The Post-Hurricane Katrina Blogosphere and Its Ability to Inspire Recovery
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 3-26-2010 Writing to (Re)New Orleans: The Post-Hurricane Katrina Blogosphere and Its Ability to Inspire Recovery Daisy Pignetti University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Pignetti, Daisy, "Writing to (Re)New Orleans: The Post-Hurricane Katrina Blogosphere and Its Ability to Inspire Recovery" (2010). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3437 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Writing to (Re)New Orleans: The Post-Hurricane Katrina Blogosphere and Its Ability to Inspire Recovery by Daisy Pignetti A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Joseph M. Moxley, Ph.D. Joyce R. Walker, Ph.D. Trey Conner, Ph.D. Meredith Zoetewey, Ph.D. Date of Approval: March 26, 2010 Keywords: activism, citizen journalism, community, oral history, web 2.0 © Copyright 2010, Daisy Pignetti Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................iii Prologue: A Katrina Narrative............................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Blogging the Storm ..................................................................................... 3 Denying the Flood ...................................................................................... 7 Finding Friends and Family ...................................................................... 12 Chapter One: The Emergence of Citizen Media ................................................ 16 Introduction............................................................................................... 16 A Networked Self...................................................................................... 18 The Shock of September 11th ................................................................... 20 The Disaster of Hurricane Katrina ............................................................ 23 Media that Matters.................................................................................... 24 Letting Locals Have Their Say.................................................................. 30 Chapter Summaries.................................................................................. 37 Chapter Two: Blogging the Unfinished Story ..................................................... 40 Introduction............................................................................................... 40 Storm Stories............................................................................................ 44 “Katrina wasn’t bad all the way”..................................................... 46 “So who’s hurting?”........................................................................ 50 New Orleans: Proud to Call it Home?........................................... 52 “How did you do in the storm?”...................................................... 53 “You always have faith” ................................................................. 55 “Are you ready to see the house?” ................................................ 57 Defining the Genre ................................................................................... 62 Newsbloggers........................................................................................... 63 “The news may be too important to leave to the journalists alone” .......... 65 Temporal Structuring ................................................................................ 66 An Interlude .............................................................................................. 68 Conclusion................................................................................................ 77 Chapter Three: Fieldwork in the Blogosphere.................................................... 80 i Introduction............................................................................................... 80 “I’m Blogging This”.................................................................................... 81 Storytellers and Watchdogs...................................................................... 83 Synthesizing the Studies .......................................................................... 85 An Autoethnographic Experience ............................................................. 86 Virtual (Auto)Ethnography ........................................................................ 87 Targeting the Population .......................................................................... 88 The Wiki Way............................................................................................ 91 Conclusion................................................................................................ 95 Chapter Four: Meet the Bloggers ...................................................................... 97 Introduction............................................................................................... 97 Debunking Stereotypes ............................................................................ 98 Profile Progression ................................................................................. 100 Charlotte at Traveling Mermaid .............................................................. 100 Maitri at VatulBlog .................................................................................. 110 Morwen at Gentilly Girl ........................................................................... 123 Conclusion.............................................................................................. 135 Chapter Five: Understanding Katrina ............................................................... 139 Introduction............................................................................................. 139 Teaching Katrina/2006-2007 .................................................................. 141 Teaching Katrina/2008-present .............................................................. 144 Conclusion.............................................................................................. 150 References ........................................................................................................ 151 About the Author ..................................................................................... End Page ii Writing to Re(New) Orleans: The Post-Hurricane Katrina Blogosphere and Its Ability to Inspire Recovery Daisy Pignetti ABSTRACT Nearly every website or software application these days features a feed to subscribe to, a network to join, or a social timeline to track—all of which do their part to influence public opinion, promote products, and bring people closer together. Being a blogger since 2003 exposed me to these user-generated trends, but never did I expect my blog space, or any others, to play such an important role in my emotional well-being; not until Hurricane Katrina hit. Sharing my story as a transplanted New Orleanian watching the disaster unfold from afar in a public forum quickly linked me to other local voices, and soon I discovered a burgeoning “Big Easy” blogosphere. This dissertation thus illustrates how online communications have the ability to evolve into cathartic and socially responsible exchanges during and after times of disaster. Relying on qualitative research methods, I first discuss existing kinds of texts (news reports, comments on news sites, print publications, oral histories, etc.) to offer a picture of how Hurricane Katrina appeared and was treated by various traditional media. I then shift focus to digital spaces, featuring iii profiles of various New Orleans bloggers that I compiled through a series of interviews and analysis of their perpetual posting of blog entries, photos, videos, and status updates. I conclude their writing is a shared social experience with the Internet offering multiple platforms across which they can resist the debilitating effects of trauma and present their audiences with a deeper, truer understanding of what life is like in post-Katrina New Orleans. iv Prologue: A Katrina Narrative The crisis unfolded over several days, it was set in a specific locale, the details of which quickly became recognizable even to an observer without any previous knowledge of New Orleans. But beyond the coverage of the major stations and papers, there is the experience of hundreds of thousands who have been affected. For millions more, following the story has been a very emotional experience. People sought conversations in their workplaces, often transcending the usual reserve between superiors and subordinates. They talked with friends and families, using the phone and the internet. The internet made accounts available by people who had escaped or been evacuated. These conversations have a material reality of their own. Monika Krause, “New Orleans: The Public Sphere of the Disaster,”