THE BIAS OF LANGUAGE, THE BIAS OF PICTURES Essay

The modern society is vulnerable to the impact of mass media but the way mass media convey the information to the audience influences consistently the perception of news issues and other important issues covered by mass media. In this respect, it is possible to refer to the news coverage of 9/11 tragedy by CNN. At this point, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the news coverage enhanced the negative feeling of the great tragedy that have occurred to thousands of Americans and the entire nation. CNN used diverse devices to enhance the negative and tragic image of 9/11 terror attacks and their consequences, including music, the live pictures from the tragedy spot, victims of the terror attacks or their relatives.
At first, CNN just showed the live picture from the spot. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the live picture produced a pressing impact on the audience because it was extremely difficult to perceive the tragedy of 9/11 without any comments. In fact, the audience perceived the tragedy as if viewers were just near the ruined buildings. In such a way, the audience felt the presence of the tragedy almost in their homes.
In addition, the pictures from the spot of terror attacks were also accompanied by comments of experts and CNN commentators. They conveyed their opinion and impression of the tragedy. At this point, I was particularly interested in the causes and possible consequences of the terror attacks and tragedy of 9/11, especially in a long-run perspective. The commentators depicted their own vision of the causes and consequences of the tragedy of 9/11 and they left little time for thinking over what they have told. The comments were like reports from the battlefield, which were short and accurate depicting the tragedy in details. At the same time, they were fast and did not leave time for the audience to evaluate the reports critically.
In addition, CNN provided comments of eyewitnesses and relatives of people, who were in buildings when airplanes struck the buildings. Their personal tragedy was obvious and they were almost paralyzed with fear and despair. Their emotions were conveyed to the audience. All viewers, who watched CNN at that moment could hardly avoid the impact of that fear and panic that overwhelmed eyewitnesses of the tragedy.
Furthermore, as the information about the tragedy increased, CNN used the diverse background and pressing music, which enhanced the sense of tragedy, which CNN just radiated depicting the spot of terror attacks, its consequences and devastations. In this regard, the casualties and detailed information about the possible number of victims and their background were particularly significant. This information contributed to the formation of the extremely negative attitude to the tragedy and evoked the sense of panic and fear in the audience. The audience felt that the tragedy was close to each American.
On the other hand, such coverage of 9/11 by CNN contributed to the development of negative impressions in the audience and multiplied negative effects of terror attacks. The audience could not stay aside of the tragedy and people could not forget about the tragedy at least for a minute because CNN had covered the tragedy practically since the beginning.
Thus, CNN’s coverage of 9/11 affected the perception of the tragedy by the audience consistently.