Memorable Mediated Experience (Michael)

For me the most memorable mediated event was a very recent one, the day the announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed. I remember being home and watching the news late at night and them announcing that Obama was going to make a statement on an undisclosed matter and that the news anchors would say more as they learned. Shortly after they began saying that rumor had it that the news was of the death of Osama. From their I remember Giraldo Rivera coming on and talking about the information, and then Obama came on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ellnd3M8-ow&feature=fvst

After the briefing ended I was still in shock. I couldn't believe Osama was finally dead. It had felt like forever that we had been hunting the man and to learn that it was all finally over filled me with a great satisfaction. As this was happening my mom and step dad were getting up and I was able to tell them the good news "we got him." Being to sleepy to say much they had the same look of satisfaction on there face as they made there way back to bed. After that I quickly returned my attention to the internet.

Unsurprisingly the internet was a firestorm of talk about the death. On facebook everyone was updating to celebrate the monsters death and the party didn't stop for a few hours. Elsewhere on the web internet forums were just as buzzed by the info. While most people were just as excited as my friends on facebook, the anonymous was far more critical. Just as many people were simply trilled to know Osama was gone, others couldn't help but question the whole affair. "Was this a PR move by Obama", "Won't Osama now be a martyr symbol for Al Qaeda", or "This is just propaganda." Naturally I did my best to get involved with the conversations and give my views. I guess people like conspiracies so naturally they didn't stay on the internet. People were demanding to see evidence of that he was dead and buried, and while some hard information got though the government never gave the conspiracy theorist the information they wanted.

With a quarter of a year nearly having passed since the news broke my opinion really hasn't changed. Reading everyone else's excited post on facebook only made me happier and I haven't had any reason to change my opinion. For all the nay sayers out their I find it best not to questions things for the sake of questioning. I have no reason to doubt the government in this regard and having debated the nay sayers my opinion has only been cemented more in place. However they were right about the consequences of his death. While I haven't heard anything out of the norm from Al Qaeda, their has been backlash in the Middle East. Specially the US relationship with Pakistan has had more strain put on it, but only time will tell where this will lead.

Over all my experience with what is likely one of the biggest new stories in the past decade follows the levels of communication we learned about in Chapter 1 of studies. Starting at the top with the mass communication across society I learned about the death of the most wanted man in the world. From their I took the the web and talk with my friends over face book and varies other people on internet forums that night. Come the next day the world was still reeling from the news and I eventually found myself talking with my friends and family about it. All the while I was internalizing the fact that puppet master that scared my city was finally no more.

Hanson, Ralph E. Mass Communication: Living in a Media World. Vol. 3. Washington, DC: CQ, 2011. Print.