How can a person clearly identify the difference between jihad and an act of terrorism?

Sometimes, identifying the difference is not possible because from a distance when you are not in control and others are creating the news (in case of the media), you are subject to whatever image they portray.

However, if a person does have access to actual information about what is going on, we can then say that acts of terrorism which involve the killing of innocents like children and women as a means to terrorise a society, are acts which Islam does not allow under any label.

Jihad is something which Muslims are enjoined to undertake when the need arises. It is not a title for any struggle.

A just struggle which may involve military means and where the struggle is for the sake of Allah can be defined as jihad or an aspect of jihad; whereas fights, struggles etc. which are for nationalists, tribalists or for political interest which have nothing to do with Islam are not jihad, though they may carry its label. Such struggles may be called ‘jihaadi struggles’ and people involved are called ‘jihadists’ but this is not the concept of jihad from the Islamic perspective.