Media & Reactions to 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

REACTIONS TO THE SEPTEMBER 2001 TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE UNITED STATES

The terrorist attacks that occurred in the United States on 11 September 2001 changed the outlook of millions of Americans in relation to their own security, the security of the nation, and their perceptions of the world. The terrorist attacks were horrific enough in their own right; however, the constant replaying of television images of the disintegration of the twin towers of New YorkÆs World Trade Center on national television for a period of days in some cases and weeks in other cases tended to (a) reinforce a particular perception of the events of that day or (b) created a media-based reality of the events, depending upon oneÆs analytical understanding of the phenomenon (Roots 503).

There can little doubt about a contention that those people who exposed themselves to the continual barrage of mass media replays of the tragedy were imbued with a particular image of the terrorist attacks and that the mass media dialogs that accompanied the replays reinforced a particular interpretation of the events of 11 September 2001 (Durody and Wessely 1901). The fact that the media behavior created a reality related to the event and reinforced the media interpretation of the eventÆs reality does not infer that the characterization of the event by the mass media was incorrect. It does leave open the possibility, however, that those people w

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e the polar opposites on the continuum of the theory of emotions. The interactionist model occupies a middle ground on this continuum with recognition of both biological and social factors as causes of emotions, and an assumption that the biological and social factors interact with one another. Collins (223) held that human ôcognitive capacity has its strict limits and we can only hold things together because we shy away from questioning our conventional understandings very far. Society holds together as well as it does à because we assume things are normal until they break down so badly we cannot avoid making some kind of repairö. Interactionist Paradigm The interactionist paradigm views ôsocial life as a process of interactions among individualsö (Babbie 56). Symbolic interactionism emphasizes connections between shared meanings, or symbols, and actions and communications, or interactions. Social interactionists conceive a families and organizations as social groups, within which individuals develop both their own self-concept and individual identity through social interactions within the group structure. Identity refers to self-meanings in a role. Roles are ôshared norms applied by occupants of social positionsö (LaRossa
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4382
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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