ABSTRACT
The fusion of politics and media over time has led to “political socialization” (Wilkins 2000), transforming politicians into media personalities, and often celebrities. This has increased academic interest in the study of political discourse, with the result that a variety of studies have been conducted undertaking the multifaceted nature of political discourse. Within the more general context of political discourse, the discourses of war, terrorism, and violence have also received a fair share of attention, particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America. More specific studies include: politics, war, and military discourse (Butt, Lukin and Matthiessen 2004; Graham, Keenan and Dowd 2004; Chouliaraki 2005; Graham and Luke 2005), terrorism and the media (Silberstein 2002; Norris, Kern and Just 2003; Achugar 2004), terrorism and categorisation (Oktar 2001; Edwards 2004; Leudar, Marsland and Nekvapil 2004), and terrorism more generally (Collins 2002; Llorente 2002; Elshtain 2003; Bhatia 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015).
