11/26

Catastrophe and the Media: A Case Study

Today we will familiarize ourselves with the story as it has been told in the newspapers you’ve researched. First, exchange your set of articles with another group member, then read them in their entirety.

When you have done that, write a synopsis of the event in a few paragraphs (more than half a page, less than an entire page), based only on what you can glean from that particular set of newspaper articles.

Then, write a short (more than one sentence, less than four) answer to each of the following:

1) Who does the audience seem to be? Give one quotation which you think indicates that audience and why it does? (Things that indicate an audience: references understood only by that group, word choice, etc).

2) Who are the ‘villains’ in the story? Do villains appear even when the event is natural (in the case of Katrina, for example, the head of FEMA became something of a villain as the story went on).

3) Who are the heroes? What sort of people are they?

4) What are the main differences between this newspaper’s telling of the story and the other newspapers? (Spend some time with this one, it is critical to our work over these last few weeks). What moments are described differently? More generally, are causes and effects described differently in one newspaper rather than another?

You’ll need to do this for each set of articles. After you’re done, type up these answers, bring them to class and add them to your binder (more on this in a moment).

For Wednesday, find one more ‘in-depth’ article about the event. This would preferably be a scholarly article, but it could also be a magazine feature of some length found in a magazine you might think of as more ‘intellectual’ than a newspaper. Some examples: Harpers, The New Yorker, The Economist… Bring that article to class.