Responses should be a minimum of 250 words and include direct questions. You may challenge, support or supplement another student’s answer using the terms, concepts and theories from the required readings. Also, do not be afraid to respectfully disagree where you feel appropriate; as this should be part of your analysis process at this academic level.

This week’s discussion forum asks us to share our research question for our capstone thesis. For me, it was very difficult to pick a topic to discuss, but I think I have finally figured it out. I have decided to focus on crisis communication in the United States, and how information about terrorist attacks was relayed to the citizens during the bombing at the Boston Marathon in 2013. My original plan was to have 9/11 be the main event, but there has been an abundance of research and it is a little outdated, so I decided to focus on something a little more recent. I will also be focusing on what plans and policies were in place in order to help prepare to inform the public about terrorist attacks before they occur, and what lessons we can learn from the Boston Marathon bombing to better prepare for attacks that may occur in the future.

My research question is as follows; What methods, channels, or limitations of crisis communication were or should have been utilized before, during, and after the bombing at the Boston Marathon? My hope as the researcher is to provide solid answers to this question, specifically focusing on the things that were done incorrectly with the crisis communication process during the bombing. The mistakes that are made in the past can help shape processes in the future and can make countering terrorism efforts more efficient. Terrorism is most definitely a public safety issue, so there has to be an effective process put in place to keep the public safe. If the United States can come up with a way to more efficiently keep citizens informed and up to date with the facts, instead of relying on media outlets that focus on fake news, we as a country may be able to fight terrorism and keep our families safe from the organizations and individuals that want to do great harm.

As with any research project, there are gaps and limitations that need to be addressed. These gaps will require me to do further research and analyze and answer further questions in order to tie the project together. I will take research that has been done previously and further expand it, creating new avenues for further research to take in the future. For instance, I think there will be limits as to what information can be found, so it may require quite a bit of digging in order to find the facts and to create an adequate capstone thesis. Another limitation that may exist is the fact that not all crisis communication is effective, so the various techniques and examples that have come from past terrorist attacks will have to be analyzed in order to find out what works and what does not. The techniques that do work will then be placed into the category for potential counter-terrorism strategies. I am looking forward to researching the topic extensively. I think a lot of valuable information will be obtained and it will be an interesting topic to study.