ABSTRACT
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, fundamentally shocked many notions about the US social, political, and cultural order. Subsequently, various kinds of threat communication throughout analogue and digital networked media landscapes took place. One of the most salient results was certainly the proclamation of a global “War on Terror” by the Bush administration, succeeded by military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The attacks were thus immediately employed as a symbol of national unity, turning 9/11 into a powerful label for collective self-assurance and reflection. These contemporary forms of threat communication are predominantly shaped by the various technological, institutional, and semiotic affordances of their “mediating agents.” Building on this exemplary case, this introduction provides a survey regarding the roles, functions, and overall agency of institutional and technological media for the communicative construction—and later reflection—of the alleged threats posed on September 11, 2001.
