This literature review provides an overview of current theory and practice that is instructive for the wider STARS project’s research objectives

This document reviews the literature on public-facing counter-terrorism strategic communication, drawing in insights from analogous contexts and specialist areas. The aim of the literature review is to provide an overview of current theory and practice that is instructive for the wider STARS project’s research objectives, particularly objective: 

  • Develop new data on the effectiveness of strategic government communication to inform publics and deter terrorist risks and threats, accounting for the influence of key actors and contextual factors.

The review broadly followed a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) approach. Interdisciplinary and specialist peer-reviewed databases were searched using combinations of key terms, with a supplementary targeted search of grey literature, practitioner/specialist outlets, high profile academic journals in terrorism, key communication texts, and web search engines across the 2011-2021 time period.

Key concepts and theory

In attempting to capture a definition fitting for the contemporary information environment, Van Ruler (2018) states that:

strategic communication should be conceptualized as an agile management process in which the focus is on feeding the arenas in which meanings are presented, negotiated, constructed, or reconstructed for strategy building and strategy implementation, and on testing strategic decisions by presenting and negotiating these in a continuous loop.
(p.379-380)

This understanding of strategic communication captures the dynamic process through which communication flows from ‘senders’ to ‘receivers’, and reflects broader theoretical development in the study of strategic communication over recent decades. In short, this development can be tracked from early conceptions of strategic communication as an act of dissemination - an ‘a to b’ linear process - to current understandings of communication as ‘engagement’ which, informed by the implications of social media as an increasingly central communicative medium, merits ‘connection, participation, and involvement’ (Johnston, 2018) from individuals traditionally considered ‘audiences’ (Johnston and Taylor, 2018). 

At the same time, this trajectory emphasises the challenges practitioners face when seeking to use strategic communication to communicate with the public for specific purposes and outcomes. Strategic counter-terrorism communication may seek various outcomes, such as to deter hostile actors, to raise awareness of terrorist threats and risks, to call the public to some kind of action, or simply to reassure of the state’s protective capabilities. These desired outcomes are evident in the content and framing of specific public campaigns, but their effects will always depend on how they play out in an evolving and increasingly ‘noisy’ information environment, within which audiences themselves participate. 

Framed by such considerations, in a study commissioned on behalf of the ‘5 eyes’ governments, into the social organisation of public reactions to terror attacks, Innes et al. (2018) identified how the aims and objectives of post-event strategic communications evolve and adapt. Thus, depending on what has happened, they shift through various phases from managing the immediate crisis, through evidence collection, managing any reputational harms and on to promoting public reassurance. This temporal dimension starts to enrich and nuance our understandings of the different roles and functions that influence how, when, and why governments construct public communications on the topic of terrorism.

In acknowledging both the wider strategic communication research and specific counter-terrorism communicative challenges, our approach is framed by Innes’ (2014) work on the role of ‘signal crimes’, ‘signal events’ and ‘control signals’ in shaping public perceptions and political decision-making. Informed by Erving Goffman’s (1971) concept of ‘normal appearances’, the ‘signal crimes perspective’ holds that particular communicative acts are ascribed especial significance and visibility, so that when they are experienced either directly or indirectly, they induce behavioural, cognitive and affective responses, that influence how people interpret the distribution of risks and threats in their social environments. The point is that not all events hold equal capacity and capability to influence public perceptions and understanding. Further, perceptions of normality, risk and threat, are strongly influenced by the idiosyncrasies and qualities of a particular context. It is within this multi-disciplinary theoretical framing that the thematic review is grounded. 

What does the literature tell us?

The review demonstrates that a wide range of linked factors impact on how public-facing CT communication campaign materials are ‘read’ and understood. Some key recurring themes were identified that can be used to inform the design and delivery of current and future campaigns. The full STARS report containing our empirical data is available below.

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