When reading Nuke York, New York, I wondered if there was something more to it than America’s obsession of attacks taking place in New York City. Instead of maintaining that mindset, it is better to take a look at this in different mindset. It seems more logical that NYC is used as the setting for attacks made on U.S. soil because it is an area that’s recognizable on the global level, and using a setting such as NYC appeals to Americans because it represents the busiest cities in the United States.

Mike Broderick and Robert Jacobs use different mediums of media throughout his essay in order to provide examples of NYC being the center of catastrophic attacks. The structure of topics that his paper covers also has sections that relate to media, including magazines, books, television, film, video games, and online content, with only two sections that do not directly relate to a medium of media. The trend that the media sections seem to follow is that they all involve NYC as a setting of attack that corresponds to an attack. For example, the authors gave the example of the film Rocket Attack as a response of the Soviet’s launch of Sputnik and also the example of the 2005 novel The Nuclear Suitcase that is about an attack on NYC with a weapon from the former Soviet Union that is purchased by jihadists. Instead of agreeing with the author’s conclusion stating an attack on NYC represents American anxieties and fears from bombing Japan and the post 9-11 world, I feel that an attack based in NYC is an attack on, as the authors write, “American progress, prestige, and profit” due to the powerful symbolism it provides. This symbolism is something that causes sensationalism in attacks that take place in NYC.

This is probably done because it is something that culture and society dictates. Philip Morrison, author of If the Bomb Gets Out of Hand, followed with the example that New York is a better setting to use because of the familiarity. Even though the novel was a reference to the atomic bombing of Japan, he had to set the story in NYC in order to appeal to the American audience. Therefore, there are two ways to address this: either there is a symbolic meaning behind attacking NYC or there is a location meaning behind attacking NYC because everyone will understand where the attack is. This will be something that I will look forward to find out when I hear Mike Broderick talk tomorrow. Furthermore, I was surprised at the many culture references that I missed like Heroes and 24, which included references to a potential nuclear blast. Nevertheless as the current villain to the U.S. is based in the Middle East, we’ll be in for a few more books, games, films, and movies about them. Just think of how Call of Duty’s villain changed over time.