Digital Narratives of 9/11

CNN from 8:50 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. on Sept. 11 and Sept. 17
On Sept. 11 at 8:50 a.m., the hijackers had just flew a plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center minutes ago. No one had time to react; no one knew what happened. Therefore, CNN’s coverage of the situation at that time was rather vague and repetitive. The only image shown on television was the World Trade Center with smoke billowing out from where the plane hit, and the anchor and reporter kept repeating the same line: A passenger jet crashed into the World Trade Center. Since journalists could not enter the area, they held little information regarding the incident. They didn’t even know which tower the plane had hit, nor if there were any casualties. However, they tried to make up for the lack of information by interviewing witnesses in New York City, asking the people what they saw and felt. Connection failed during one of the interviews, but overall, the witnesses’ words helped give those watching the television a better sense of what was going on. Six days later, Americans knew the complete story, and thus CNN’s focus changed from piecing up the actual situation to analyzing the aftermath: whether there would be a war or not. At 8:50 a.m., CNN presented questions to the viewers and discussed the questions in depth with professionals. Backgrounds during the interviews included the White House and places near the World Trade Center; natural sounds during the interviews included the ambulance siren and people consoling each other. Before 9 a.m., CNN showed a text on the screen with an image of the American flag in the background, saying “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and families of this tragedy.” I thought the words were very powerful.

NHK (Tokyo) from 9 a.m. to 9:10 a.m. on Sept. 11 and Sept. 17
I don’t understand Japanese, but digital images shown by NHK shared similarities with the images on CNN. On Sept. 11, NHK started reporting the news a bit later than CNN. However, the reporter was on a helicopter in New York City, so while the video only contained the World Trade Center, the reporter managed to move around and zoom in and out, capturing different angles of the twin towers. He captured the moment when another plane crashed into the towers, as well as the explosion and the debris falling from the building. At the same time on Sept. 17, NHK stopped showing pictures of New York City, and instead focused those who were behind this terrorist attack. They shot tanks and soldiers in Iraq, and revealed an image of Osama bin Laden. In the end, the news anchors presented a map of the Middle East to the audience. I assume they were speculating possible consequences of this attack.

Both stations offered additional perspectives to the incident as time passed. They did so with more diverse texts, graphics and broadcast. Such use of digital technology to document Sept. 11 proves the point made in the article “September 11: A story told in pixels,” that the event demonstrates how the media spread news rapidly and how photographic skills become a common way to tell stories.

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