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Most Americans watched TV for WTC news: Study

N. Nagaraj

THE horror of it all is still etched in the mind - the image of the toppling tower, the image of the crashing tower, the image of the rubble, rubble as high as a ten storey building, people running away from the crashing tower in the streets of Manhattan , silent people holding up photographs of their loved ones - and all of these were reinforced by television with images of the second airplane crashing into the tower from different angles shot by professionals, amateurs and tourists. Video dominated the reporting of the attack more than anything else - not newspaper photographs or reports, not radio or television reporting or commentary.

A Harris Interactive survey of 4,601 online adults in the US found that television and radio were the primary sources of information about the attack. Television was the number one source by a huge margin: it was the primary source of information for thr ee fourths of the respondents, followed by radio (15 per cent).

Only three per cent of the respondents said the Internet was a primary source. There is no treating television lightly simply because of the visual impact of video footage, and the immediate perspective of scale. Also, people having breakfast or people g etting ready to leave for work would have caught it first on television.

Radio, of course, could never match the effect of the television. It is possible that radio itself showed up as the number two primary source as most people would have listened to it on their way to work.

However, 64 per cent of the respondents did use the Internet to get in touch, discuss, and gather information about the attacks. Nearly half of the respondents (47 per cent) said they had discussed the bombings online and close to half of them said that it helped them cope with the situation. One in four respondents sent e-mail to check on the safety of the recipient and quite a few (17 per cent) received e-mails checking on them.

While the Internet was not a significant primary source of information, it does play a fairly high role as a medium for keeping up-to-date. Almost two-thirds of the respondents used the internet as a source of information. More than a third said they cou ld get more detail, and close to a third said that they could get information not available from other sources. The same proportion also said they used the Internet to get more up-to-date information. More than a fourth said they used the Internet as it was quicker to use than other sources, and a fourth of the respondents said that they used the internet for its convenience.

Offering a clearer picture as to why television is not all pervasive, or why the internet is so popular as a source of information - whichever way you want to look at it, more than a fourth of the respondents said they used the internet to get informatio n at their workplace. This also throws some light on the fact that the internet was not a primary source - the attack was reported just before nine in the morning.

While most of the respondents think the American stock market will worsen (82 per cent), only one per cent said they will sell their stocks. More than half of the respondents said that stocks have become a worse investment, and a significant number (31 p er cent) feel gold and precious metals have become a better investment. More than half think that real estate and bank deposits are at the same level as before.

And how about society? While 80 per cent of the respondents said they would be willing to give up some personal freedoms in order to have more security in public places, only 35 per cent said they are likely to change any aspect of their personal life or routine in order to reduce the chances of becoming a victim of terrorism.

More than a third of the respondents said they will avoid flying for the next few months, and more than a fourth have cut down on visits to big cities and other possible targets. Nearly a fourth said that they will buy more emergency supplies to have at home, and 15 per cent said that they will cancel or reduce overseas travel. That is what a terrorist attack and fear can do to people.