8:50-9:00 a.m.
CNN
CNN cut from the middle of a commercial to breaking news of the burning tower. There were solely shots of the tower burning for the entire 10 minutes (with the second one added when it was hit later), minus an eyewitness who was on camera. The content evolved from the idea that it might just be a plane crash into, when footage of the second tower hit came in just after 9, that it was no accident. It was the same repetition of facts and was repeated just as the hour changed and viewers were tuning back in. CNN was lucky to have a vice president as an eyewitness of the entire first plane hit, and he was the first source on the phone, who described the plane as a passenger jet. The coverage was panicky and uncertain, and you could hear commotion and chaos in the newsroom (which, I think, is a feature of 9-11 coverage, in that the noise is always heard). There were also glitches with signals and sources who had trouble hearing themselves or seemed tense and panicky, which made for tight interviews and increased panic on the viewers’ part.
BBC
The BCC had a schedule playing but cut from it to a more poised anchorwoman on camera telling people the news before it cut to shots of the two towers. At this point, just one had been hit. BBC also started broadcasting the news a few minutes after CNN, and mainly had one shot in the first few minutes. Its first minutes of broadcast were repeating facts that it had picked up from other sources and did not have eyewitness reports. BBC – perhaps because it was without the eyewitness sources and had an anchorwoman presenting the news instead of cutting to it – seemed less panicked and more poised.
7:00-7:10 a.m.
ABC (WJLA)
Starts out with images of Americans, families, flags, very patriotic. The anchors are sitting in New York, in their studio with an American flag draped in the background. Diane Sawyer is wearing a red striped shirt. You see their faces; one anchor says that he hopes everyone had a good weekend and were able to process the tragedy. It’s the news anchors reaffirming their friendship and comfort with their audiences. What a contrast to the panic of just a week before and the frazzled newscast in a frazzled time. It then examines different factions within the story such as Americans going back to work, professional firefighters, Pentagon news and dealings with the Taliban. It’s all segmented and planned out, though, and all in the motion of going back to work.
NHK Tokyo
NHK was one of the only international stations that had a 7:00 program, but it too had a shot of the middle of New York but one more gritty, the Ground Zero shot that ABC had not explicitly shown. It spent most of its program detailing Bin Ladin and even talking to people on the street in Afghanistan, again emphasizing the contrast between American and British television that have graphics of patriotic American images, while NHK Tokyo was really digging into it – perhaps less comforting about the issue because the target audience was not Americans but people who wanted the straight news who didn’t experience firsthand the disaster as many who watched other stations did.
In conclusion – the visual elements are always very telling in television segments. In the former scenario in the middle of a breaking news crisis, it was evident that there was panic – graphics barely changed, shots were monotonous and anchors were frazzled. But perhaps that was for the better, and reflected unintentionally exactly what the audience needed to see – shots of the sole focus, the Twin Towers, and a reflection that no one knew what was going on. That was the story it told, though not meaning to. And for the week after, coverage was American propaganda and pride, with many flag shots and shots of the streets, still remembering the events of just a week ago and yet, a cover of comfort for the very scary idea of going back to work and starting our country up again after sheer terror. The propaganda tried to sweep up the sentiments of fear, but because of the contrast, made them glaringly more obvious.