30 Millionen US-Bürger sahen Terrorbilder im Web

--- Das Internet macht den klassischen Massenmedien im Kriegszeiten weiter deutlich Konkurrenz. Wie eine repräsentative Umfrage des Pew Internet Project ergeben hat, machten sich in den vergangenen Monaten 24 Prozent der amerikanischen Surfer und damit rund 30 Millionen Amerikaner auf die Suche nach den dramatischen Terror- und Folterbildern und -Videos aus dem Irak. Insgesamt lehnt eine knappe Mehrheit der Befragten allerdings die Tatsache ab, dass über das Netz schockierende Dokumente verfügbar sind, die in den traditionellen Medien nicht gezeigt werden: Americans are conflicted about the idea of these disturbing images being available online. By a 49%-40% margin, Americans disapprove of the posting of such images. A strong cultural divide emerges between Internet users and non-users: Internet users approve of the images being online by a small margin of 47% - 44%, while non-users disapprove by an overwhelming 58% - 29% margin. These are some of the results of a nationwide phone survey done between May 14 and June 17 – a period just following massive world coverage of the murder and dismemberment of American contract workers in Iraq’s strife-torn town Fallujah, pictures taken at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, and the capture and beheading of U.S. civilian Nicholas Berg. The horrific nature of many of the war-related images that have appeared online have left Internet users with a range of feelings. “Millions of Internet users want to be able to view the graphic war images and they see the Internet as an alternative source of news and information from traditional media,” said Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow at the Project, and co-author of the report. “But many who do venture outside the traditional and familiar standards of the mainstream news organizations to look at the images online end up feeling very uncomfortable.” Some 51% of those who have witnessed the images felt they had made a good decision in doing so. One third of those wished they hadn’t seen them.