Magazine Covers Ten Years After 9/11

Marjorie Foley — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:59:49 +0000

Image Credit: businessinsider.com and The New Yorker

Lacking a television and the will to listen to news reports about the September 11 attacks during the past week, my only information about the 9/11 anniversary came from The Onion's satirical headline "Responsible Cable News Outlets To Devote Sensible Amount Of Airtime To 10th Anniversary Of 9/11." Though I haven't yet turned on a TV to see the media coverage, it seems from my brief perusal of the internet over the weekend that The Onion was, as usual, a little too close to the truth--some news outlets haven't been as sensible as they could have been. Yesterday, businessinsider.com published a series of sixteen magazine covers commemorating 9/11 that demonstrate a variety of media reactions to the 9/11 anniversary. From this classy New Yorker classy cover to pictures of the dead and dying, these images are stunning and range from sensible to alarming.

While The New Yorker's cover reminds me, a little inexplicably, of Pablo Picasso's Guernica--tasteful, sad, but not overindulgent in grief--some of the others are not as restrained. Newsweek, for instance, alludes to the results of the War on Terror in two covers for this week, one inspiring fear by wondering if Osama bin Laden succeeded in his plans, and the other asserting through its juxtaposition of font sizes that the main descriptive term for Americans post-9/11 is not fear, grief, or revenge, but resilience.

Image Credit: businessinsider.com and Newsweek

Certainly bin Laden's success or failure is something we all want to consider--did he win? Are we worse off now with TSA screenings, the housing bubble, and American, Iraqi, and Afghani casualties? And also, what does it mean that Newsweek has lauded Americans' "resilience" in the past ten years? Though 9/11 wouldn't be the time to criticize American military actions and Islamophobia, it might not be the right time to lay blanket praise at the feet of people bent on indulging grief, promoting a culture of fear, and seeking vengeance, as Newsweek admits. Whatever Newsweek's position, the juxtaposition of praise and blame perhaps prevents us from feeling either blameless or bad. Whether we're supposed to feel some regret and some joy in nationalism is up for grabs--maybe we're not supposed to feel anything at all.

Image Credit: businessinsider.com and ESPN Magazine

Perhaps ESPN does a better job of making us feel good about ourselves on Patriot Day--I can almost hear a roaring crowd singing the national anthem in a packed stadium just before kickoff. And it's really hard to feel bad in a crowd, watching one's favorite sports team. But this cover also seems to make light of tragedy even as it praises America for moving on through tragedy--what exactly does it mean to "play on"? What is a game and what is not? Is ESPN underestimating the impact of 9/11 on America? Or am I underestimating the importance of football to the American populace? It seems as if no media outlet--even The Onion--can let this day pass unnoticed, even if that notice is satirical, unrelated, or pandering to nationalism.

Image Credit: businessinsider.com and TIME

This last image is the one that struck me the most. Playing on Tribute in Light, an art installation of 88 searchlights that shine upward as a memorial to WTC victims, this cover expects us to assume that those lights shine beyond and outside of the United States and into our future. However, I'm struck with exact opposite reaction of the one intended on the cover--Looking at the United States from space does less to make me imagine the U.S. as a shining beacon as it does to remind me of the retirement of the Space Shuttles over the course of this year. With no planned future for the space program, there's no way for us to move beyond our borders and into space. And though it's a little trite to say, pushing to defund NASA and other governmental programs that are not related to national defense mean that we might never move beyond 9/11 in the way this photo suggests that we will.

Dartmouth Photography Tampering Website

Nate Kreuter — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:40:45 +0000

Dartmouth has a very interesting website I just discovered that documents the manipulation of photos with examples spanning photography's history. The site is well worth checking out. Many of the examples provided touch on sensitive issues, making them potentially rich for an in-class discussion of what's at stake (rhetorically, politically, journalistically, historically) when photos are manipulated by photographers, news editors or political leaders.

viz. - Magazine Covers

Magazine Covers Ten Years After 9/11

Dartmouth Photography Tampering Website