ICA-6-10604
1
September 11th – How People Heard About it, Talked
About it, Got Information About it
Abstract
September 11 2001 was an "extreme event" in terms of news values
research. An analysis of peoples communicative activities on this day can
reveal how communicative networks and mass media work under extreme
conditions. This paper presents findings from a German study in 2002.
Results from telephone interviews with 1460 persons show that the diffusion
of the news followed patterns known from other extreme events. Special
attention was paid to sources of information about the event, the use of these
sources over time and to further activities of information on this day.
In the second part of the paper a comparison with data from studies in the US
show that media have special strengths and weaknesses according to the
local time of the events: news spread faster in Germany in the afternoon by
means of television than in the US, while interpersonal communication was
more important in early morning America.
(150 words)