What are the responsibilities of a journalist in a disaster like Hurricane Katrina? Discuss one or more of the following to help students explore that question:

• AMLA Media Literate Media Award winner, On the Media, examines what kinds of information typical broadcast conventions provide (e.g., reporter doing stand-up in strong wind and rain) and what they miss. Listen to and discuss their September 2, 2005 radio broadcast, available online at: onthemedia.org. The broadcast also examines how coverage of Katrina's impact dealt with (or ignored) obvious questions of race and class.
  
• Should journalists remain neutral or is it appropriate for them to include their own opinions in their work? Ask students to evaluate the following examples of Katrina coverage. Are they advocacy journalism? What is the difference between advocacy and other types of journalism? Is advocacy journalism quality journalism? Why or why not?

a. MSNBC runs an on-screen clock indicating the time passed since Katrina struck. Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid criticized the practice saying, "MSNBC has made it quite clear that the purpose of this ticking clock is to try to blame the Bush administration for an alleged slow response."

b. CNN's commentator Jack Cafferty said, "No one, no one in government is doing a good job in handling one of the most atrocious and embarrassing and far-reaching calamitous things that has come along in this country in my lifetime."

c. On MSNBC, host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough called the situation in the Gulf Coast region "nothing short of a national disgrace."

d. Senior president of NBC News, Steve Capus said that reporters must not become part of the story, but it is appropriate for them to show emotion: "What other side of the story is there when Americans are dying in evacuation shelters?"

For more examples, see "Katrina's Aftermath" from the Los Angeles Times

• How polite should journalists be in interviews or when asking questions at a press conference? Ask students to consider whether or not reporters crossed the line in the exchanges described below:

a. On September 1, 2005's airing of "Nightline," ABC News' Ted Koppel questioned Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown about his inability to offer an accurate count of those seeking shelter at the New Orleans Convention Center: "Don't you guys watch television? Don't you guys listen to the radio? Our reporters have been reporting about it for more than just today."

b. On CNN, reporter Soledad O'Brien asked the FEMA Director Michael Brown: "How is it possible that we're getting better intel than you're getting In Banda Aceh, in Indonesia, they got food dropped two days after the tsunami struck."

c. On September 1, 2005, CNN's Anderson Cooper interrupted Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who was thanking leaders and praising the emergency aid bill Congress was about to pass: "Excuse me, Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I haven't heard that, because, for the last four days, I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi, and to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated. It kind of cuts them the wrong way because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats."

d. Marcy McGinnis, senior vice president of CBS News, said that she could not remember another disaster in which there was such a disconnect between what the government said and what reporters saw. "It is part of our job to question them and to say, 'How can you say that, when we see something else with our own eyes?'"

• How involved should a reporter get in a story when the people they are reporting on need help? When do the ethics of being a human being override the need to be a neutral observer or to file a report on time? Ask students to consider whether or not the following cross the line into poor journalistic practice:

a. NBC news correspondent Hoda Kotb took down phone numbers and made phone calls from her satellite phone to relatives of people she interviewed.

b. A news crew on its way back to Baton Rouge to file story is flagged down by a group of people asking for a ride. For fear of being swamped with requests, they don't stop.

c. A small group of local citizens is struggling to help a woman in a wheelchair into the back of a dump truck that is heading to dry ground. After shooting footage of their failing struggle, the camera crew stops to help.

d. A clearly ill woman comes up to a reporter and asks where she is supposed to go for help. The reporter stops recording her stand-up to take the woman to a police officer and explain the woman's story. The police officer helps the woman to the front of the line boarding an evacuation bus.

Back to Table of Contents