Media documentation of the September 11 attacks

During the September 11 attacks of 2001, a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda, killed 2,977 people, injured over 6,000, and caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. Multiple others have died due to 9/11-related cancer and respiratory diseases in the months and years following the attacks, leading the numbers impacted to continually shift to reflect the new numbers.

Some of the victims were able to document their experiences or the experiences of others and created well known images and video to document the attacks and their trauma. The media produced during and after the attacks were used to help identify victims, for investigations into the attacks and to document the attacks for history amongst other reasons. Many media forms were used, specifically photography and videography from passerby's on the streets or surrounding areas, freelance photographers and media crews around the city. The large spread of images and video along with the lasting impact on the population caused many of the images and videos to be in the top of the list of performances given recognition in the mid-2002's. In broadcast journalism, the Peabody Awards went to ABC and NPR for the channels documentation of the attacks, and the Pulitzer Prizes were awarded to six events around the attacks including two in photography.

The media documentation also showcased the limitations of media communication and documentation of the incident. The limitations created an issue were many common day individuals knew more about the situation, than first responders, politicians or the victims trapped on the planes or in the buildings. As stated by a former White House Press Secretary Ari Fletcher, Air Force One not having satellite or cable TV, nor access to email meant that; "It put us in a very different spot than most Americans that day. People around the world were riveted to their television sets. We had it intermittently on Air Force One....When you're in the air, you're cut off."

Photography 
Many photographs were taken during and after the September 11 attacks, as photographers shot a large amount of images, although only a few were widely seen by the public. Potentially due to the sudden and catastrophic nature of the attacks there was no effort by city, state, or federal government to document the disaster, and other photographs inserted themselves into the scenes.  Due to the public nature of the attack, that occurred in a busy location in broad daylight, the attack on the World Trade Center is said to be the most photographed disaster in history. The Mayor of New York City at the time, Rudolf W. Giuliani issued an Executive Order shortly after the end of the attack, banning amateur photographs of the ruins as it was deemed a "crime scene" and not a tourist attraction. 

Cameras and rolls of film were recovered in the rubble, that were either lost by surviving photographers or near those that lost their lives. These rolls of film and equipment when possible were cleaned and the photos produced to showcase the photographers final work, this was done notably with the recovered cameras of Bill Biggart. Of the pictures recovered or initially uploaded to company servers, editors had to choose which to include or which would be deemed too disturbing to be published. Of polled photo editors who chose to run images classified as disturbing [those with victims trapped on high levels or falling from the buildings], none chose to run the images on the front page but felt that not running the images would be a disservice to the victims and the scale of the tragedy. One such editor stated; 

Other forms of photo documentation of the disaster were not discovered until much later, such as a man's web-camera that had been set to take multiple photos and had captured the disaster.

Some of these images were incorporated into an exhibition of images called After September 11: Images from Ground Zero which showcased twenty-seven images around the world. Other exhibitions of the images were brought together in the form of archives, such as one spearheaded by photographer Joel Meyerowitz under the direction of the Museum of the City of New York to focus on the rescue and recovery work at Ground Zero.

Well known images

Videography 
At the beginning of the attacks, there were only three videographers who captured the impact of the first plane when it hit in New York City; a French filmmaker, a German artist, and a Czech tourist. Two security cameras captured the impact at  The Pentagon and the impact of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania is only recorded as a mushroom cloud in a single video. The attacks were also captured by local law enforcement, such as Officer Glen Pettit who was a video cameraman for the New York Police Department.

Television channels 
Due to the reactionary reporting of the attacks, many television journalists and their production teams were scrambling for information and reporting live from close locations to the attacks as possible. This allowed them to capture the real-time reactions of ordinary citizens, first responders, and political leaders as the events were unfolding, causing much of the verbal content aired to the public to be spontaneous and emotionally charged. Even later shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman showcased the stack emotional reactions to the attacks, rather than a potential narrative. Many channels devoted 24 hour-7 days a week coverage, as the magnitude of the damage was assessed, the potential for more attacks subsided, and important revelations into roles of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida became known.

Channels such as WNYN-TV Fox 5's show Good Day New York, aired footage almost immediately, and CNN had a live feed of the Twin Towers at 8:49 AM, almost three minutes after the first plane had hit. Other channels used news channel coverage in order to spread information with VH1 and MTV utilizing CBS's material, ESPN and ESPN2 utilizing ABC's material. At the end of the night, Nielsen estimated that at least 80 million Americans watched the evening news, while an estimate by the University of Georgia held that about two billion people either watched the attacks real time or through the news.

Telecommunication devices

Phones

Cell-phones 
During the September 11 attacks, cell-phone technology was still being created and limited the still image and video capabilities of the devices. However, many scholars highlight the growing trend of utilizing cell-phones allowed for the creations of spontaneous networks of communication, that were able to circumvent and undermine more of the formal hierarchical systems of communication. A majority of the material created by cell-phones is the record of voice mails. Many of the voicemail records were included by individuals documenting the disaster and in archives about the reactions of the victims and survivors. The director of the September 11 Digital Archive Tom Scheinfeldt stated in an April 2008 interview; 
Communication was hampered by the disaster, as the attack knocked out 300,000 voice access lines, and 4.5 million data circuits, and left 10 cellular towers inactive. This caused some 14,000 business and 20,000 residents in the areas affected to be without service. This did not stop reports of survivors in the rubble of the buildings to call officials or family members during rescue efforts with their cell-phones.

Pay phones 
Throughout Washington D.C. and New York City, coin-operated pay phones on the street and near businesses became a vital link in communication and passing information.

Pagers 
As the attacks occurred during a transfer period of technology, many of the victims utilized pagers instead of cell-phones to communicate with friends and family. Many of the messages during the attacks, revolve around the attacks but others continued to messages friends and family as if it were a normal workday. Some of these messages were obtained by Wikileaks and published in 2009, although the validity of the messages cannot be fully confirmed. Of these messages, analysis has shown that the phrase "plane has crashed" was used most often at about 9 AM, along with "unconfirmed reports". Throughout the entire day and attack, the four most consistent phrases throughout were "please call home", "call me ASAP", "call your mother" and "call your wife".

Airplane radios, intercoms, and air-phones 
The hijackers of the airplanes did not know how to operate the planes radio and intercom systems, so some of their comments were inadvertently sent to air traffic controllers. This comments coupled with stewardesses who were able to operate the air-phone meant that officials were able to document the attackers movements on the planes.

References 

Category:September 11 attacks
Category:2000s photographs