimal ways of attaining and monitoring online influence. In addition, over the course of this thesis, the author has developed a set of recommendations for further research into terrorism and counter-terrorism that build upon the conclusions that emerged and highlight the following opportunities: Further Multilingual Internet Research An increased level of insight would be revealed if cross-cultural or cross-lingual research into understandings of technology, terrorism and counter-terrorism could be conducted. This would help interpret the ways different cultures perceive the dependent variables and could help counter-terrorism practitioners formulate more effective strategies. Such internet research needs to be robust to provide accurate conclusions, and could dovetail well with traditional research methods (focus groups, surveys, interviews) to become part of other research programmes. Internet Research into the Spanish Diaspora It could also prove useful to conduct research into the opinions of Spanish diaspora communities on their understandings of the research question. This is particularly relevant as very few online users revealed their true identities. However, if research were to be conducted on the opinions of Spanish diaspora communities, it could provide the Government with a more holistic picture on the sentiments of its citizens and other Spanish nationals residing abroad, while informing efforts to refine engagement strategies. An Increased Number of Online Data Points, as Web 3.0 Technologies become More Widely Available Finally, it would be useful to conduct the internet research with an increased number of data points in order to gain a further level of insight into the findings. For example, it would prove useful to include additional data on gender, geographic location, and other social media forms such as images, video and audio. The opportunity to aggregate and analyse a wide variety of information will be increasingly available with the introduction of Web 3.0 technologies and services such as Big Data and the Semantic Web. It is also likely to be more cost-effective to gather this insight but, as mentioned earlier, the introduction of Web 3.0 poses considerable opportunities or considerable problems for counter-terrorism practitioners if the nature of the behaviour of its users is not understood. If such research were conducted then it would provide a great deal of insight into terrorism, counter-terrorism and the behaviour of online and real-world communities. Indeed, the emergence of Terrorism 3.0 mandates that attainment of this insight is of critical importance in countering terrorism in Spain and understanding the optimal methods of engaging with citizens in the event of terrorist attacks. The benefits to be gained from a detailed understanding of Terrorism 3.0 could be considerable for counter-terrorism practitioners. It suggests a new way of conducting counter-terrorism by placing influence and socio-technical strategies at its core and as complementary tools to the existing technological and database-driven solutions in Spain’s security strategy. Directory: portal -> files -> 4733003 files -> Impact case study (ref3b) files -> Ethics and Factual Television: a short history files -> P. O. Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland tel. 358-9-191 58080 / 22216; fax 358-9-191 58096 / 23008 files -> The impact of a pledge campaign and the promise of publicity: a randomized controlled trial of charitable donations files -> Diversity and Voice: the Political Participation of Young People in the European Union files -> Chapter 15 a voice in Decision Making: young children in Denmark Stig Broström Introduction Download 1.29 Mb. Share with your friends:
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