Journalism After 9/11

Our newspapers, news channels, radio stations, anchormen and women are all normally taken for granted. I feel that we, as an audience, generally view journalists as the cut-and-dry authorities of any knowledge of the present state of our cities, countries, and world. However, the foreward and introduction to "Journalism After September 11" does an interesting job of turning the perspective towards the people and the processes behind the stories, all as potentially sensitive, able to make mistakes as we are. According to this article, 9/11 had an incredible impact on journalists, and in addition to being the ones responsible for educating the public on the situation, they also had to take on the heavy task of helping an entire nation heal, mend, and move on. However, the solutions are obviously not simple, and the media, in all its shapes, forms, and functions, has taken on many different methods to educate and help the country, which according to the article, includes strains of censorship, corruption, and even ignorance. The questions of "what should journalism be" and "what is journalism" are constantly being brought up in the discussion of how 9/11 changed the media and the ways that it handles traumatic issues. What I found most interesting in the reading was the comparsion of the American media to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), and the result was that America was much more likely to coddle its homeland audience, while British journalists were much more comfortable delivering the blunt, unadulterated facts without including bias or partiality.

Needless to say, the events that occured on September 11th changed the history of the world. This article shows that change among the very people who are presenting the change to us, the viewers.

Kathy