Manship School Interim Dean Ralph Izard and Associate Professor Jay Perkins have co-edited a book of scholarly research and interviews on the terror attacks of 9/11 entitled "Lessons from Ground Zero: Media Response to Terror."

The book, released by Transaction Publishers September 30, 2010, examines raw news coverage of the 9/11 terror attacks and the American public's largely positive response to the coverage. According to Izard, journalistic accounts of 9/11 had many Americans believing for the first time in decades that "journalism was doing a good job."

The question for Izard, Perkins and the authors of "Lessons" became: why was the American public, perennially cynical of their news media, so pleased with news coverage of 9/11?

"What we discovered," Izard said, "is [that] journalists [went] back to the original principles of [journalistic] greatness."

Without a script to read from and advertisers to answer to, Izard said journalists covering 9/11 relied less on official sources and more on first-hand accounts provided by a diverse range citizen sources.

The result was "journalism for the people," Izard said.

"Lessons from Ground Zero: Media Response to Terror" is written for the general public, media practitioners, and scholars interested in journalism studies or accounts of 9/11. The book is available online and in stores. It retails for $39.95.