Media Coverage
One Year Anniversary:
On September 11, 2002, on United 93’s one-year anniversary, it was covered by many newspapers.
Two of the newspapers that covered the anniversary were USA Today and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. USA Today is a national newspaper that has the third largest circulation in the country. 1 The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is located 80 miles away from the crash site of United 93 Plane.
Both of these newspapers used similar and different tactics in their articles. Personal articles were used to create a personal aspect for the reader by incorporating quotes from people who survived the attacks and also quotes from people who lost their family members or friends from the attacks. By using quotes and incorporating words like mother, father, son, church member, and army member, it allowed for the reader to view the people in a more personal light and also relate the experiences closer to their own life. The victims turned into people who were “not just victims” but were relatable people “in relation to general social categories”. 2 Many people know others who have served in the army, are affiliated with a type of church or religion, have parents, or are parents giving the reader a direct similarity with the people who suffered from the 9/11 attacks, creating “the more empathetic among us to consider the scenario in relation to our own friends and loved ones and giving greater emotional resonance to the presentation.” 3
Also there were many articles in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that focused on memorials or monuments. The articles addressed how the creation of the United 93 Flight Memorial was finally in the planning process. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote about the plans to create a feeling of national unity for the readers and for the people of Pennsylvania. This newspaper focused on memorials and monuments because since it was so close to the United 93 crash site, they wanted to “memorialize what happened in [their] our place above those of others” 4
The numbers of articles published in each newspaper:
| Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | USA Today | |
| Personal Articles | 3 | 3 |
| Memorial/ Monuments | 7 | 1 |
- Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/newspaper-circulation-top-10_n_3188612.html ↩
- Source: Monahan, Brian. (2010) Shock of the news: Media coverage and the making of 9/11. New York University Press (NYU Press). ↩
- Source: Monahan, Brian. (2010) Shock of the news: Media coverage and the making of 9/11. New York University Press (NYU Press). ↩
- Source: Britten, B. (2013, Jan 22). Journalism studies: Putting memory in its place. ↩