One week has passed since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Throughout this difficult week, our window on these events and their aftermath has been the media - but the enormity of these acts has posed an immense challenge to the broadcasters and journalists who are following this story.

Although this is a difficult subject, there are questions that students should consider when examining the television news coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Citing the need to keep the public informed, major television networks in Canada and the US abandoned regular programming to follow the story.

• Which programs did the networks stop broadcasting? Why?
• Which programs did the networks continue to broadcast? Why?
• What might that tell us about the relative importance of the various programs?

Many networks also made the decision to broadcast commercial-free news coverage.

• Why do you think the networks stopped showing commercials?
• Why would they stop if showing commercials is the way that they pay their bills?
• When might it be OK to start showing commercials again?
• What might stopping commercials tell us about the relative importance of commercials on TV or relative importance of commercials to TV news?

As the story unfolded, newsroom and newspaper executives grappled over whether or not to show graphic images of the victims of the attack. Many people died, and there are images available showing some of them dying.

• Should these images have been shown on TV or was that in bad taste?
• Should these images have been shown in newspapers or was that in bad taste?
• What guidelines should TV and newspapers use when deciding which images are OK to show?
• When does showing the images of someone's death become bad taste?

Over the past week, many stories have been told, both happy and sad.

• Why might people want to hear the happy stories?
• Why might they want to hear the sad stories?
• Is it better to hear stories than not to hear them? Why?

Osama bin Laden was quickly identified as the number one suspect in these attacks.

• How often did you see images of Osama bin Laden?
• What did the commentators say about him when his images were being shown?
• What was he doing in the pictures and film we saw?
• Which of the pictures made him seem dangerous? Why?
• Which of the pictures made him seem harmless? Why?
• What overall impression did you get of him? Why?
• Osama bin Laden has denied any involvement in the attacks. Who else, besides bin Laden, might have masterminded or financed the 
  attacks?
• Why might the news media have shown us his images and not the images of others?

The images of passenger jets crashing into the World Trade Center towers have formed the continual backdrop to this story.

• How many planes struck the World Trade Center? How many towers collapsed?
• How many times have you seen air planes strike the Trade Center?
• How many times have you seen the towers collapse?
• Did you see these events in true motion or in slow motion?
• Does it seem as though more than two air planes struck the Center?
• Does it seem as though more than two towers collapsed?
• What might be the effect on people when they see planes strike the tower hundreds of times and the towers collapse hundreds of 
  times?
• Might it seem to people that the events took much longer to happen, or
  that many towers were struck by many planes?
• Might seeing the events repeatedly make the events seem bigger than they were? Why?

This story dominated television, radio, newspapers and the Internet.

• Did most people get their news from TV, radio or the newspaper? Why?
• What can TV show that radio and newspapers cannot?
• How might getting the news mostly from TV affect people's feelings?
• What can radio show that newspapers and TV cannot?
• How might getting the news mostly from radio affect people's feelings?
• What can newspapers show that radio and TV cannot?
• How might getting the news mostly from newspapers affect people's feelings?
• What information might the Internet provide that the other sources could not?
• How might getting the news mostly from the Internet affect people's feelings?

It was reported that songs have been removed from North American radio station playlists as a result of the attacks. Songs removed from Toronto stations include:

"Hey Joe" - Jimi Henrix
"Eve of Destruction" - Barry McGuire
"Loser" - Beck
"I'm Stone in Love with You" - Stylistics
"First We Take Manhattan" - Leonard Cohen
"I Feel the Earth Move" - Carole King
"It's Raining Men" - Geri Halliwell
"Buses and Trains" - Bachelor Girls
"Sometimes I Want to Die" - Joydrop
"Burning Down the House" - Talking Heads
"Rock the Casbah" - The Clash
"Beds are Burning" - Midnight Oil
"I Would Die for You" - Prince
"Take a Picture" - Filter
"What a Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong

Some areas of discussion might be:

• Should the programmers have removed these titles without consultation with their listeners, or should they have consulted with them before modifying their playlists?
• Are the titles they have chosen truly problematic for listeners, or have
  they chosen titles that don't really relate to war?
• Are there songs which should be added to the list of 'retired' songs? Why?
• What songs might be highlighted on their playlists to help listeners cope with war?
• Should MuchMusic comb through its video list and remove selected videos? Why? Which ones?
• Should MuchMusic resurrect some older videos that might help viewers deal with war? Why? Which ones?
• Should MuchMusic produce a special program that examines the issue of removing and adding specific videos to protect and/or help its viewers? Why? 
• Which videos would you include in such a show?