9/11 Sociological Analysis

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When examining 9/11, one can simply conclude that this particular event created a moral panic for the United States. This act of terrorism, was aimed towards disrupting the United States way of living. It sent the country in uproar, and put everyone in fear. From a sociological perspective, one could explain terrorism as a whole through the theory of functionalism. Functionalism, a theory deprived from Emile Durkheim, that explains how social institutions exist to serve some important or necessary function in society. On a macro level terrorism serves a purpose in todays’ society. September 11th, 2001 was a pure act of deviance, and deviance is something that goes against societal norms. A Sociologist would see terrorism as a form of crime …show more content…
The government started to enforce new rules in order to secure that this doesn’t happen again, and if so ways to prevent terrorism. One prime example would be how tight the security system is at the air port. According to The impact of 9/11Measures on the Demand for Air Travel it states that, “On November 19, 2001, President Bush signed into law the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA). This act established a new Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which consolidated security efforts inside the Department of Transportation” (Simon et al.2005). The government was preparing and training the air ports for a tight security system. All bags and people were accurately screened before boarding the plane, so that this event wasn’t bound to …show more content…
I can remember it like it was yesterday. The week that 9/11 happened, every new station was covering this story. They constantly replayed over and over, the planes hitting the twin towers and when it fell straight to the ground. There were major headlines that read “Al-Queada high jacked”. The media portrayed this Islamic group in a very negative way. Yes, they did a terrible crime, but I don’t think the media understands how much they influenced Americans’ prejudice towards people who identified as Islamic. This all is a result of the the way the story was covered. If had not been for the media many people wouldn’t have had a visual sight of what actually went on that day. In my opinion I believe that they added to the moral panic that the country was already