ICA-6-10604
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1. Communication Studies’ Perspective on September 11: an Extreme
Event
On days like September 11 we see how a society communicates under
extreme conditions. We can see how its communication network is knit. The
network composed of strings of the mass media and the fine branches of
personal contacts becomes transparent.
What differentiates – from a communication studies point of view – September
11 from other events? Events can be classified and differentiated by means of
news factors (Schulz 1982; Staab 1990). News factors are characteristics
which communicators and recipients ascribe to certain occurrences, in order
to differentiate between important and unimportant ones. They then portion
their attention accordingly: News factors are the experienced communication
participant’s criteria for selection. The more they apply to an event, the more
news value is ascribed to the event and the more media attention is dedicated
(Hill/Bonjean 1964; Greenberg 1964). September 11 is a prototype for those
events, where in the respective situation all news factors receive extreme
values with great consistency . We therefore call this class of events “extreme
events”. The extreme news value of September 11 can be grasped above all
by the following five factors:
- Surprise: The terror attacks came like lightning out of the blue. There was –
in the perception of the communicators and recipients – no prior warning.
- Damage: Beyond the thousands of victims, the consequences were (and
are) unforeseeable – they stretch far into the future and concern each and
every one of us. One can hardly find a positive aspect in this event.
Throughout, the event itself, the background and the consequences are
regarded as negative. They smash our confidence in a safe future: “The world
will not be the same again”.
- Conflict: The attacks are the articulation of an extreme confrontation.
- Proximity: from a German standpoint the attacks were committed in a
country which is geographically remote, but close to us with respect to politics,
economics and culture. Among the victims there were also Germans.
Furthermore the attacks were targeted at globally present symbols of global
Convention