Page 325 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

314 Notes

definition of the event as an example of justice meted out by the dispossessed
of the “South” against the exploiters of the “North.”
11 This is, of course, a problematic notion. For a thoughtful discussion, see
Sturken and Cartwright (2001), Chapter 8.
12 Kellner (1992). See in particular pp. 1–11.
13 Liebes and Katz (1990). See also Lull (1988) and Mandel (2002).
14 Ginsburg et al. (2002), pp. 14–16.
15 Said (1979); Said (1997); Gans (1979); Tuchman (1980); Epstein (1972).
16 Ajami (2001).
17 Singer (2001).
18 Singer (2001).
19 “Focus special: the Atta document in full,” (London) Observer, 30 September
2001, p. 17.
20 Ajami, op. cit.
21 Sturken and Cartwright (2001), p. 319.
22 Mattalart et al. (1994).
23 We should not overlook that this “clash of cultures” interpretation of the
West’s confrontation with Islam (widely credited to historian Bernard Lewis) is
echoed by influential voices in the West as well. Hirsch (2004).
24 Juergensmeyer (2001).
25 Castelli (2004).
26 Ajami (2001).
27 For a description of this form of broadcasting, see Dayan and Katz (1992),
pp. 4–7.
28 Linenthal (2001) cites a study by psychiatrists at the University of Oklahoma
which found that children were depressed by the images, and that pre-schoolers
“thought that each time they saw the ruins of the Murrah Building a new
building had been destroyed” (p. 75). Anecdotal reports at the time of 9/11
suggested similar effects on children. A colleague of mine recounted that she’d
realized that her young son had concluded that each time he saw the 9/11
footage, another building had been attacked.
29 Dayan and Katz (1992). For a discussion of their taxonomy, see pp. 25–39. I
am indebted to Nick Couldry for his thorough and thoughtful critique of
Dayan and Katz’s work. On the whole, I agree with his analysis, and, to the
extent that what I have to say about the rituals of commemoration and
mourning need to be seen in the sort of totalized terms he problematizes, I
see no problem with calling them, to paraphrase Couldry (2003), “event-
based narratives where the claims of a central set of concerns are
particularly intense” (p. 67). I further acknowledge here the consonance
between Couldry’s tentative analysis of the 9/11 events (pp. 72–4) and my
own.
30 This difference may of course be rooted in differing scholarly paradigms. Dayan
and Katz’s analysis is historical and formal, whereas I am speaking here as an
audience researcher.
31 Bellah (1974), p. 40.
32 Therefore, my approach also differs significantly from Bellah’s in that he did
not envision popular culture as playing a role, focusing, like Dayan and Katz,
on the formal elements of the events and practices.
33 See, for example, Forbes and Mahan (2000), particularly pp. 1–20, Chidester
(2000). See also Chidester and Linenthal (1995).
34 Bell (1998), p. 220.
35 Grimes (2001).
36 Gillis (1994), p. 3.