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September
11, 2001
Covering
the Attack
A Preliminary
Checklist of Story Ideas
By Ellen
Sung
Poynter.org Reporter
Make
no assumptions. Report facts. Use dispassion, even in chronicling
passionate events.
--
Poynter president Jim Naughton
Story ideas
that every newsroom can use:
- Possible
gasoline shortage. There has been a huge run on gasoline stations
in some areas, driving prices up.
- How do
we explain to children how the attack occurred? Can your news
organization plan an educational feature that allows parents to
explain to children what has happened?
- Most major
terrorist attacks and suspected terrorist attacks remain unsolved.
Are the chances for solving this one any better?
- How will
the attack affect immigration policy?
- How were
children told in your community? At some schools, educators withheld
the news until the school day was out. Did this happen in your
area?
- Will the
United States become less mobile in coming days, weeks, and months?
How long will airports and borders be closed? Will security be
heightened?
- A tick-tock
on how one citizen got the news. Reactions, phone calls etc.
- Check on
military units in the area. Are they on alert, called up?
- Who watched
and where? What's happening in retail stores that sell TV sets.
Is everyone gathered around? Did work stop? What about workplaces
that don't have TVs?
- Survivor
stories. Is anyone from your town a survivor? Have a relative
who survived being near the attacks?
- It has been
hinted that Palestinians or Osama bin Laden are behind the attack.
It is critical to try to defuse xenophobic sentiment that may
arise. Are there residents in your community that fear retaliation
because of their ethnicity or religion?
- Has air
travel stoppage affected your region?
- How does
the FAA track airplanes? Several are "unaccounted for";
what does that mean?
- Personal
essay: how do we cope as journalists? How do we show emotion in
this situation while remaining fair?
- Timing.
Why did the attacks occur when they did?
- Bombing.
What's known so far about what explosives were used?
- Telephone
networks that went down around the country. Was wireless a good
backup? How did the Internet hold up in your region?
- Financial
implications of the attacks. Currency valuation, stock markets.
- Coping with
the disaster. Is there a blood donation drive in your local hospital?
Organ donation effort?
Information
graphics ideas:
- How the
structure of the towers collapsed, technical history of the building
- Why the
crashes instantly set off a fireball
- A timeline
of events
- Flight patterns
of the planes
- The geography
of lower Manhattan, which could include:
- the
locations of the towers and times of the crashes and collapses
- the
Statue of Liberty (for reference)
- Canal
Street, because on news broadcasts Giuliani was telling people
to get above Canal Street
- the
United Nations,
New York Stock Exchange and the rest of Wall Street, which
were evacuated
- the
evacuation route, which went east from the center and then
north
- the
ferry that took people to New Jersey
- the
edge of Brooklyn, where bits of office paper drifted down
3 miles from the site
Send your
story ideas to esung@poynter.org.
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Telling
Children About 'Bullies'
By Al Tompkins
Terrorist
Attack Expert Round-Up
Courtesy of ProfNet
An Eyewitness Speaks
By Ed Hashey
A Crime Against Humanity
By Chip Scanlan
Inside
the Newsroom on 'Worst News Day Ever'
By Doug White
The Days Ahead: Advice
for Newsroom Leaders
By Jill Geisler
In Times Like These
By Kenny Irby
Prepare
Your Newsroom for Bomb Threat Coverage
By Al
Tompkins
Freezing
a Moment in Time
By Monica Moses
Hope
on a Day of Despair
By Roy Peter
Clark
How
Online Journalists Can Recover Lost Ground
By
Steve Outing
The
View from a Broadcast Professor
By Ken
Killebrew
Covering
the Attack: Our Largest Assignment
By Pam Johnson
Minute
by Minute with the Broadcast News
By Jill Geisler
Lead
Your Newsroom with Tomorrow in Mind
By Gregory Favre
Advice
from a Veteran of Disaster Coverage
By Roy
Peter Clark
Crisis
Reporting and Respectful Interviewing
By Bob Steele
Overloaded
Internet Fails Info-Starved Americans
By Mike Wendland
List
of Relevant Links
By Al Tompkins
Terrorist
Attack: A Preliminary Checklist of Story Ideas
By Ellen Sung
Tough
Decisions Ahead on Coverage
By Al Tompkins
This
is Personal
By Roy Peter Clark
Guidelines
for Covering Terrorist Actions and Crisis Situations
By Bob Steele
Wednesday's
Paper: What Will Readers Need?
By Monica
Moses
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