Covering September 11 and Its Consequences: A Comparative Study of the Press in America, India and Pakistan

Abstract

The September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York , confronted the Press with a supreme challenge, in America where the earth-shaking event happened and in South Asia which continued to experience violent aftershocks months later. September 11 affected Americans in a most fundamental way; it forced them to re-assess their role in the world and question why they become a target for disaffected groups in faraway lands. Similar reassessments were underway on the other side of the globe, with the press in India and Pakistan asking a different set of questions about how this event would affect and alter the lives of people in the South Asia region. This paper is an attempt to analyse how the press in America responded to the need to understand and report what happened on September 11, analyse why it happened and to present this information and analysis in a professional manner untainted by emotion, sentiment or jingoism. Simultaneously it examines how the press in India and Pakistan handled a similar challenge in their region.