Why today is significant

   Let us put back the clock to January 8th. Tucson, a peaceful and quiet city located in Arizona State became the focus for all Americans on that day. The sound of gun broke the tranquility of this city. 

  

Jared Lee Loughner, a 22 year's old young guy who was the gunman created this incredible tragedy.  Arizona Democrat, Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others were shot when Jared opened fire outside a supermarket where Ms.Giffords organized activities to meet constituents.

It has caused six of the victims died till today, among them John M. Roll, the chief judge for the United States District Court for Arizona State, and a 9-year-old girl. Other 13 victims including Giffords were seriously injured, and they were receiving medical treatment in University Medical Central in Tucson now. According to the spokesman of Giffords’s office, Ms. Giffords was still under critical situation.

 Officials said motives for Jared to create this shooting was still under investigated. 

President Obama, speaking at the White House, condemned this inhuman assault. He also appointed Roberts S. Mueller III, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Arizona to oversee the investigation.

At the same time, citizens lived in different states expressed their sympathy, sorrow and blessings to the victims via different ways. Such as, citizens in New York gathered at different squares to in honor of the dies. Pupils in Chicago International school organized ceremony to express mourn for the 9-year-old girl.

OK, all the information above is quite easy for everyone to obtain via various ways, such as  television, website, newspaper, blogs,etc,. It may cost you just several seconds to get them if you have a “cute” and sophisticated I-touch or I-phone.

Turn our attention to the original question: why today is significant? Then finding the answer may become easy for us. It is widely acknowledged that 21 century is a century in which all unprecedented changes can happen. The development of telecommunication and network technology makes it possible for all of us to be immersed in an era what we call “information era”. 

If you want to find something what you really concerned and interested, what you do is just to open your computer, and visit the websites or log in your twitter, facebook and bolg. Then, you will be beset by the information ocean. You can almost find every thing you want.  The network technology advancement even makes television and newspapers lose its attractiveness for the public, while websites, such as facebook, twitter and blog become the inseparable part of our life.

 I think this is the biggest significance today, and it becomes understandable that the above shooting news can be transmitted timely to us.

We can still track the shooting news today:

“A week after being shot in head, Giffords breathing on her own”, this is the CNN reporting today. “Tucson Gun Show Goes On, and Safeway Reopens”, this is information come from Newyorktime.

When you read these news and information, have you ever think about what kind of function or influence they may generate on our life? I guess most of us do not. Of course, it is reasonable, and it should be the work for our scholars.

It is widely accepted by scholars and researchers who work in the communication field that for medias, there are 8 basic functions: Inform (a teacher function), surveillance( a watcher function), service the economy system, hold society together( act as sort of a cultural glue), entertain, act as a community forum, set the agenda and service the political system.

Definitely, The news I mentioned at the beginning of this article is a well manifestation for the function: service the political system. Usually, medias serve as a watchdog for the government, it will help the government to consolidate the conflicts between different social classes if it can be used properly.  Here I want to emphasize “properly”. Why?

Have you ever think about why the shooting can be happened? What’s the function of medias on such events?  We must keep in mind only the medias possess the ability to beget intense brainstorming in our society and generate tremendous influence on our daily life.  This is just what those gunmen and other culprits want to get.  They hope the whole society to pay attention to their plight and their injustice treatments. To achieve this goal, medias work as their assistant.  So it is easy to understand that why so much negative news like shooting appear on medias year by year.  The best manifestation is the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University shooting case.

Also, there is an obvious manifestation in China. In 2009, a worker lived in FuJian province who got unfair treatment used knife to kill 13 children before class to arouse the public attention. Just several months later, another similar assault against children happened in Jiangsu province. The culprit just utilized the medias influence on our society. 

Suppose we do not focus too much on this event, then the social reaction may be get small and tiny, and many crimes can be avoid when the culprits realize that what they do can not impact the society too much!

So it is really a thought-provoking problem for the government and medias to find a balance point between the reality and the negative function that may exert on our life.  Only in this way can we make it more significant today. To achieve this goal, we still have a long way to go.