Message Boards, Public Discourse, and Historical Meaning: An Online Community Reacts to September 11

Abstract

This study examines messages posted to NYTimes.com in the first three days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It contributes to our understanding of the history of interactive mediated communication, especially in a time of crisis, by providing insight into how this online community immediately constructed meaning out of the attacks. Readers used this new technology to engage in geographically and temporally unrestricted public discourse. They exchanged opinions, released emotions, argued, supported, and reacted, with political commentary the most commonly featured discourse. With the eleventh anniversary of the attacks just behind us, the readers' dialogue offers a glimpse into the mediated public conversation at an important historic moment when people were just beginning to understand the tragedy's meaning and the possibilities of interactive, digital technologies. Understanding the elements of message-board content aids our understanding of how and why readers engage in public digital discourse, a phenomenon then in its infancy but now an important part of media content.