Hurricane Katrina: CoverageA Man-made Disaster

Effective Coverage

Before: Effective Coverage

Both of these pictures show I-10 West, a major evacuation route. On the left, was damage from Georges in 1998. The article “Washing Away” touched on how catastrophic it would be if flooded again.

“Washing Away”June 23, 2005New Orleans Times-Picayune

“The Army Corps of Engineers says the chance of New Orleans-area levees being topped is remote, but admits the estimate is based on 40-year-old calculations. An independent analysis based on updated data and computer modeling done for The Times-Picayune suggests the risk to some areas, including St. Bernard and St. Charles parishes and eastern New Orleans, may be greater than the corps estimates.”

Before: Effective Coverage

Before Katrina – October 8, 2004The Philadelphia Inquirer

• “So New Orleans, tucked below sea level between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, is in growing danger of drowning. A direct hit by a very powerful hurricane could swamp its levees and leave as much as 20 feet of chemical-laden, snake-infested water trapped in the man-made bowl.”

• “Engineers and ecologists are scrambling to save the city by several natural and man-made strategies, which is fitting, since nature and humans have conspired for decades to make New Orleans ever more vulnerable to a killer hurricane.”

• “Experts say it will take a combination of higher levees, new floodgates and restored wetlands to save New Orleans. And time is not an ally; hurricane-protection projects are moving slowly, even as the threat seems to grow each year.

During: Effective Coverage

During Katrina – August 29, 2005The Miami Herald

• “The 129-mile system of pumps and levees, still needing $50 million to complete, was designed to resist a fast-moving, dry Category 3 storm -- in short, nothing like Katrina. If the levees hold but the water spills over, the water will be almost impossible to remove, considering the pumps will be swamped and shut down, said Stevan Spencer, the Orleans Levee District's chief engineer.”

• “This has the potential to be as disastrous as the Asian tsunami. Tens of thousands of people could lose their lives. We could witness the total destruction of New Orleans as we know it,'' Ivor van Heerden, director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said as he ticked off the threats New Orleans faces from the ground, ocean and sky.

‘Expect Pain at pump and furnace, too’Newark Star-Ledger - August 30, 2005

During: Effective Coverage

• Effective way of showing the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Jersey

• Effectively makes this a national crisis and something that happened to “us” and not just “them”

• Effective also because this story is juxtaposed next to stories of the anatomy of the storm and life inside the Superdome.

During: Effective Coverage

Hospitals in New OrleansAugust 31, 2005New York Daily News

• Compensates for missed Katrina coverage the day prior

• Interesting angle on hospitals and their attempts to try and save people’s lives down there

• Reported from New Orleans with direct quotes from hospital workers

After: Effective Coverage

Radio: WBEZSeptember 9, 2005

African American victim talks about situation in and around superdomehttp://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/296/after-the-flood13:21

After: Effective Coverage

After Katrina – September 10, 2005The Economist

• “Local and state officials jabbed fingers right back. Kathleen Blanco, the Democratic governor of Louisiana, refused to let the federal government take control of the National Guard relief effort in her state, fearing this would allow the Bush team to blame her for any earlier incompetence. Instead, she hired James Lee Witt, the head of FEMA in the Clinton administration, to advise her on disaster relief.“

• “Nonetheless, media coverage of Katrina drew furious allegations of subtle bias. Using the term "refugees" for those seeking refuge from the storm was racist, apparently, and Yahoo! News drew flak for picture captions describing a black man as "looting" and whites as "finding" goods. The agencies that supplied the pictures retorted that the captions reflected what their photographers had witnessed.”

Ineffective Coverage

Before: Ineffective Coverage

“Stemming the Tide”April 1, 2005Louisiana Contractor

• Army Corps of Engineers

• Lack of funds

• New Orleans’ ability to withstand storms

Before: Ineffective Coverage

“Nation in Brief”October 11, 2004The Washington Post

• Many like it…

• Broader implications and perspective

• Not comprehensive

During: Ineffective Coverage

“Ragtag Rescue Efforts Mean Life and Death Can Depend on Serendipity”September 3, 2005The Washington Post • Somewhat vague and doesn’t provide audience with enough detail

“They found misery at the fetid convention center, where they

were rattled by violence and the sight of people who died where they lay. The tribulation will be

good for his music.”

During: Ineffective Coverage

“Band will play on in ‘lucky’ New Orleans”August 30, 2005

New York Daily News

• Plays on the notion that New Orleans “dodged a bullet”

•This is misinformation!

•Overplays the drama in Mississippi

•Ignores the problems in New Orleans

Ineffective video coverage during Katrina

The first video is from NBC Nightly News on August 29, 2005, the afternoon after Hurricane Katrina.

The second video is from CNN’s report, broadcasted at 9:00pm on August 29, 2005.

http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu.proxy.lib.umich.edu/program.pl?ID=801690

No mention of the broken levees or rising flood levels. (Start at 6:40-Stop at 8:58), later in the clip there is an interview with FEMA director Michael Brown saying how prepared they were for the inclement weather and saying they did a “great job” (12:00-13:10)

http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu.proxy.lib.umich.edu/program.pl?ID=801402

CNN has no mention of broken levees, and even on the “bottom line” flooding is not attributed to the broken levees, but to pump failures. (Start at 4:50-Stop at 7:25)

Bush Visits Gulf Region, survivors, local authorities in Baton Rouge - Houses Marked in House-to-House Search In Pass Christian - John Roberts Nominated to Chief of Supreme Court - Toxic waste, deadly soup still floods New OrleansFox News September 5, 2005

•“breaking news” as a flawed and hackneyed term• “Back you to, Greg. I understand we have breaking news”• information following is a speech from George Bush in which he has very little to present about his actions – more an appeal to emotion:• “I just want you to know that when I'm thinking about how we can help this part of the world, Mississippi is on my mind. Mississippi is a part of the future of this country, and part of the future is to help you get back up on your feet. And I'm confident that your United States Senator Trent Lott, if I don't say it loud enough, he will -- he will remind us”

•Framing implies natural disaster, falsely presenting aid as effective and sufficient•“Help also coming from every state in the union, really. The National Guard says its biggest response to a national disaster ever in U.S. history”

Man-Made Disaster