Striking Media Reaction to 9/11 in an Insecure Nation:
The Discussion Between Writers
Sylvia H. Pham
University of Minnesota
Author Note
Sylvia H. Pham, University of Minnesota.
This essay was written for University Writing 1301 taught by Rose Miron. Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Rose Miron, Department of Writing Studies, University of Minnesota. Email: miro0048@umn.edu
Many Americans have heard of the tragedy of 9/11 and the effect it had on the great nation that is called the United States. While this is true, many Americans are not aware of the absurd amount of media coverage surrounding 9/11 and the events that followed, and what exactly was the motive of these media journalists at the time. When delving deeper into the topic, people have discovered that the media tried to cure the nation wide shock and cultural unease that resulted from the attack with the types of stories they wrote. These attempts link to the media only choosing to cover certain aspects of post 9/11 events that revolves around the national myth of invincibility while hiding the rest. Books as well as online articles have emerged regarding the media and how they interpret events post 9/11, and in these books and online articles hold the controversy as to why the media behaved the way it did. Two authors of different writing pieces, Susan Faludi and Assed Baig, have contributed to this controversy and wrote pieces arguing that the underlying motive of media attention to particular events after 9/11 was the attempt to reestablish the idea of an invincible nation. Susan Faludi argues in The Terror Dream that the media manipulated the events following 9/11 to promote an idea of an strong nation and to prove that feminists have not weakened the country, while Assed Baig in “Malala Yousafzai and the White Saviour Complex” argues that the Western media misrepresented Malala’s story to promote the idea of the United States being...