{"id":16354,"date":"2021-09-16T17:34:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T23:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=16354"},"modified":"2022-01-11T15:04:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T21:04:44","slug":"students-faculty-travel-to-new-york-for-9-11-anniversary-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2021\/09\/16\/students-faculty-travel-to-new-york-for-9-11-anniversary-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Students, faculty travel to New York for 9\/11 anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Everett Kirkman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eleven honors communication students and five communication department faculty members traveled to New York City from Sept. 8-12 to observe the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Each student on the trip fulfilled an honors contract on a topic related to 9\/11, the events surrounding it and the effects felt worldwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group visited the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at ground zero on Thursday, Sept. 9. While there, Dr. Jack Shock, distinguished professor of communication, was interviewed by multiple news outlets about his experiences at ground zero in the weeks following the attacks. Shock was called to New York by a former student, Darren Irby, national marketing officer of the American Red Cross, to assist with Red Cross media relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seated in the same spot in the New York Marriott Marquis where he met with the rest of his team each morning in Sept. 2001, Shock told the students of his two weeks at ground zero with the Red Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy job was to bring the story out,\u201d Shock said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even national news correspondents from outlets like NBC, ABC and CNN had restricted access at ground zero, as the National Guard patrolled what was an ongoing investigation. Journalists would often speak to Shock as a liason, who would then enter the Red Cross area to find someone willing to share their story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt that moment, that firefighter became my client,\u201d Shock said. \u201cIt was up to me to ensure he had a safe experience that did not exploit him, that did not put him in a zone that would be unhealthy for him, and also to accompany him to and through the interview.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shock described the many interviews that he took part in, where he stood directly behind the camera and the interviewer, as a presence of familiarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could stop the interview if I saw him in distress, and I made that clear with the reporter,\u201d Shock said. \u201cThe number one issue here is the safety and wellbeing of the subject, especially at this brutal time. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Ginger Blackstone, associate professor of communication, was beside Shock in the seating area, sharing with the students. Blackstone worked as a producer for CNN in Atlanta in Sept. 2001. She and her team have since received an Emmy Award for their reporting work over the course of the weeks following the attacks, as America learned about the terrorists\u2019 motives and the U.S. government\u2019s response in real time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Blackstone, Sept. 11, 2001, was her day off. Unaware of the initial plane crash, when the second plane hit the second tower, her two cell phones, landline and BlackBerry all began to ring at the same time. After learning of the events, she was advised to stay home, and rest up for the work that would ensue in days and weeks to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of the Turner networks, all of them \u2014 even like TNT, TBS \u2014 they were all simulcasting CNN, including CNN International,\u201d Blackstone said. \u201cThe thinking was, there\u2019s no point in us clamoring over resources right now, we just need to centralize the message.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blackstone said the channel stopped running commercial breaks for two full weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou just had to go on feeling,\u201d Blackstone said. \u201cThere was no rulebook for this. Nothing like this had ever happened. Like, when is it okay to run a commercial again? When is it appropriate?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior Emily Stinnett was a student on the trip and created a video documentary of it. A shorter version of her work, specifically focused on the reflection of students, was shown in chapel on Friday, Sept. 10. Her project documented the visit to the memorial, as well as visits to St. Paul\u2019s chapel, Trinity church and the Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9 firehouse on 8th Ave. in Midtown Manhattan. Fifteen firefighters from Engine Co. 54 went to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and none returned \u2014 the most men lost from a single engine company that day. The firefighters there shared their personal stories with the students and faculty and shared memories of colleagues that had been lost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stinnett said that one of the most memorable moments of the trip to her was reading the names of the 2,977 people that died on 9\/11, seeing their faces in photos and learning more about their individual lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s easy to define those people by their death,\u201d Stinnett said. \u201cI mean it was a huge event, and it was a huge attack \u2014 but they deserve for their full stories to be remembered and told. I want to be able to help remember and tell their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Everett Kirkman Eleven honors communication students and five communication department faculty members traveled to New York City from Sept. 8-12 to observe the 20th anniversary of the Sept.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15200,"featured_media":16348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16355,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16354\/revisions\/16355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}