1887
Volume 21, Issue 4
  • ISSN 1569-2159
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9862
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

The September 11 terrorist attacks emerged as a turning point on security standards, contouring many aspects of public life ever after. Two decades later, the campaign stands as one of the New York City trademarks. Its ubiquity across subway platforms intends to raise public awareness by transferring security responsibilities to the general public.

Language is neither innocent nor merely instrumental, any more than is not neutral. This paper disentangles the construction of in the current context, where the elusive definition of terrorism has enabled distorted perceptions of risk and certainty. The paper adopts a multimodal critical discourse analysis, focusing on the campaign’s use of ambiguity and its lexical and semiotic choices. Ultimately, it intends to crystallize how language resonates with a broader preemptive and never-ending War on Terror rhetoric while paving the way to further analyze the activation of the target of this campaign: .

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.21072.bar
2022-02-11
2025-02-11
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aradau, Claudia, and Rens van Munster
    2009 “Exceptionalism and the “War on Terror”: Criminology Meets International Relations.” British Journal of Criminology49 (5): 686–701. 10.1093/bjc/azp036
    https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azp036 [Google Scholar]
  2. Arnews
    Arnews 2017 “Empire Shield: Soldiers Stand Watch to Prevent Another 9/11.” Army News Service. https://www.army.mil/article/174735/empire_shield_soldiers_stand_watch_to_prevent_another_911
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Barthes, Roland
    1972Mythologies. New York: The Noonday Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bartolucci, Valentina, and Giorgio Gallo
    2015 “Terrorism, System Thinking and Critical Discourse Analysis.” Systems Research and Behavioral Science32 (1): 15–27. 10.1002/sres.2206
    https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2206 [Google Scholar]
  5. Berger, John
    1972Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Burke, Kenneth
    1945A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Collins, Randall
    2004 “Rituals of Solidarity and Security in the Wake of Terrorist Attack.” Sociological Theory22 (1): 53–87. 10.1111/j.1467‑9558.2004.00204.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9558.2004.00204.x [Google Scholar]
  8. Cowell, Alan
    2005 “Subway and Bus Blasts in London Kill at Least 37.” The New York Times, July8 2005 https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/08/world/europe/subway-and-bus-blasts-in-london-kill-at-least-37.html
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Department of Homeland Security
    Department of Homeland Security 2017 “Chronology of Changes to the Homeland Security Advisory System.” https://www.dhs.gov/homeland-security-advisory-system
  10. Department of Homeland Security
    Department of Homeland Security 2012 “If You See Something, Say Something. About the Campaign.” https://www.dhs.gov/see-something-say-something/about-campaign
  11. Department of Homeland Security
    Department of Homeland Security 2012 “What is Suspicious Activity?” https://www.dhs.gov/see-something-say-something/what-suspicious-activity
  12. DiMaggio, Paul, and Walter Powell
    1983 “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields.” American Sociological Review48 (2): 147–160. 10.2307/2095101
    https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 [Google Scholar]
  13. Fairclough, Norman, Jane Mulderrig, and Ruth Wodak
    2011 “Critical Discourse Analysis.” InDiscourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, ed. byTeun A. van Dijk. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. 10.4135/9781446289068.n17
    https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446289068.n17 [Google Scholar]
  14. Fernandez, Manny
    2010 “Post-9/11 Slogan a Potent Message from an Ad Man.” The New York Times, May10 2010 https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/nyregion/11slogan.html
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Friesen, Katie
    2007 “The Effects of the Madrid and London Subway Bombings on Europe’s View of Terrorism.” Human Rights and Human Welfare7: S10–S17.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Gee, James Paul
    2011An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method. New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Gibson, David
    2012Talk at the Brink: Deliberation and Decision During the Cuban Missile Crisis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Goffman, Erving
    1963Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. New York, NY: Free Press of Glencoe
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Hoffman, Bruce
    1998Inside Terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Jackson, Richard
    2005Writing the War on Terrorism: Language, Politics and Counter-terrorism. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Krzyżanowski, Michał
    2020 “Normalization and the Discursive Construction of “New” Norms and “New” Normality: Discourse in the Paradoxes of Populism and Neoliberalism.” Social Semiotics30 (4): 431–448. 10.1080/10350330.2020.1766193
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2020.1766193 [Google Scholar]
  22. Krzyżanowski, Michał, and Per Ledin
    2017 “Un-Civility on the Web: Populism in/and the Borderline Discourses of Exclusion.” Journal of Language & Politics16 (4): 566–581. 10.1075/jlp.17028.krz
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17028.krz [Google Scholar]
  23. Machin, David and Andrea Mayr
    2012How to do Critical Discourse Analysis. A multimodal Introduction. Los Angeles: SAGE.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Manhattan Institute
    Manhattan Institute 2018 “Securing Our Cities. Counterterrorism After 9/11.” February21 2018 https://www.manhattan-institute.org/securing-our-cities
  25. Marx, Gary
    1981 “Ironies of Social Control: Authorities as Contributors to Deviance through Escalation, Nonenforcement and Covert Facilitation.” Social problems28 (3): 221–246. 10.2307/800300
    https://doi.org/10.2307/800300 [Google Scholar]
  26. Mathiesen, Thomas
    1994 “General Prevention as Communication.” InA Reader on Punishment, ed. byAntony Duff, and David Garland, 218–238. New York: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. McClain, Noah
    2012 “Below the Subway: Taking Care Day In and Day Out” InAgainst Security: How We Go Wrong at Airports, Subways, and Other Sites of Ambiguous Dangeredited byHarvey Molotch, 50–84. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Mohr, John W., Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Ronald L. Breiger, and Petko Bogdanov
    2013 “Graphing the Grammar of Motives in National Security Strategies: Cultural Interpretation, Automated Text Analysis and the Drama of Global Politics.” Poetics41 (6): 670–700. 10.1016/j.poetic.2013.08.003
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2013.08.003 [Google Scholar]
  29. Molotch, Harvey
    2012Against Security: How We Go Wrong at Airports, Subways, and Other Sites of Ambiguous Danger. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Ocejo, Richard and Stéphane Tonnelat
    2014 “Subway Diaries: How People Experience and Practice Riding the Train.” Ethnography15 (4): 493–515. 10.1177/1466138113491171
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138113491171 [Google Scholar]
  31. Price, Michael
    2013 “National Security and Local Police.” Brennan Center for Justice, December10 2013 https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/NationalSecurity_LocalPolice_web.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Rapoport, David
    2004 “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism.” InAttacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand Strategy, ed. byAudrey Cronin, and James Lodes, 46–73. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Richards, Julian
    2018 “Intelligence and Counterterrorism.” InRoutledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism, ed. byAndrew Silke, 395–405. New York: Routledge. 10.4324/9781315744636‑34
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315744636-34 [Google Scholar]
  34. Schnell, Jim
    2006 “The Increased Emphasis on Visual Imagery, Versus Aural Messages, and Related Ramifications.” Visual Arts Research32 (2): 56–58.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Solomon, Ty
    2012 “‘I wasn’t angry, because I couldn’t believe it was happening’: Affect and discourse in responses to 9/11.” Review of International Studies38 (4): 907–928. 10.1017/S0260210511000519
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210511000519 [Google Scholar]
  36. Tavin, Kevin
    2006 “If You See Something, Say Something: Visual Events at the Visual Culture Gathering.” Visual Arts Research32 (2): 2–6.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Tonnelat, Stéphane, and William Kornblum
    2017International Express: New Yorkers on the 7 Train. New York: Columbia University Press. 10.7312/tonn18148
    https://doi.org/10.7312/tonn18148 [Google Scholar]
  38. Van Dijk, Teun
    2008Discourse and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1007/978‑1‑137‑07299‑3
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-07299-3 [Google Scholar]
  39. Wagner-Pacifici, Robin
    2010 “Theorizing the Restlessness of Events.” American Journal of Sociology115 (5): 1351–86. 10.1086/651299
    https://doi.org/10.1086/651299 [Google Scholar]
  40. 2017What is an Event?Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 10.7208/chicago/9780226439815.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226439815.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.21072.bar
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.21072.bar
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): discourse; rhetoric; security; semiotics; subway; War on Terror
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error