At Ground Zero: 25 Stories from Young Reporters Who Were There - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560254270 ISBN 13: 9781560254270

Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002

Synopsis

The young reporters featured in this book were in the midst of a tragedy that most Americans felt deeply if from a distance. Amongst them are contributors from Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, The Advocate, Stars and Stripes, CNN, Reuters, the Stuyvesant Standard, Yomiuri Shimbun, India Abroad, the Columbia News Service, and more. Their powerful stories and individual experiences are personal in their details but universal in their impact. Many contributors were at the scene of the collapse, and all describe the anger, thrills, terror, depression, and redemption that accompanied their coverage. They relate who they interviewed, what they photographed, and how they presented the information they uncovered to editors and readers. Here, a Fox News telecaster describes her heartbreaking work interviewing victims’ families. An NPR radio correspondent records the sounds of crowds fleeing the collapse while a New York Daily News photographer is buried in rubble. South Asian- and Middle Eastern-Americans terrified by potential repercussions speak to a Newsday reporter, and a Columbia Journalism School student presents articles written while planning to drop out of journalism school because of the trauma. Like most Americans, these writers are not seasoned war correspondents. Instead, they are smart, articulate, sensitive adults writing personal stories, memoirs in miniature, of their coming-of-age as journalists during a time of national tribulation.

About this title

From Booklist

*Starred Review* For many people, September 11 was a day of tragic endings, but for these young reporters, it was also a day of career beginnings. The essays here, almost all with detailed accounts of Ground Zero on 9/11, are written by current and recent journalism majors (many from Columbia School of Journalism) and beginning writers in their first years of professional reporting. The emotional essays describe the chaos and destruction, but they also show and explain why so many of these contributors risked their safety, spoke with editors well before reassuring worried loved ones of their well being, and strove for on-the-spot interviews of survivors and workers in the midst of the site. They wanted the story--not to please editors or to get better jobs or the big byline, but to find out what was really going on and to report the factual accounts of that day. Anyone outside of the journalistic community may see their driven behavior as heartless, but Nick Spangler explains: "If I were the sort of person that did not care about the particulars or trusted others to get them for me I would probably not have chosen reporting as a career." These essays are absorbing. One writer snuck into Ground Zero on Tom Brokaw's coattails, others hitched rides with ambulances, and all found ways of phoning in their quotes. Many describe the atmosphere and people of New York during the surprise attack and the sadness and grief that followed. An excellent collection from a talented group of up-and-coming journalists who shrugged off inexperience, doubts, and fears to bring us the facts. Michelle Kaske
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Library Journal

In the aftermath of September 11, publishers have released a plethora of books on the event, most of which have been glossy tributes to the victims and rescue workers. This work provides a somewhat different perspective of that horrific day. Edited by Bull, a writer for the Advocate and coauthor of Perfect Enemies, and Erman, an editor at Thunder's Mouth Press, this is a collection of heartfelt narratives told by journalism students and fledgling reporters not seasoned professionals who contribute to various publications, including Slate, the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Daily News, the Wall Street Journal, and many more. From the chilling and poignant diary notes of Petra Bartosiewicz in "From Nightmare to Redemption" to Chris Williams's moving "Facing the Fear," these firsthand accounts offer a glimpse into how these young reporters coped with and wrote about this terrifying attack on the nation, as well as its emotional consequences. Although worthwhile for anyone wanting to read more about September 11, this collection is most suitable for journalism school, academic, and larger public libraries. Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1560254270
• ISBN 13: 9781560254270
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 324
• Editor: Erman Sam, Bull Chris