In the early morning hours on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States devastating the coastal line from central Florida to Texas driving many residents from their homes and causing them to flee for their lives. This paper will address concerns of racism that was found in the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath and then compare and contrast ethical issues in the publishing of two extremely controversial photos. Lastly, this paper will critically analyze the role that the media has in our culture and how the role the media plays can impact social change within our society. Issues of racism that was used in the media coverage, especially in light of the widely controversial photo captions, can be clearly seen when examining the two photos wherein one photo a black man is presumed to be looting whereas in the second photo take a white couple are presumed to be finding food (Sommers, Apfelbaum, Dukes, Toosi, and Wang, 2006, p. 40).
It was because of this opinionated stereotype by the media that the general public determined the general idea that the black residents of the community were stealing and rioting. Additionally, the language and tone of the reporter lead readers and viewers directly to most of the assumptions made by the rest of the world (Sommers, Apfelbaum, Dukes, Toosi, and Wang, 2006, p. 40). Additionally, Because of the general precipitance of the public and the stereotyping “many false claims went unchallenged” (Voorhees, 2007, p. 416).In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many residents had been driven out of their homes scrambling for food, water, and shelter.
The following day after Hurricane Katrina had completely destroyed the coastal line levels residents can be. .ly, the nature of the activity in the two photos that were presented was misconstrued by the reporter through assumption or by intentional misguidance and the ethics involving the Potters Box was never applied. As I look back on this project I found researching this subject to be both interesting and challenging in addition to learning about the underlying issues of racism in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. However, this assignment took me deeper as I began to look at other areas where it was possible that the media had manipulated the truth to achieve a hidden agenda. This project also reminded me of the old saying, do judge a book by its cover.
I was additionally reminded that we should never take anything for granted and to always research items of interest for ourselves because if we don’t we are only viewing the subject through another person’s perspective.
