Ritual Communication

Ritual Communication

AP Photo/www.muslm.net | Yahoo!

9/11 Mastermind -- At left a March 1, 2003 photo obtained by the Associated Press shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan. At right, a photo downloaded from the Arabic language Internet site www.muslm.net and purporting to show a man identified by the Internet site as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, is seen in detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The picture was allegedly taken in July 2009 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and released only to the detainee's family under a new policy allowing the ICRC to photograph Guantanamo inmates, ICRC spokesman Bernard Barrett said Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009.

According to Carey (1975), the ritual perspective views media not as a means of transmitting "messages in space" but as central to "the maintenance of society in time" while mass communication is "not the act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs." This contrasts with the transmissional perspective of viewing media as senders of information for the purpose of control (remember the Skyy ad, p. 360). In short, Baran says the ritual perspective is necessary to understand the cultural importance of mass communication.

Remember 9/11?

Maybe the better question is, how can we forget? Just to make sure we don't, we celebrate Patriot's Day every September 11th. Following 9/11, patriotism was at an all-time high. Everyone looked for the next terrorist on the street corner or maybe next door: "You're either with us or against us," the president told us. Looking back, media performed a credible job covering the event, but as Baran asks in the preference to your textbook:

Why were we caught by surprise?
Why didn't we know about the anti-American feelings in much of the world?
Where were the media?

To this I'd add the additional question:

Why did we treat 9/11 as an act of war instead of as a terrorist action?

A terrorist action, much as we encountered in the Oklahoma City bombing at the Murrah Federal Building, demands a police response. An act of war demands the military. Did the president call it an act of war? Not initially; a review of the day's coverage shows the media beat him to the punch. Other questions arise from the video evidence:

Who's more important as a source, government officials or people at the scene? (notice the use of similar sourcing from various outlets)
How much should the public see via media, e.g. the bodies falling off the World Trade Center?
Did media alleviate fears or exacerbate them by talking about other potential targets around the nation?
Why do some Americans still believe Iraqis were on the planes?
Why didn't media cover the flights of the Bin Laden family when all other flights were grounded nationwide?
How did media cover heroes like Beamer, NYPD, NYFD? How have they covered the health-related issues to those heroes since 9/11?
How did national leaders use media to display unity then? Do we still have that unity now?

Conspiracy theories still abound concerning World War II and John F. Kennedy's assassination, let alone 9/11. But do movies about those theories get us any closer to the truth?

Following 9/11, President George W. Bush said, "What we do now will truly define us as a nation." Did it? Is that good or bad?

Images and articles used here under Educational Fair Use. Notes originally produced to accompany Stanley Baran's "Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture." 6th ed. If you don't understand something in this Web note, please e-mail Dr. Sitton.