"As the days and the weeks pass after the attacks of Sept. 11, an interesting development is taking place: American media is being beaten, and beaten solidly, by foreign competitors in the hunt for the stories of the new war against terrorism. This is particularly true of electronic media, whose shortcomings -- especially in terms of international coverage -- are on view for all to see. While American media seems fixated on the anthrax threat, the rest of the world is receiving better information about the larger, more complex issues."

"The limitations of other media -- time, space and depth, in particular, in various quantities -- mean that the Internet is becoming the one medium where Americans who are interested in getting the 'real facts' of the story can go to find them. Even most American media also recognize this -- witness the regular exhortations to audiences and readers to 'go to the Web to get more on this story.'"

ABCNews.Com Internet Grows as News Source

"A new ABCNEWS poll finds that nearly half of Americans now get news over the Internet, up by 11 points ? perhaps 22 million individuals ? since mid-1999. And just over a third of Internet news consumers say they've been going online for news more often since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

redux [09.13.01]
The New York Times Web Becomes Global Support Forum
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"Internet discourse revolved Wednesday around trying to fathom, cope and communicate. Web sites and discussion groups urged blood donation, posted prayers and debated whether civil liberties may be curtailed.

"The Internet has proven to be a remarkably good way to form relationships and communities," said Steve Jones, a professor of communications at the University of Illinois-Chicago. "We go online to try to make sense of what happened, who to blame, who's in charge, et cetera."

Initially, Internet users went online to find out what had happened. Later, they used e-mail and other tools to find out about how friends and family were doing. The third phase -- finding meaning -- followed shortly."

Online Journalism Review Internet Performs Global Role, Supplementing TV

"The difference between June 1914 and September 2001 isn't merely one of scale, or of potential consequence. Many of those who fought in WWI -- from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and myriad other nations -- had never heard of the Archduke, or his murder. But every soul bound for the battle surely followed the American attacks today, within minutes of this strange new war's beginning."

"Why were chat rooms a major focus for people seeking early information? Because many of the Net's major news sites were quickly crippled by massive traffic. The bigger the news event -- as if anything like today's nightmare could ever be reduced to such a term -- the less the major news sites are able to cope."

nut'so Down

"With help from Dave and the Blogger Search Page , I've spent much of the last two days reading first-hand accounts of the horrible events in NYC and D.C. and personal reactions from people all over the world. Thank god for personal journalism because the coverage we're seeing in the mainstream media is painfully repetitive and barely scratches the surface. It feels very restrained and controlled to me which is probably best for the country at large right now. But it has been helpful for me to get a sense of what real people are thinking and dealing with."

The New York Times Web Offers Both News and Comfort
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"The major news Web sites were quickly overloaded. Many links to the not-so-major news Web sites stopped working. But more than news, what people all over the world craved in the wake of yesterday's terrorist attacks was connection to each other, and many of them found that most easily achieved by going online.

"The need to connect is intense," said Donna Hoffman, a professor who studies the Web and Web commerce at Vanderbilt University. "While the network TV stations blather, the Internet carries the news and connects the masses in a true interactive sob.""