Week 9, Post 2: Media Coverage

On page 342 of Chapter 26, Hall emphasizes the point that "multiple media outlets end up speaking on a major issue with what seems to be a single voice". This was especially true right after 9/11. Despite the initial thought of, gee, perhaps we should consider how the rest of the world sees us, there was a general consensus that we must join together and be patriotic. There was little opposition to Bush and his plans. If anyone dared speak out, they quickly apologized. This goes to show how powerful mass media is and the strong impact it has on our lives. With the media leading the patriotic charge, the rest of the country followed. We were all more patriotic right after 9/11. I remember there were songs and telethons and people started putting all these flag emblems on their cars. Mass media shapes our perspective of the world. We don't know how the rest of the world feels about us because the media rarely examines that. And so we continue to live in our little American bubble and think that we are the coolest people on the face of the earth. I'm not sure how we can escape the influence of mass media. It's everywhere... on the news, in the papers, on the internet. I think you would have to live in a cave somewhere to get away from it. Yes, the mass media is important but we should take everything with a grain of salt because eventhough they are supposed to be unbiased, they still lead us to think a certain way.