News Images of the Terrorist Attacks: Framing September 11th and Its Aftermath in the Pictures of the Year International Competition

Abstract

This study employed a content analysis to examine the visual coverage of the September 11th attacks through images submitted to Pictures of the Year International. This study classified the 667 images into four main themes: events, aftermath, firefighters, and the Muslim world. In an attempt to determine how the September 11th terrorists' attack was framed by photojournalists, this study revealed that most of the images framed strong pro-American perspectives by showing a challenged America and a nation united through patriotism while only limited images introduced different anti-American perspectives.

Notes

¹Pictures of the Year International became a program of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism in 2004.

^a n = 328.

^b n = 339.

^c N = 667.

²All figure bylines, including the organizations as well as the headlines and captions, came from the original file information submitted with the images. The present study did not make any changes.