Media texts that have changed the world?

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Media texts that have changed the world?

9/11

11th September 2001, a day to remember for all nations of the world, for grief or happiness depending on your relationship with the USA. Four American civilian aeroplanes were hijacked by terrorists and were crashed into the twin towers of the world trade centre, the Pentagon and one was crashed in Pennsylvania (en route to Camp David). The world watched through the eyes of the news crews filming the first tower of the world trade centre after it had been hit as the second plane struck the other tower. It was the first time that the media had ever seen such an event happen and had broadcast it live to the world. Throughout the days afterwards the media were the key to informing the public of the ever-changing political situation and who was suspected of the attack. Newspapers produced commemorative editions and some of the most thought provoking photographs in history were displayed on their pages.

The progression of the media in power and motivation are greatly reflected by the ways incidents like the 9/11 tragedy conveyed on television. It is the media that has the authority to change what is important and what is not. An attacked skyscraper in Egypt wouldn’t hold the equivalence as the September 11 attack, even if thousands of people die. Would there be as much anger, emotion and contemplation for people who died in Africa as those “courageous” Americans?

Institutions like CNN, FOX and BBC shared the disaster live on every channel across the Europe world. On the very day the plane crashed into the second tower, more people would have died of hunger and thirst globally, than the amount of people who died in the whole 9/11 event put together. If the institutions broadcasted the event because of the determination in showing deaths occurred by moral evil, then where are these companies when thousands of people are dying in Chechnya, Bosnia, Kashmir, Palestine, and so on?

The twin tower incident is just important symbolically. It is the audiences who make the event more important. And institutions like CNN motivate the audiences to do this because of money and influence. This can be seen through a famous American cartoon The Simpsons. For instance, when Ken Brockman (a news reporter) interviewed the Simpsons, he spoke in great outrage to the fact that they lied to everyone on Christmas Eve. However, after the interview he says:

“Thanks, this is going to make a great headline. Ah! All that money”.

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This clearly shows that influence and money are the only thing cared by the institutions like CNN. Being that America is the richest and influencing country in the world, it is not a surprise that the event was significant.

The image of Bin Laden posted on television screens combined with repeated images of the plane crashing into the second tower and commentators’ discussions of “horror”, “terrorism”, “disaster” and “unimaginable” changed the way mass audiences think. One of the ways the media forces audiences to show grief and anger is by clever camerawork.

When the first hijacked ...

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