9/11: Initial Response

            An aspect of these readings and videos that interested me was the ahistorical nature of 9/11 as an event. The way media portrayed it and the way people behaved pulls 9/11 out of its previous historical context and makes it an event with implications all its own. Media is how the average American citizen experienced 9/11, as people watched it on TV portrayals like CNN. What this means is that the media has the ability to interpret events for citizens and shape their minds by showing them images that tell them what to believe. 

            One thing Anker talks about is the image of Osama bin Laden being displayed on the screen directly before switching to an image of the Twin Towers falling.  This image portrays that bin Laden is evil and that he is responsible for the horrific disaster and the images people are seeing. This association makes bin Laden look absolutely evil and justifies any action against him. 

            Another interesting aspect of these readings is the bipolar view of the players involved in 9/11. One side is good, and one side is bad. According to Anker, “the nation becomes the victim-hero, an entity that has both the moral power garnered by unjust victimization and the physical power to enact punishment for the attack” (Anker, 47). The idea that the United States has become a victim immediately makes us the heroes in common thought. Just by virtue of the fact that something bad happened to us, it becomes as if our other sins are absolved. 

            Prior U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan is neglected in the media narrative of 9/11. No one talks about the 1991 sanctions that the UN enforced on Iraq. It is arguable that United States’ actions in Iraq influenced the conspirators who organized the 9/11 terror attacks. Yet, in media portrayal, the U.S. is exclusively the victim, and the others are referred to as “enemies of freedom” and thoroughly evil.

            Along with the idea of victim portrayal in the media, personal testimonies and eyewitness accounts also shape opinions. The idea of people sharing their terror creates a collective identity of pain about what happened. These testimonies make the pain of citizens into the universal pain of the country. This contributes to the victim narrative and joins the U.S. in power to rise against those it considers aggressors under the guise of protecting the American way of life. 

            Overall, it is scary how much the media and others with a public platform, such as the President of the United States, can manipulate public opinion with the statements they make and the images they show. 9/11 and its portrayal is also a prime demonstration of manipulating images to justify later behaviors and actions, as the news media did and President Bush did as he called for revenge not just on Osama bin Laden, but also a War on Terror that goes far past Al Qaeda.