Ari Contreras

The Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center is an event that has been present in everyone’s minds ever since its occurrence. Even if someone doesn’t learn about its complexities and controversies in school, the media has spread its relevance throughout the years.

Our constant exposure to this event has made us aware about our need to care for all those who were involved that day. No matter someone’s occupation or status, empathy is a common thread within those that learn about the terrible acts committed on 9/11.

Over the years, journalists present at the scene have dealt with the aftermath of stories they wrote and photos they took reporting on such a devastating event.

An article by Artsy Net recounts photographers’ experiences years after they recorded history with their cameras.

Most of the photographs featured in the article didn’t showcase the flaming Trade World Center, which is a burning image in everyone’s minds at the mention of 9/11. Instead, those photographers focused on the reactions people had in regard to the event.

As a journalist, I can’t blame them for taking pictures. Our duty is to tell people’s stories and they are found everywhere. A person showing distress or possible relaxation in response to a catastrophe are both extremely intriguing stories.

My brain goes on autopilot when I see a story form in front of me. I want to get an interview with a subject and expose what has not yet been communicated, but I never desire for my pen or keyboard to add to the tragedy.

Getting the best story I can is a natural instinct that has been instilled in me because of journalism. But before I was a journalist, I was human. I think some people in the field have forgotten our primary role as individuals is to function as humans.

Humans are capable of feeling a whirlwind of emotions, including empathy and kindness. Both of these are characteristics I think have lacked in the past when covering events as delicate as 9/11.

While journalists who vividly captured the events that unfolded that day were doing their job, this makes me question where the line between “doing our job” as journalists and having a decent string of humanity is drawn.

At some point the price of a really good story, whether it’s written or photographed, is sensitivity.

Every Sept. 11, news channels are flooded with images taken on 9/11 and interviews of family members whose loved ones tragically died in the attack.

Time and time again, I’m drawn to the looks on people’s faces in pictures and interviews. Typically, they all seem to be distressed or in a state of hurry. Their fight for survival amidst such chaos is something that has always been engraved in my mind.

If I had been a reporter back then, I probably would have taken a picture and noticed those around me. I cannot imagine myself, however, completely detaching from the reality taking place around me and thinking of possible quotes or sources that would win me a Pulitzer Prize.

I would have fled. I probably would’ve made my editor upset. I would have acted like a human.

This attack on the World Trade Center, like many traumatic experiences, has raised concerns in the journalistic community. How much time should one wait to interview a subject whose school has just been shot, parents have been murdered, house has been burnt down? Should children be interviewed at all?

These are all ethical questions that prioritize the human before the subject of the story. Some might think of them as the same concept, but they’re not. If one knows what humanity looks like, then sacrificing a story isn’t that big of a deal.

While I understand the urge to record an event because of how fresh it is in everyone’s minds, journalists can’t be story-hungry all the time. Our cameras and pens can’t act as a weapon murdering humanity instead of telling it.

My instinct is to always be human first. Relate to the subjects, question a story before making anything out of it. I think “Is this story worth-telling in the way I’m about to?” rather than “I will tell this story no matter what.”

As a journalist, part of the job is to be desensitized to people’s reactions to the words I write. I report, but I’m not a machine. I can be sensitive to people’s experiences. This belief, in my opinion, can make a good journalist an even better one.

Gavin Breunig

As somebody who developed an interest in journalism as recently as this past March, the ethics of photo and video journalism is an idea I’ve considered extensively as I’ve continued to grow into my own as a journalist.

Something that was surprisingly difficult for me to grasp when first researching journalism was the idea of being an observer. Journalists act essentially as machines, studying a topic or an event and breaking it down to its barest elements to be presented in a clear and concise way.

The job of a journalist is to get the story to the reader. Allowing human emotions to cloud the true nature of a story is not the job of a journalist, that is the job of the reader.

There are a number of ethical practices that all journalists are supposed to follow to allow the true nature of a story to remain unaltered, chief among these being to remove biases. In certain ways, sensitivity could be considered a type of bias.

Arguments considering the ethics of publishing photos and videos such as those that were published of 9/11 have come up numerous times. Usually, these arguments are centered on the sensitive nature of those photos and videos. Parts of these arguments I agree with, but other major parts I disagree with.

Those photos and videos are definitely difficult to look at. Ranging from depicting people burning, to falling to their deaths, to the aftermath of the horror that day, there is no lack of sensitive media from 9/11. However, I argue that this sensitivity is why they need to be published.

Any number of people could hear that the twin towers of the World Trade Center fell, but it wouldn’t be until they saw the towers on fire and the aftermath of such that they would fully understand the scope of the tragedy.

Personally, I was not born when 9/11 occurred. Thus, when I think of 9/11, I am only able to see the day through the lenses of various different cameras.

One of the most important aspects of journalism is the fact that we are capturing history, holding moments that will never occur again for anybody to see. The images captured of 9/11 have been, and will continue to be, shown for decades. The stories each individual photo and video captures are immeasurable in their impact in years to come.

We need journalists on the ground at every catastrophic and tragic event to allow us to do what we’ve sworn to do every year since 9/11.

Never forget.