Katrina for Finding and Framing

Katrina

For "Finding and Framing Katrina."

Dynes and Rodriguez identify five framing themes that emerged in television, especially on 24/7 cable news, coverage of Hurricane Katrina: Finding Damage; Finding Death; Finding Help; Finding Authority; and Finding the Bad Guys. Assumptions about what would happen during a hurricane, what does happen, and what did happen in Louisiana create distortions and biases in media coverage: what the authors refer to as frames. By framing Katrina in terms of destruction, death, aide, authority, and blame the cable news networks capitalized on tidbits of information to create its own collage of imagery and evidence. The five frames Dynes and Rodriguez identify point to the role of the media as disseminating a patchwork of truth.

Disaster stories depend on ample coverage of damages. Dynes and Rodriquez note that the news uses a telescopic approach to damage: magnifying details to create shock and awe in the viewer and using high-tech imaging techniques as if they were special effects teams for movies. Similarly, death tolls in major disasters are misreported and the media latches onto inflated death tolls as a means to shock or disturb viewers into staying glued to the television. Death has significant shock value, and so too does the imagery of dead bodies floating in water. The media also frames their coverage of help. During Katrina, the media presented a biased, distorted view of what FEMA's role actually is in a natural disaster. Authority is oversimplified during a natural disaster because reality is too complex for simple straightforward coverage. Finally, Dynes and Rodriguez note that finding the bad guys is a common media ploy to create entertainment out of what should be factual information.

2. The Oz theory of authority refers to the "man behind the curtain" in Frank Baum's classic story. Applied to media coverage of a natural disaster, the Oz theory shows how the media becomes convinced that one wizard-like authority figure can be blamed or can take responsibility for what takes place. The Oz theory is what causes the media to deliver oversimplified versions of how bureaucracy and systems of political or emergency response authority actually do work. The application of the Oz theory to Katrina is an apt analogy by Dynes and Rodriquez.

3. Critical thinking is essential for media literacy. When watching or reading the news, all information is framed. Therefore, the first critical thinking tool for encouraging media literacy is to identify the frames and discover what kinds of assumptions underlie the presentation of the material. The questions reporters ask, and the selection of certain imagery and data demonstrates biases and framing too. Therefore, the second critical thinking tool viewers and readers can use is to imagine what questions were not asked; and why the reporters opted to cover an event from a particular place in time. Developing a critical eye for the media also demands culling information from multiple sources and not believing everything stated by the media. The media is not an authority; the media consults authority figures to gather sellable data.

For "They Shoot Helicopters, Don't They?"

1. Matt Welch cites general "communication breakdown" and an "information vacuum" as main culprits in the misinformation leaked about Katrina (p. 13). However, Welch places the blame squarely on reporters for not having enough skepticism of the oral sources they acquire information during a natural disaster. Rumors spread readily during a disaster also because of a breakdown in telecommunications infrastructure. What Welch refers to as a:rumor mill" seems to be the source of much of the media's coverage (p. 13).

2. The kinds of rumors and stories spread by reporters and enhanced by sensationalist media coverage suggest that various lenses are used to view reality. One of those perceptual lenses is that lawlessness and chaos characterize American life. Reporters covering New Orleans during the Katrina disaster expected that people were shooting at rescue helicopters, looting indiscriminately, and generally acting hostile to government workers. Although some of the rumors helped to mobilize assistance to the region out of sympathy, the situation backfired when many official aid organizations were afraid to send help to what were presumed to be violent, hostile individuals. The perceptual lenses through which reporters view their subjects are often heavily smeared with false evidence.