The Impact of Mass Media Coverage on Public Opinion: The Case study of Pre and Post 9/11 Attacks

Abstract

The present study deals with the media cover and their response toward 9/11 attacks, and the common interest–game between terrorism and media. The events of September 11th shaped rather than changed contemporary history. The 9/11 events were terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon near Washington DC, which were shocking global media events that has a relation to the public attention. These media spectacles were intended to terrorize the US, to attack symbolic targets, and to open a terror spectacles, also to give a weak image to the US and global economy. The World Trade Center which was considered as an appropriate symbol of global capitalism of the New York financial land, also, the Pentagon was considered as a symbol and center of US military power. The world media cover the 9/11 event as a global tragedy especially the American media who convince the whole world that the 9/11 attacks were an act of war against America. The main objective of this research work is to analyse the world‟s media response to the 9/11 attacks, and how did this tragedy change the American media construction under the umbrella of the following hypotheses: different world‟s media and especially the American ones have greatly affected the opinion of the whole world after 9/11, as well as, as a result, a change took place in media reports about terrorism.