Doing 'Being Ordinary' in Witnessing 9/11

• In Event: Subjectivity, Morality, and Agency in Conversation, Radio Phone-ins, 9/11 Interactions, and Qualitative Research

Abstract

Many interactional studies of 9/11 focus on individual experiences and reactions, often soliciting participant feedback weeks and months after the event. This paper differs from such studies, as it uses conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis to offer close-grained, moment-by-moment analysis of how participants in an adult-oriented Internet Relay Chat room oriented to the 9/11 attacks as ‘tellable’ events, collaboratively constructing responses and reactions that one could accountably give when doing ‘being ordinary’ in relation such an extraordinary event. While the analysis presented here is drawn from IRC interaction, similar conversations happened in many online forums on that day. Such analysis is useful from a theoretical viewpoint, as it serves to further underscore how we interact online in ways that replicate face-to-face interaction, while allowing us to do things we can’t easily do in most face-to-face situations – including sharing feelings and comfort with people around the world.

Author

• Danielle Lawson, Edinboro U