THE FACE OF WHAT CAME AFTER: MEMORIALIZATION OF SEPTEMBER 11 IN NEWS IMAGES AND THE SHANKSVILLE SITE _____________________________________________ A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _____________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ________________________________________________ by G. ROBERT BRITTEN Dr. C. Zoe Smith, Dissertation Supervisor AUGUST 2008 The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled THE FACE OF WHAT CAME AFTER: MEMORIALIZATION OF SEPTEMBER 11 IN NEWS IMAGES AND THE SHANKSVILLE SITE presented by G. Robert Britten a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Dr. C. Zoe Smith__________________________________________________________ Dr. Stephanie Craft________________________________________________________ Dr. Berkley Hudson_______________________________________________________ Dr. William Benoit________________________________________________________ Dr. Soren Larsen__________________________________________________________ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am grateful to very many people for their contributions both to this work and to my life as a whole. Thank you, naturally, to the members of my committee for their service and for their willingness to let me take up the occasional hour of their time with my thinking out loud. Thanks in particular to my advisor, Zoe Smith, for her feedback, her edits, her tolerance of more than a few blown deadlines, and for a number of lunches. Thanks to the people of Shanksville and the Somerset area for welcoming me into their lives and homes and for sharing such meaningful images. Thanks to my family for their support and especially to my mom, Vickey, for her invaluable help with transcribing. And finally, thank you to my fantastic wife, Jessica, not only for her encouragement and willingness to hear my ideas out, but for graciously managing so much of our lives-in- transition while I was buried in work – I love you, and will be returning the favor soon. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 a. Purpose of the dissertation 1 b. Cultural emphasis of the dissertation 3 c. Significance to journalism and visual communication 4 d. Organization of the dissertation 6 II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 8 a. Guiding concepts 9 i. Collective memory 9 ii. Place 11 b. Frames and framing 15 c. Linking the concepts 18 III. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 20 a. Guiding concepts and the news media 20 i. The role of collective memory 20 ii. The role of place 23 b. Guiding concepts and visual communication 25 i. Collective memory and images 27 ii. Place and images 31 iii c. Hypotheses and research questions 33 i. The media level 34 1. Hypotheses 34 2. Research questions 37 ii. The regional level 38 d. Conclusion 39 IV. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGIES 40 a. Content analysis of newspaper photography 42 i. Sample 43 ii. Categories 45 b. Image type category development 47 i. The constant comparative method 48 ii. Image type category 49 c. Case study 51 i. Case study criteria 52 ii. Qualitative criteria 54 iii. The Shanksville case 55 V. IMAGES OF SEPTEMBER 11 AT THE MEDIA LEVEL 59 a. Results of the constant comparative process 59 b. Intercoder agreement for content analysis 63 c. Results of content analysis 64 i. Hypotheses 65 ii. Research questions 68 iv d. Conclusion of content analysis 72 VI. IMAGES OF SEPTEMBER 11 AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL 73 a. Flight 93 and the Shanksville area 74 i. Details of the event 74 ii. Response from the Shanksville area 75 iii. The site itself 80 b. Signs of Flight 93 83 i. Directive signs 84 ii. Declarative and interactive signs 87 c. Structures and symbols 93 i. The Flight 93 Memorial Chapel 94 1. Origin of the chapel 94 2. Design elements 98 3. Donations and artifacts 102 ii. The September 11th Memorial Garden 105 1. Origin of the garden 106 2. Community connections 110 d. Images, objects, and interaction 112 i. Symbolic images and objects 113 1. Event symbols 114 2. Material symbols 119 ii. Tributes and balance at the sites 125 1. “Common” and rare tributes 127 v 2. Preservation and maintenance 131 e. Journalism and its functions 136 i. Covering Flight 93 137 1. History images 137 2. Visitor activities 138 3. Local activities and logistics 140 ii. Covering other news 143 iii. Interacting with media 147 f. Individual photography 149 i. Shared scenes 151 ii. Individual images 155 iii. Functions of photography 159 g. Conclusion 161 VII. DISCUSSION 163 a. Application of premises 164 i. The material 165 ii. The usable 166 iii. The particular and universal 168 iv. The partial 169 v. The processual 171 vi. The unpredictable 172 b. Model of memorialization in the Shanksville area 175 i. Memorialization within place 175 vi ii. Memorialization in media 179 1. Insider coverage 181 2. Outsider coverage 182 3. Models of coverage 183 c. Conclusion 185 VIII. CONCLUSION 186 a. Limitations and future research 186 i. Limits of sampling 186 ii. The image type category 188 iii. Statistical limitations 190 b. Further implications for journalism research 191 c. Conclusion 195 APPENDIX A. Content analysis codebook 197 B. Case study protocol 203 C. Field notes 206 D. Figures and images 214 REFERENCES 230 VITA 242 vii THE FACE OF WHAT CAME AFTER: MEMORIALIZATION OF SEPTEMBER 11 IN NEWS IMAGES AND THE SHANKSVILLE SITE G. Robert Britten Dr. C. Zoe Smith, Dissertation Supervisor ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the memorialization of the September 11 attacks in newspaper photography and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the site of the Flight 93 crash. It is based on the premise that the face of memorialization seen in the news media is very different than the practices seen at the Shanksville site itself. Unlike the other impact sites, the Shanksville area was not widely known prior to the attacks, and even since then, it has seemed to be a rare presence on the news page. Yet memorialization has taken place throughout the area, and while the official memorial has repeatedly stalled, residents have moved ahead with individual visions of the event. To understand the role of this unseen site in the memorialization process, this study is guided by the cultural concepts of place, collective memory, and framing. The first two of these are used to explain how individuals make meaning of where they live and what they do; the third concept deals with how they share those meanings with others. Analysis takes place at two levels: Media and regional. At the media level, content analysis is conducted on images in the major newspapers serving each of the impact sites. At the regional level, the case study method is used to examine the memorial work on the ground in the Shanksville area. The results suggest a journalism of “we” at play, with media tending to focus only on the memorialization activities of their own areas. The implication is that place limits, both individual and institutional, may keep audiences from understanding the parallel memorial work of others. viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 4.1. Images Used by Newspapers in 9/11 Anniversary Coverage. 44 5.1.1. Use of all site images in impact site newspapers. 65 5.1.2. Newspaper use of on-site, off-site, and non-impact-site images. 65 5.2.1. Use of off-site images in impact site newspapers. 66 5.2.2. Newspaper use of off-site images. 66 5.3.1. Goodness of fit for site depictions in all newspapers. 67 5.3.2. Goodness of fit for World Trade Center and Shanksville depictions. 67 5.4. Depictions of situations in anniversary years. 68 5.5.1. Use of image types to depict impact sites. 69 5.5.2. Image type use for closest off-site or home site images. 70 5.6. Use of image types in anniversary years. 71 6.1. American flag at Flight 93 impact site. 80 6.2. Temporary memorial wall. 80 6.3. Geno’s Steaks sticker at Flight 93 temporary memorial. 81 6.4. Covered donation box at temporary memorial. 81 6.5. Model of Flight 93 memorial plan (seen from above). 82 6.6. Map of the region around Shanksville. 82 6.7. Map of the Shanksville area. 82 6.8. Direction sign at Hauger’s auto body. 85 6.9. Father Al’s stenciled direction sign. 87 ix 6.10. The original seed sign. 87 6.11. “Welcome to Shanksville” sign. 88 6.12. The Flight 93 Memorial Chapel. 94 6.13. Before and after photographs of the chapel’s construction. 98 6.14. Donated stained glass window at the chapel. 98 6.15. Mural facing chapel’s stained glass window. 99 6.16. The Flight 93 crew memorial. 100 6.17. Model plane built by co-pilot LeRoy Homer, Jr. 103 6.18. “Semper Fi” placard at the chapel. 104 6.19. Josie Benson’s sign on display at the chapel. 104 6.20. The Shanksville school’s memorial garden. 106 6.21. Close-up of handprints on the garden’s sculpture. 108 6.22. Local store advertising Flight 93 DVDs. 113 6.23. Commemorative mug designed by Wendy Chisholm. 115 6.24. The Flight 93 flag. 116 6.25. “Angels of freedom” at the temporary memorial. 117 6.26. Photograph of angel with smaller angel in yard. 118 6.27. Cat’s Meow figurine of the Shanksville tanker truck. 120 6.28. The first Flight 93 cancellation stamp. 122 6.29. A t-shirt that Father Al had cancelled. 123 6.30. Stickers and messages on the temporary site railing. 128 6.31. Small objects left at the temporary memorial. 128 6.32.