The West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism will host the first in a series of panel discussions exploring the role of journalists in war Monday, Feb. 11, with featured guests including editors and reporters from newspapers throughout the state and region.

The panels, which the public is encouraged to attend, are a part of Ogden Newspapers Visiting Professor George Espers spring class. Esper designed the course,”The Role of the Journalist in War,”as a way to study the evolution of war reporting and the role of the war correspondent from World War II to the current War on Terrorism.

The first panel discussion, which will be held at 7 p.m. in the Mountainlair Gold Ballroom, will feature editors and reporters from The Dominion Post; the Wheeling News-Register; the Charleston Daily Mail; the Uniontown Herald-Standard; the Charleston Gazette; and The Shinnston News&The Harrison County Journal.

“We chose local newspaper editors and reporters because they are able to show us the local impact of a national story,”Esper said.

Mondays panel will focus on the local effects of Sept. 11 and the way in which community newspapers covered the story. Many of the papers took the unprecedented step of printing Extras and Special Editions.

For newspapers across the country, Sept. 11 proved to be media’s finest hour, said SOJ Dean Christine Martin.

“Locally, the story was even more critical and was presented with extraordinary depth and breadth. Local editors and reporters understood that it was a story of national scope that profoundly affected every American, in every local community, whether he was on the scene at Ground Zero, or watching the horror from his living room in Clarksburg,”she said.

Local angles abounded, including the riveting stories of West Virginians and Pennsylvanians who were at the World Trade Center on that tragic day. Some of them were killed; some of them were heroes. All of them had stories to tellstories that carried the nations horror and grief home to local communities.

“Local editors and reporters showed tremendous dedication and historical perspective in getting their newspapers out that day,”Esper said.