Introduction
The biggest news event in my life still remains to be the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. The Al Qaeda network orchestrated the bombing of the world trade center and the pentagon. This, according to me, is the biggest news event to date. This event was reported as described in this essay.
Analysis
Exposing the Plight
The American media placed more emphasis on the emergency response and the plight of the people who were exposed to the tragedy; this was aimed at exposing to the world that America had been hit hard.
In analyzing the events of 9/11, it is imperative to first acknowledge that the American and the western media despised terrorism and depicted it as a global enemy (The official story 1). The US media was in particular latent with patriotic mood.
A deep analysis indicated that the word terror and terrorism was overriding in all the newspapers and it appeared 48 times, the word that America was attacked appeared 37 times the third most appearing word was thousands dead which was mentioned 34 times, these words also appeared in the common headlines, the headlines also appeared bigger in font than normal headlines.
The media was also heavily latent with quotes the most prevalent one being ‘Our nation Saw evil” (Rodrigue 2).
The photographs of the world trade centre and the pentagon appeared in magnified form alongside the headlines. The headlines and photographs exemplified the top priorities of the America nation and also sought to magnify the attack to justify any potential course.
The type of reporting signified agenda setting and nature of media propaganda. Most of the quotes used were from President Bush and the photographs appearing on the newspapers were similar; these two facts are an indication that newspapers rely on similar source and may also share contents (Rodrigue 2).
The Headlines
New York Times
The New York Times carried the following headlines a day after the September 11 attack; “hijacked jets destroy twin towers and hit pentagon in a day of terror’’ (Schmemann 1) the first sentences of the headline stated as follows “hijackers rammed jetliners into each of the New York’s world trade centre towers yesterday toppling both in a hellish storm of ash, glass and leaping victims” (Schmemann 1).
One of the images that were captured by the New York Times was as indicated below. The New York Times’ news was heavily latent with quotes from the American citizens who compared the attack to the one of Pearl Harbor.
Washington Post
The Washington post ran the story in their late edition and in the September 12 production. The main headline of the late edition on the fateful day was “terror hits pentagon, world trade centre” (Washington Post 1) other headlines were; “N.Y. Skyscrapers Collapse after Hijacked Planes Hit; is this the scale of Pearl Harbor and nightmare shatters Manhattan morning” (Washington Post 1).
The Washington post on September carried the story through its main headline as “Terrorists Hijack 4 Airliners; 2 Destroy World Trade Center, 1 Hits pentagon, 4th Crashes” (Washington Post 1). The images captured by the Washington post in its late edition were as indicated below.
CNN and Al Jazeera
Media coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US was carried out effectively. At first the media houses covered the news and all fingers were pointing at the Al Qaeda for causing the attack. However, later many theories came up arguing that the whole attack was one big conspiracy meant to achieve some personal interests of some top politicians.
These theories have been continuously strengthened by scientific arguments which have denied the possibility of a collision of plane on a tower causing a fire of the magnitude that was witnessed. It has also been argued that the turn of events and the way some top officials behaved pointed to some conspiracy (Aleshinloye 1). However, these theories have been fiercely confronted (America 1).
Conclusion
The news of the September left me a stressed and distressed individual; the effects were so immense especially watching and listening to the news on television capture live pictures of the attack. The new elicited powerful emotions from me and the actual trauma still persists in my heart. Generally, the attack left permanent scar on my body and my mind.
Works Cited
Aleshinloye, Samuel. The 11 Most Compelling 9/11 Conspiracy Theories. News One, 2011. Web.
America. The Top September 11 Conspiracy Theories. America Government, 2009. Web.
Rodrigue, Christine. Media coverage of the events of 9/11. Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop, 2002. Web.
Schmemann, Serge. “Hijacked Jets Destroy Twin Towers and Hit Pentagon.” New York Times, 2011. Web.
The official story. The attack according to the New York Times. Research, 2011. Web.
Washington Post. “Nation Attacked.” Washington Post, 2011. Web.