By Saundra Keyes
Advertiser Editor

Media critics are already bemoaning the volume of Sept. 11 anniversary coverage that will be published and broadcast over the next few days.

Their common theme is information overload — an issue we've discussed at length while planning The Honolulu Advertiser's approach.

Anniversary coverage is usually much easier for journalists.

We recount what happened one, 10 or 50 years ago, interview people whose lives were affected and explain what has or hasn't changed in the intervening time.

Marking this anniversary is more challenging.

Though the terrorist attack and its aftermath demand perspective, and one year provides a logical interval for reflection, some of our usual approaches — republishing the most dramatic photos and giving a chronology of the event — seem inappropriate.

We're not the only newsroom that has struggled with these issues. Last month, the Poynter Institute, a media training center and think tank, launched an Internet discussion of Sept. 11 plans, saying "It is time for journalists to share ideas, concerns and philosophies, because the public deserves the best coverage we can possibly produce."

More than 300 journalists responded to Poynter's survey, the majority saying their news organizations planned major anniversary packages, and many acknowledging the potential for information overload or overcommercialization.

We wanted to avoid both.

As our newsroom began planning coverage, we sought opinions from community members of our editorial board. To a person, they agreed with our instincts: No photos of planes hitting buildings or bodies falling. No chronologies of how the attacks occurred. No dwelling, in other words, on details already etched into memory.

Help people find meaning, they said. Help explain and interpret what has happened since that day.

And those have been our goals.

In a series of staff and wire reports that began last week, we have explored such issues as how Sept. 11 has affected civil defense, civil liberties, religious thought, charitable giving, personal travel, attitudes toward the military, world politics and the Bush presidency.

Today's Business section is devoted to a report on how the economies of Hawai'i and the nation have fared in the last year. And Island Life explores strategies for handling the emotions that are likely to be aroused by this anniversary.

Our Sept. 11 special section will share readers' responses to various questions: how life has changed, how civil liberties issues are regarded, how views of our country and its place in the world have been affected, and how the terrorist attacks compared to other defining events of readers' lifetimes.

The story we hesitated most before assigning involves the Hawai'i people who died in the attacks.

In some ways, it seemed contradictory to decide against publishing photos of planes hitting buildings, but to risk reopening the wounds of victims' friends and families.

However, we know from covering other tragedies that people often find comfort in recounting memories of their loved ones. We therefore decided to ask, but not to push, friends and relatives to share their thoughts.

Reporter Tanya Bricking, who was given that assignment, dreaded calling grieving families and found that some still felt too emotionally raw to speak with her. Others, though they spoke through tears, were eager to talk about those they loved and to thank the people who helped them cope with loss.

Bricking learned of faraway places where the names of Hawai'i victims are remembered, of babies named for those who died, of touching ways that people have reached across the miles to offer comfort.

"I was glad I found out about these things, and I think other people should know too," Bricking said. Stories about the Sept. 11 victims are important, she said, "so they're not forgotten."

If experience is a guide, some of you will find her story intrusive and others will find it uplifting. Your reactions to our overall coverage will probably vary, too.

In the spirit of this column, which is intended to give an occasional backstage view of our decision-making, I wanted you to know that journalists don't mindlessly generate whatever coverage they think will sell more newspapers or attract more viewers.

Like you, we will pause on Sept. 11 to honor the memories of those who died and to reflect on where our nation stands as a result of the attack that killed them.

We hope our coverage will add context to those reflections.