Propaganda. Today, terrorist attacks have become much more frequent, and we argue that, due to their social and emotional intelligence, terrorists have the power to manipulate not ML-SA1 Purity & Documentation merely individuals but additionally mass media. The objective of our paper was to assess the way Romanian and foreign on the internet mass-media channels present facts about Islamic terrorist groups and the activities developed by them, as a way to raise awareness regarding the matter of propaganda along with the role of mass media in promoting it. In an effort to conduct the analysis, content analysis was applied as a process. A total of 36 news presented on the net by Romanian and foreign mass-media channels were analyzed. The result from the research revealed that Romanian mass-media channels focus more on using words with aggressive content, and that foreign mass-media channels concentrate on religious and cultural-geographic content. Therefore, the results from the study revealed that the way mass media presents terrorist attacks can unintentionally contribute to the promotion of terrorist propaganda. Keywords and phrases: mass-media; propaganda; terrorism; social intelligence; emotional intelligence; communication1. Introduction In today’s society, dominated by technology and continuous adjust, mass media plays an necessary function not only in describing and communicating data about particular events but also in shaping the way folks perceive and recognize the world around them. In this regard, mass media can be regarded “the voice of our society” [1], and its energy is Combretastatin A-1 custom synthesis provided by the truth that, though it satisfies peoples’ need to have for information and facts, mass media also influences their opinions also as their behavior [2]. Within this context, mass media is frequently related with the phenomenon of propaganda. Broadly, propaganda represents a method of communication that contains a wide array of tactics, for instance persuasion, in addition to a wide array of communication means, whose objective is always to “influence the ideology or behavior of a target group” [3]. In regards to propaganda, it can be important to take into consideration its psychological and social dimensions. Therefore, propaganda can also be described as a psychological operation that is certainly aimed at destabilizing the efforts plus the morale on the enemies [4], along with the importance of understanding this phenomenon is highlighted by its power to influence people. In line with Jaques Ellul, a single consequence of exposure to propaganda would be the elimination of vital considering. Within the view from the author, as a result of this phenomenon, when someone accepts public opinion as to his own, the person loses his “personal judgment” [5] (pp. 17071). InPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Copyright: 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is definitely an open access write-up distributed below the terms and situations in the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ four.0/).Sustainability 2021, 13, 12219. https://doi.org/10.3390/suhttps://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainabilitySustainability 2021, 13,two ofother words, although propaganda is primarily based on proof and details, its adverse effect is emphasized by the truth that it intentionally aims at diminishing the individual’s capacity to believe rationally and critically [6]. Even more, the aim of propagandists is usually to influence individuals in such a way that they no longer act on the basis of details or data, but on.
