Metaphors Matter: Disaster Myths, Media Frames, and Their Consequences in Hurricane Katrina

Abstract

It has long been understood by disaster researchers that both the general public and organizational actors tend to believe in various disaster myths. Notions that disasters are accompanied by looting, social disorganization, and deviant behavior are examples of such myths. Research shows that the mass media play a significant role in promulgating erroneous beliefs about disaster behavior. Following Hurricane Katrina, the response of disaster victims was framed by the media in ways that greatly exaggerated the incidence and severity of looting and lawlessness. Media reports initially employed a “civil unrest” frame and later characterized victim behavior as equivalent to urban warfare. The media emphasis on lawlessness and the need for strict social control both reflects and reinforces political discourse calling for a greater role for the military in disaster management. Such policy positions are indicators of the strength of militarism as an ideology in the United States.

Digital Media Framing of the Egyptian Arab Spring: Comparing Al Jazeera, BBC and China Daily

“…In addition, according to the findings of Tierney, Bevc, and Kuligowski (2006) the 'Civil unrest frame' reveals that the examined period is portrayed under 'war zone' conditions, treating all the protesters as a unified crowd without paying attention to the cultural background and differences of each individual. As a result, it can be said that the whole movement can easily adopt negative or positive characteristics depending on the narrative of each news organization.…”

Mídia e desastres: panorama da produção científica internacional de 1996 a 2016

“…The shortage of essential data among key stakeholders is a problem associated with crisis management difficulties, contributing to the proliferation of myths from a wide range of genres, including those related to looting, social disorganization and other criminal behavior (TIERNEY; BEVC; KULIGOWSKI, 2006). In this sense, the quality of the information focuses on the early warning of the imminence of a disaster, the planning of relief work and support to the victims, the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the affected areas.…”

Mediating the Morals of Disasters: Hurricane Katrina in Norwegian News Media

“…Western disaster discourse has been claimed to be heavily influenced by Hollywood movies and popular culture (Tierney et al, 2006;Webb, 2007;Žižek, 2005). However, it is certainly not only popular culture that structures how we imagine and represent disasters.…”

“…Disaster narratives also frame how we handle disasters. Tierney and her colleagues has pointed out that such stories suddenly turned the often used metaphor for describing disaster areas -a war zoneinto reality when 69 000 troops from the National Guard arrived New Orleans (Tierney et al, 2006). The governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, announced the appearance of these troops with a warning: "I have one message for these hoodlums: These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will" (CNN, September 2, is likely to assume that the re-telling and re-contextualization of looting narratives from a local American context to a Norwegian media context to some extent reflects that the cultural imaginations these stories are based on also found resonance among a…”