What drives radicalization; then media coverage of the Boston bombings

Guests: John Horgan and Rem Rieder

What does it take for a young man to go from being what friends said was a “regular” kid to someone who commits a heinous act of violence? What would motivate that kind of radical change in behavior and how do we go about understanding and preventing future acts of violence against innocent civilians. JOHN HORGAN of Penn State University’s International Center for the Study of Terrorism researches the psychology of terrorism. We’ll start off the hour talking to him. Then, across the globe, people were glued to their TVs, radios, computers and mobile devices to get up to date accounts of the events surrounding the bombings in Boston. Did mainstream and social media do a good job in responsibly reporting the dramatic chain of events Our guest, American Journalism Review managing editor REM RIEDER shares his perspective on journalism’s response and lessons learned for the future.