Reginald Bell's Coverage Of Social Media During Hurricane Katrina

An African American man named Reginald Bell stood and stared from a distance at the pump-action shotgun that was aimed at him from a white man. Reginald Bell was an Algiers resident and was told by the white man that his race was not welcomed (Craven, Julia). This was one of the many menacing situations that numerous innocent African Americans experienced during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. However, stories like these were almost never covered by journalists and therefore the world would not find out about this, not until years or so after the storm. Instead, what journalists covered during Hurricane Katrina were stories or reports that targeted African Americans, and this angered the African American community because these stories …show more content…
During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many journalists were posting pictures with information about the conditions in New Orleans on social media. However, two posts by two different news agencies, which were by the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, became controversial after both posted similar pictures but with different contentious captions. The picture posted by the Associated Press was about a young black New Orleans resident pulling a bag of food in the flood. In the caption of this picture it said: “A young man walks through a chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans…”(AP Photo/Dave Martin). And in the picture posted by the Agence France-Presse, in which contained the exact same scenario but with two white New Orleans residents instead, it said: “Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans…” (AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen). Based on this, it demonstrated how journalists used stereotypes about blacks. When journalists saw the white residents with food, they didn’t think of them as looters, but rather that they found the food, while in the other picture about the young black resident, journalists instantly saw him and labeled him as a looter. And because of this, journalists led …show more content…
When it comes to covering naturals disasters, the importance of journalists steering clear of stereotypes, choosing words carefully, and including stories from individuals who were actually affected by the natural disaster are vital for journalists to follow in order to avoid racism. As a result of the shoddy journalism during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, journalists created further chaos and confusion in New Orleans that was already in turmoil: “Buttressing criticisms of the press response to Katrina was a bipartisan Congressional report released in February that outright accuses the media of making a bad situation worse...its accusations implicate press reports that it says contributed to the confusion” (Gray, Madison). And so because journalists failed instead to bring immediate help to a state that was in great need of it, African Americans had to suffer the consequences of being rejected by rescuers due to the image that journalists had fixed upon African