The Media and Katrina

The Katrina Day plenary session “The Media and Katrina: Voices from the Gulf Coast” provided insights from National Public Radio reporter Martin Kaste ’91, cinema and media studies concentrator Morgan Weiland, ‘06, and sociology and anthropology major Lauren Flexon ’06.

Martin Kaste was assigned by NPR to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He played clips from reports about the storm so as to “give a better sense how [the aftermath] played out” and some clips from three years ago that demonstrated why no one should have been surprised by the disaster. After spending many months in New Orleans he had a strong sense of the problems inherent in the system, particularly the “redundancies and gaps in government.”

Morgan Weiland discussed the way the media, especially the corporate or mainstream media, “framed” Katrina. To interpret the media’s coverage, she asked, “what are the frames and how are [the media corporations] trying to make me see the event?” She showed examples from Fox and CNN that focused on the technique of showing emotional storm victims rather than dealing with the larger issues and questions raised by Katrina.

Laura Flexon was a tourist in New Orleans when Katrina hit, and she provided “insight from the people there, and their perception of the media.” She was able to escape in the first few days, but was frustrated by the media’s warped facts that provided “no useful information for the people who were trapped there.”