Beyond Representation: Cultural Understandings of the September 11 Attacks
| Author | Nesam McMillan |
| DOI | 10.1375/acri.37.3.380 |
| Published date | 01 December 2004 |
| Date | 01 December 2004 |
380 THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY
VOLUME 37 NUMBER 3 2004 PP.380–400
Address for correspondence: Nesam M. McMillan, 315-416 Gore Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065,
Australia. Email: ncma79@hotmail.com
Recipient of the Norval Morris Prize for being the top student in the Criminology Honours
Programme in 2002.
Beyond Representation: Cultural
Understandings of the September 11 Attacks
Nesam McMillan
University of Melbourne, Australia
The September 11 attacks changed the world. This article explores this
common assertion by analysing selected Australian and American
media and political representations of the September 11 attacks.The aim
is two-fold: to explore these representations and to analyse their
functions and implications.Three themes that characterise Australian and
American understandings of September 11 in the immediate aftermath of
the attacks will be discussed. The first theme is that the impact of the
attacks was represented differently in each country (but in a way that
reaffirms the status quo in both nations). Second,the countries shared an
interpretation of the attacks that reflects the characteristics of mainstream
terrorism discourse. Third, the attacks were also understood in both
countries as a challenge to existing structures of representation. It is
argued that the September 11 attacks, therefore, expose and violate the
limits of representation. By breaking the rules of representation, the
September 11 attacks raise the possibility of alternative understandings
and appropriate responses to them.
The impact of the September 11 attacks was massive. Thousands of people died,
landmark buildings crumbled and communities across the world watched while the
events unfolded live on television. The societal and political reactions to the
attacks were similarly massive, promoting a “War Against Terrorism” marked by
intensely symbolic rhetoric (Charlesworth, 2001/2002). Yet those visual and discur-
sive images of the September 11 attacks raise as many questions as answers. How
were they simultaneously understood to be overrepresented and fundamentally
unrepresentable? How were they constructed to affect perceptions of national
identity? How were they interpreted to change the world?
They occurred on September 11, 2001, when two American planes were
hijacked and used in a suicide attack on the World Trade Center (WTC), New
York. Another American plane was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon,
Washington DC, and a fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The terror-
ists, who died during the attacks, were later linked to the network of Osama bin
Crim 37.3-text-final 10/1/04 4:07 PM Page 380
Laden’s Al-Qaeda, based in Afghanistan. The incidents claimed approximately
3000 lives and affected many more. They influenced everything from public
opinion on Australian immigration policy to global tourism, and the date of the
attacks — September 11 — is often referred to as “the day that changed the world”
(Campbell, 2002, p. 12; Phelan, 2002, p. 104).
In their wake, the American President declared his country’s commitment to a
“War Against Terrorism” and called on other leaders throughout the world to
support America in this battle (Chomsky, 2001; Passavant & Dean, 2002). A “War
Against Terrorism” did then ensue: Afghanistan was subjected to targeted military
strikes and the ruling Taliban regime was overthrown. The September 11 attacks
have also been linked to more recent military action instigated by the United States
of America (USA). In May 2003, for example, Bush (2003) described the war in
Iraq as “one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001”.
In this article, I explore American and Australian representations of the
September 11 attacks that emerged in the 72-hour period after they occurred. The
discussion is based on my analysis of print media representations (from The
Australian and The Washington Post newspapers) and political representations (the
media releases from the Australian and American heads of state). I examine what
the representations of the September 11 attacks are and then analyse the implica-
tions and functions of those representations. A guiding objective in my research
has been to reappraise those representations as an interpretation, rather than the
“reality”, of the attacks. That is, I have analysed the media and political representa-
tions of the September 11 attacks on the basis that they actively produce the way
the attacks are understood. The representations of the attacks constitute dominant
perceptions of the attacks, shaping and constraining the way they can be inter-
preted. My research is not intended to reveal a “truth” about the September 11
attacks, but to explore dominant representations of the attacks and to analyse the
implications or functions of those representations. In deconstructing them, I have
sought to illustrate their contingent and ideological nature and, thus, to raise the
possibility that there may be alternative ways to conceptualise (and respond to) the
September 11 attacks (see Simpson & Charlesworth, 1995; Young, 1990, 1996a).
Mechanics of Analysis: Research Design and Methodology
I begin with a brief outline of my research design, given the geographic and tempo-
ral restrictions on my analysis. On the geographical plane, I used a purposeful
sampling strategy to collect data from both the USA and Australia. The reason
was, in part, to determine whether those representations were affected by national-
ity or whether they were similar in these closely-aligned Western countries.
Australian representations were gathered for comparison, as the attacks had a large
impact here, despite the geographical distance between Australia and the USA.
Further, as I reside here, it was possible to analyse the Australian data in a highly
contextual manner — which may not be possible for the American representations.
In a future study, though, it may be fruitful to compare American representations of
the attacks with representations from a more culturally divergent country (e.g., a
European or Middle Eastern one), though it is possible that such countries may also
be primarily dependent on British and American news sources.
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BEYOND REPRESENTATION:CULTURAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS
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