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9/11 transformed our relationship with news…

Lifestyle · September 11, 2026 · The Conversation · 5 min

Newsrooms, rather than acting as critical watchdogs, arguably echoed the Bush administration’s narrative.

<a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-usa-september-2001-international-2196960851?trackingId=62beebec-2f2f-4b1b-a62c-305717e6ca59&listId=searchResults">Walter Cicchetti/Shutterstock</a> </figcaption> </figure>

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jared-ahmad-977038">Jared Ahmad</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sheffield-1147">University of Sheffield</a>

Twenty-five years on, the legacy of the September 11 attacks continues beyond the initial <a href="https://nymag.com/news/articles/wtc/1year/numbers.htm">physical</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/epr/02v08n2/0211rapa/0211rapa.html">economic</a> effects. The events of 9/11 and the subsequent “war on terror” severely undermined trust in mainstream news media in the US and around the world, laying the groundwork for today’s fractured, hyperpartisan information environment.

In the days and weeks after the attacks, American journalists faced a dilemma: maintain professional standards of <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Handbook_of_Mass_Media_Ethics/ZJGOAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=objectivity,+balance+and+impartiality+norms+in+journalism&pg=PA71&printsec=frontcover">objectivity, balance and impartiality</a> or “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19312430701807713?casa_token=7au5zUVfy5YAAAAA:G2VmpMX5NNJzQ6pcHZmkZuF6Sj6I8aW5A2ofzPit3jJ7kX1SAE9xXvq6_1_WPHR8z1CRDTRh7caN0w">rally round the flag</a>” in support of the state. Many chose the latter, and a powerful mood of patriotic sentiment echoed around US newsrooms. Journalists and news anchors wore <a href="https://time.com/archive/6913132/a-brief-history-of-the-flag-lapel-pin/">stars-and-stripe pin badges</a>, while networks adopted slogans such as “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/content/oa_chapter_edited/j.ctt46n1tg.10?seq=1">America Under Attack</a>” for evening news bulletins.

Veteran news anchor Dan Rather captured this patriotic tone during an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciy7A_wkBrQ">emotional interview</a> with late-night host David Letterman: “George Bush is the president, he makes the decisions … wherever he wants me to line up, just tell me where”.

In an address days after the attacks, <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html">Bush</a> set the narrative that would define much of the post-9/11 era:

<blockquote> Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom – the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time – now depends on us. Our nation – this generation – will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. </blockquote>

This messaging, labelled the “war on terror” narrative by <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719071218/">scholars</a>, helped justify America’s massive, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/articles/the-war-on-terrorism-global-experts-reflect-on-lessons-learned-twenty-five-years-after-9-11">decades-long military response</a> to the attacks.

Newsrooms, rather than acting as critical watchdogs, arguably echoed this narrative. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1464884909344480?casa_token=tvA4h5c4NRAAAAAA:Z_6DZ1ZCt4wLcj7WDF8n3jXRb8oU-qqbOPDL8J07ePPrFXZockypyoWxP9jheKzPsJ4CISi6b-D8Jg">Study</a> after <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Framing_Terrorism/gvRgFCvR-wcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=news+frames+terrorism&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover">study</a> has shown how journalists <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584600390244176">aligned with</a> the government’s framing, as news organisations significantly increased their use of terms such as “war”, “terror” and “freedom” in their reporting.

This is an example of what media scholars have labelled <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584600390244121?casa_token=GeJNPGhBfzsAAAAA:_FXXRLARbbI8OAgmwRU7zd8mfXhy68teRcgzc5P-tWppMiyzJa0oqLazSXXznffMD5X1ga_RxWOOXw">re-institutionalisation</a>. This is when a small group of political sources take control of the narrative in the aftermath of a crisis, imposing their interpretation onto the media.

Such patriotic reporting was not <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13216597.2007.9674709?casa_token=_WaS7W9wERYAAAAA:h8PTrFLvK_9GTp6hj9JWrbT0zLhNAcOEUOqcOLtwRGb1LGN3U93qDBv903PLEcuOtBUIMxqXIihUQA">confined to the US</a>. News outlets in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17539153.2016.1213049">UK</a>, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Media_Terrorism_and_Theory/nQhvAAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=spanish+news+coverage+9/11&pg=PA69&printsec=frontcover">Spain</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0967010608098210?casa_token=kkd7UzWBDL0AAAAA:VEc8i8K7XGQN0kK6N-pn8WgS3cFHZWYuyaFrxpuxtFPK5IDrxNlP3m1DFS9iZ-4ZheAUBjK5WEjw2w">Germany</a> adopted strikingly similar patterns of coverage.

One theme found across international media was an association between <a href="https://theconversation.com/9-11-how-politicians-and-the-media-turned-terrorism-into-an-islamic-issue-167733">Islam and terrorism</a>. In the years after 9/11, terror attacks in the US were said to receive <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07418825.2018.1524507?casa_token=XV2WaA5vAJgAAAAA%3AD0jGURnGlMbNMrS5t96EKIOIYiGrXDpqj0eCqHBmkgYnY3CZm_FmgnO6K1xe63dIlO_9CKEwQCNy">357% more news attention</a> if the perpetrator was identified as Muslim. This is despite evidence that attacks by <a href="https://theconversation.com/right-wing-extremist-violence-is-more-frequent-and-more-deadly-than-left-wing-violence-what-the-data-shows-265367">rightwing extremists</a> have been far more common in the US since at least 2001. Similar patterns emerged in the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/reporting-islam-9780857716323/#:%7E:text=Reporting%20Islam%20is%20a%20timely,comes%20to%20some%20illuminating%20conclusions.">UK</a> and <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Islam_Security_and_Television_News/vzZetnGkIrsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=islam,+security+and+television+news&printsec=frontcover">Europe</a>.

<h2>How news consumption has changed since 9/11</h2>

Almost <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/09/02/two-decades-later-the-enduring-legacy-of-9-11/">90% of US citizens</a> received their news about 9/11 from their televisions. But things have changed in the quarter century since.

An <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2002/06/09/publics-news-habits-little-changed-by-september-11/">initial spike</a> in US news readership after 9/11 gave way to fatigue, with <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2026/02/11/why-americans-think-news-habits-are-changing-in-their-own-words/">younger Americans</a> today either consuming less news or even avoiding it entirely. The emergence of <a href="http://csweb.brookings.edu/content/research/essays/2014/bad-news.html">new technology</a> during the 2000s is said to have accelerated these changes. Today, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/695762/trust-media-new-low.aspx">levels of trust</a> in news remain near record lows across <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/people-are-turning-away-news-heres-why-it-may-be-happening">western democracies</a>.

For many – particularly <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0047117806069408?casa_token=z3JkGI7FlC8AAAAA:_sCzFQLl5P38lQO-E93KmK1mjahE2XdfTcyj90k9H-RkHNHXXyRJVkd1J-Wje0gw8nbFh49auh5s2g">ethnic minorities</a> – perceptions of bias in news coverage of the attacks and invasion of Iraq damaged the credibility of news organisations. Research in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15213269.2017.1302345?casa_token=ArRhjMDSG-kAAAAA:_2f7-DscrIXUodtoINA0_eaK-ht6kb_lq2tNzqp9nziupR_4jNyc-QLSQGhsBnHVl-o1bi1VCJxlYg">US</a>, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pa/article-abstract/65/1/115/1470930">UK</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1839-4655.2007.tb00037.x?casa_token=O-qVarHdN7kAAAAA:aykCnr0AxaTGjefrbFR6YwT8rvYu9hsmdNWsGVJc8LzYADsb7hm0FFH4jEVE11MYLwbUvl7xw2G83bEo">Australia</a> has shown how negative attitudes towards mainstream media have led people to “actively disengage” from traditional sources and seek alternative modes of political participation.

The first signs of this disengagement could be seen within weeks of 9/11. As journalists rallied around the flag, grassroots counternarratives and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/58469600">conspiracy theories</a> emerged to speculate on the “true” motives behind the attacks. These bottom-up accounts ranged from claims that the US had “staged” 9/11 to broader, often antisemitic fears around the emergence of a sinister, “one-world government”.

While there is debate over <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0270429">how widespread</a> such conspiracy theories were at the time, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmyPssH549c">research suggests</a> they helped Americans simultaneously process the trauma of 9/11 and explore connections that were absent from mainstream accounts. In so doing, however, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/17503280.2024.2412146?needAccess=true">scholars claim</a> they helped feed a growing loss of trust in mainstream news media.

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