부산대학교 도서관

For a few weeks in September of 2005, the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and the gulf coast captured America?s full attention. In order to understand the nature of the information individuals received from the press during this period, this paper presents the results of a content analysis of New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and Times-Picayune coverage of New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. In particular, we analyzed the extent to which poverty and racial characteristics of the victims were a focus of newspaper coverage. We believe frames may be especially consequential when they invoke specific causal arguments. Thus, we also analyzed the causal explanations offered for explaining why individuals failed to leave New Orleans and analyzed who was charged with responsibility for failures of preparation and delays in assisting victims in the aftermath. We compare and contrast this analysis of mainstream newspaper coverage with an analysis of black newspapers. Although the black press was more likely to highlight issues of class, poverty and race these details are present in mainstream news coverage. In focusing on the individual victims in New Orleans, mainstream coverage is just as likely to emphasize individual responsibility as the social or economic factors that might have kept them from leaving the city. In contrast, situational explanations predominate in black press coverage. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]