Television News, Images and Semiotics

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Introduction: Television News, Images and Semiotics Introduction A terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon by passenger airplanes on September 11, 2001, shocked the world. Two passenger airplanes from private airliners crashed into the upper part of the twin towers, which soon resulted in a total collapse of New York's famous landmark. When the planes struck the buildings and exploded with thundering noise, scenes of buildings on the brink of total collapse belching out flames and smoke remained. Scenes of victims caught by the disaster falling from the building like autumnal leaves while their fellow citizens ran around in panic in the streets are now familiar images to us all. People around the world now remember each of these scenes as a symbol of the tragedy. All of these scenes were delivered via television. The TV news reports broadcasted at the time of the incident consisted of constant repetition of visual images of the terrorist attacks, which made viewers receive them as the most important side of the incident. The September 11 attack was soon followed by a military attack of the US and its allies against Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden, who professed to have been behind the attack, was believed to be hiding; in addition, the Afghanistan regime led by Omar, a major backer of bin Laden and his terrorist group Al-Qaeda, were presumed to have escaped to there as well. The scenes of the US attack against Afghanistan were also delivered to the viewers of the world via televisual images. These pictures vividly captured the details of the Afghan war, from scenes of US forces sending Tomahawk missiles aimed at enemy hiding-places, the indiscriminate air raid targeting Afghan forces hiding in the mountainous area, to night strikes by US troops. In 2003, after it became evident that the US failed in both capturing Osama bin Laden and demolishing Al-Qaeda in the attack, the US government set another target for their post 9/11 mission: an attack against Iraq. In the earlier invasion into Afghanistan, the U.S. succeeded in obtaining the support of the United Nations, but it never did, or even attempted to do so for the following war against Iraq. The U.S. established 'allied forces' joined by Britain and a handful of other countries, and turned its resolution into action disregarding the U.N.'s warnings. The attack started, again, with the Tomahawk missiles sent from aircraft carriers, and TV delivered vivid and detailed pictures of the attack, ranging from indiscriminate air raids against Afghan forces hiding in the mountains to night attacks of America's ground army. Scenes of Iraq were usually of streets and people devastated by US air strikes. They were mostly captured by TV cameras and created strong impressions among viewers due to their repeated broadcasting. As seen in some cases stated above, out of all media forms, TV is regarded as the most important source of getting news to today's readers. This means that TV has now changed ranks in the media, replacing newspapers as the leading source of important information and influence. Currently, TV news receives higher scores in terms of timeliness and liveness whereas newspapers are regarded to be better in commentary and depth of news reports. However, the latest trend in TV has been the increase in expert commentaries on current affairs and issues, and he introduction of news in documentary form to provide more systematic and in-depth reports. Furthermore, a tendency to produce special news programs or talk shows to deal more intensively and extensively with an issue or event that greatly impacted society has arisen. This tendency reveals that TV tries to complement what is known as its weaknesses, effectively competing against newspapers in terms of in-depth news commentary. Some question the degree and level of information TV can provide. These questions reflect the public's opinion that the level of TV news is inferior to newspapers'.…

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