MURDER AND MYTH - NEW-YORK-TIMES COVERAGE OF THE TWA-847 HIJACKING VICTIM

In June 1985, Shiite Moslem gunmen commandeered a TWA jetliner from Athens, Greece. The group held more than 150 people hostage and demanded the release of 700 Shiite Moslems jailed or detained by Israel. A passenger, U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, was beaten and killed, his body pushed from the plane onto the runway. After 17 days of negotiations, with agreements reached for the release by Israel of hundreds of detainees, the hostages were released. Focusing on language in the New York Times, elite and essential for studies of international news images, a dramatistic analysis explores the newspaper's portrayal of the victim. The study suggests that the news reports of Robert Dean Stethem's killing may serve as a mythic drama of sacrifice. That is, in gripping portrayals of the victim's sacrifice to terrorism, the language of the news reports offers readers the opportunity to participate in a great drama of hope and despair, purpose and pain.