Reflections on a Tragic Day

I debated on sitting down and writing this reflection yesterday but the reality of it is September 11th is still a very difficult and tragic day in my mind. In reality I know that it is much more difficult for those who actually lost a loved one on that day. I was working at the radio station that morning producing a morning show, as part of standard procedure Television station morning news shows are played inside of the studio so that the on-air personalities will know if any late breaking events take place and they closely monitor the AP news wire to keep up to date. I remember sitting in the studio and watching as the televisions began broadcasting the news that the first plane had flown into the World Trade Center. It only took a few minutes for it to be decided that the stations would start broadcasting directly from the associated news wire and forgo traditional broadcasting unless there was a local Disc Jockey who was already on air and who could relay the information. The events of September 11th occurred in the north but it affected everyone and the entire nation was shocked. The station flew into a flurry of people trying to get up to date information on the air as quickly as possible and we watched as the news broadcast the second tower being hit. For me this situation began to hit very close to home, my mother was on a plan flying home from England and was scheduled to land in Philadelphia. At that moment there was still no verification of where the planes had departed from and what the status was of other planes that were in the air; it would be many more hours before I would have any update from her and this impacted how September 11th would affect me at that moment and how I would look back on it every year thereafter. When the plane hit the Pentagon I once again felt the pain at home. My best friend was an intern in Washington D.C. and often spent time working both at Congress and also within the Pentagon. I talked to him within an hour as he had been evacuated and told to go home and from his apartment he could see the smoke rising up from the burning Pentagon. I focused on my work making sure that each station who was broadcasting live got the information as it came down from the AP wire. We began organizing an event where everyone in town could come together and mourn the loss the nation was now experiencing. We watched live as the towers fell to the ground and blanketed downtown New York in ash and rubble bringing war to American soil. It would be two days later before I would actually speak to my mother but I found out how she was later that evening. Many of the planes headed to America were turned back to their original destination. Her plane was scheduled to land less than an hour after the first tower was hit and they did not have enough fuel to turn around and go back to England, so they were diverted to Canada. She sat on the plane for over four hours without being told what was going on (in retrospect we think that they did this in order to search the passengers bags because they still did not know how many attacks were scheduled). She used here cell phone but was unable to make any calls into the United States but was able to contact our friends she had been visiting in England who would contact me and let me know how she was doing.
The Internet allowed me the opportunity to check on her plane. The Canadian airport where she landed began broadcasting a live feed of the planes from the United States who were diverted to their airport. The feed from the airport showed hundreds of planes lining the runway and allowed users to verify the airline flights that were parked on their airstrip. It would still be many more days before she would be allowed to call into the states and they would verify to them what had occurred and almost a week later before she finally came home. I write this to lead into the discussion of digital media and the events of September 11th. The Internet allowed me to know that her plane was safely on the ground and digital technology such as cell phones allowed people to communicate with one another and even allowed those who would later die in the World Trade Centers and planes to have final communication with their loved ones. Social media as we know it today did not exist at that time and I often wonder how this would have changed the reaction to these events. There were no facebook responses, no twitter updates documenting the events as they unfolded, YouTube was not even created yet where people could replay the events over and over. Would today's social media have had a profound impact on those events? I would have to say yes, when the flight attendants tell you to turn off your phone as the plane begins to take off how many people actually leave them on so they can stay up to date with their twitter and facebook updates. My husband constantly flies across the country and he is guilty of doing just that. So many people who were on those first two planes had no idea what was occurring but cell phones changed that for Flight 93 which has become known as the Heroes flight. Cell phone communication between passengers and their loved ones informed the passengers about what was occurring in New York and these passengers attempted to take control of the plane. Social media may not have impacted the first plane but would things have occurred differently after that crash with today's technology. I would have to say yes, I believe it would to what degree I hope we never have to find out. With that being said digital media will forever change the events of September 11th. Never before can a national tragedy of this magnitude be replayed for future generations to see and this is the power of digital media.