U.S. Media Portrayal of Hurricane Katrina

Dedication to Community shown by Local News Media

December 2005

In the end of August, a massive hurricane, Katrina, hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, and 80% of the city of New Orleans was covered with water. The disaster has revealed grave social problems. Majority of people who did not evacuate and died were poor African American residents living in the lower land without cars. Many evacuees stranded at the Convention Center or Superdome and had to suffer hardships without water and food due to the delay in the federal government's rescue efforts. The storm and flood also caused great damage to the local news media. For example, a half of employees of The Times-Picayune, the largest newspaper publisher of the area, lost homes, and the company building and presses became dysfunctional because of the flooding. The company moved their operations to Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, and published on-line newspaper for three days, and finally resumed printing, albeit a small number of copies. As for television stations, only WWL-TV, a ,b,a,r television network, were able to continue delivering news on the hurricane thanks to their reinforced transmission tower. However, they were also mot immune to hardships; three out of four employees lost their homes, and the inundation forced the station to move their headquarters to the capital temporarily.

In the report, the author first outlines how the media portrayed the calamity, especially how the local media kept airing the news while they themselves were suffering the disaster. Utilizing the Internet as an important supplementary medium, the local media were committed to restore and continue sending news by newspapers and broadcasts to pursue their original duties. Secondly, the author summarizes how the media cut into the government's problems in the wake of Katrina. It is said Katrina has rekindled criticism against the federal government by the major media that had kept silent since 9/11. Meanwhile, the local media raised questions including reexamination of the media role as victims of the hurricane and as local residents. Thirdly, the author touches on what kinds of measures are being discussed to overcome the lack of communication system at disaster time, which was revealed on the wake of the disaster. As the radio communication network at the police and fire services did not work, many people could not receive information immediately. The author reports the development of the debates on how such situation can or should be improved, including suggestions made by broadcasters.

The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research