Comm 439 katrina

HURRICANE KATRINA COVERAGE

Sarah, Sam, Brittney, Sahrish, and Ahrang

Criteria for Good Journalism

• Honest and accurate • Adversarial (when necessary)• Asks the right questions• Contextualizes the issue• Respectful • Unbiased

Criteria for Bad Journalism

• Natural disaster angle• Speculative• Incomplete• Overly sensational • Image over content • Unreliable sources

Superdome

New York Times: July 4th 2003“New Orleans’s Hurricane Problem”

• “What is less well known is that New Orleans is an environmental disaster waiting to happen”

• “… it may be only a matter of time before the Big One hits. The time to prepare New Orleans for that frightening prospect is now.”

• Offers potential remedies

CBS News Report- Hurricane Ivan

• Concern that the city is below sea-level and prone to hurricanes

• “It’s better to be safe than sorry- if you want to take a chance, buy a lottery ticket. But don’t take a chance with this hurricane”- Aaron Broussard

• Footage of evacuation routes• Discussion about safety measures

“Hurricanes don’t scare most here, survey says”

• Up to 60% would stay home for Category 3 storm

• No hurricane in past 30 years

“Gulf Coast Under Hurricane Warning”

• September 14, 2004, Wolf Blitzer

• Emphasis on images

• Factual, with some speculation

Biased Katrina Coverage: Photojournalism

Geraldo Rivera- Sept 3, 2005

“Yesterday the sun set on a scene of terror, chaos, confusion, anarchy, violence, rapes, murders, dead babies, dead people -- I mean, it was -- I could not emphasize how horrible it was 24 hours ago, 24 hours later”

Chris Lawrence on Anderson Cooper 360- Sept. 1, 2005

“And off in the distance, over the Mississippi River, I can see just a thick cloud of black smoke rising up over the bridge. One of the police officers tells me that that is Oakwood Mall pretty much burning to the ground right now.”

Asking the right questions: Soledad O’Brien Interviews FEMA

http://www.newseum.com/exhibits-and-theaters/temporary-exhibits/katrina/video-highlights/katrina-video-soledad-o-brien.html

“Katrina has exposed ugly truths about America”

•September 4th, 2005 (London)

•“The President cannot resist the overwhelming weight of responsibility for the gravity of this disaster any more than the levees of New Orleans could resist the weight of water.”

•“…the storm has exposed the shortcomings of a weak president and his misguided policies”

5 Years Later: Anderson Cooper

• “The city of New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast have come back... crime is still a major problem, yes. And many city-owned properties are still in ruins. But there's new life here. Local restaurants are rebounding, tourists are coming, and the schools here are improving.”

Katrina Takes Toll on Truth

“The wild rumors filled the vacuum and seemed to gain credence with each retelling -- that an infant's body had been found in a trash can, that sharks from Lake Pontchartrain were swimming through the business district, that hundreds of bodies had been stacked in the Superdome basement.” –LA Times, Sept. 27

Bibliography

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1008/25/acd.01.html

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/images/obrien.soledad.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/obrien.soledad.html&h=450&w=280&sz=22&tbnid=R7AbSRsewJ6GeM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=79&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsoledad%2Bo%2Bbrien%2Bpic&zoom=1&q=soledad+o+brien+pic&usg=__Bw1FIG112_ECGRGziU_XSh2NtRI=&sa=X&ei=p1ZMTYLhE4X4gAf79eAg&ved=0CCAQ9QEwAw

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/27/nation/na-rumors27

http://www.katrinahelp.com/hurricane-katrina-10.jpg

http://www.thehammer.ca/content/2005/0902/hurricane_katrina_bush.jpg

http://www.lightrailnow.org/images/no-hurricane-katrina-satimage-20050829_uwisc-cimss.jpg