The "24"-Universe

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Although propaganda has been a key element of Television since its very invention, a new trend emerged in U.S. TV in the 1990s and swept into the new millennium: to let certain series and shows promote particular political discourses. As a case example this study examines the Fox hit show 24 and analyses how it reflects and promotes the war on terror discourse. Using that term as a collective name for discourses on terrorism, national security, self-defense, civil liberty and human rights, along with their alteration and radicalization in the aftermath of 9/11, key aspects of the war on terror discourse are singled out and then located in the texture of the series, showing that there indeed is a strong overlap between the "lessons of 9/11" and the lessons of 24, in other words between the way terrorism, threats, enemies and response strategies (the "new thinking") are depicted in real life and in the series. The study then also offers some support for its underlying assumption that producers and powers behind the show intentionally promote political contents, out of ideological convictions and economic deliberations.