Since 2015, there have been several “terrorist attacks” occurred in the European countries.
While media all over the world have paid substantial attention to these recent terrorist
attacks, such incidents are considered rather remote and less of affinity to the audiences
in Taiwan. Given that the content and agenda-setting of international news bear strong
influences on local audiences’ perceptions of various world affairs, the present study aims
to examine how Taiwan’s newspapers cover “terrorist attack” incidents, and explore the
underlying meanings of such coverage styles in the international news domain. The study
applied content analysis and discourse analysis to the examination of the subject. Relevant
news reports in the four mainstream newspapers in Taiwan (United Daily News, Apple Daily
News, China Times, and Liberty Times) from 2015 to 2017 were collected to scrutinize different
dimensions of “terrorist attack” news coverage. In addition, selected news pieces were also
gathered to explore the ideology and connotations, as well as the domestication strategies
and local perspectives embedded in the news texts.