University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses 5-22-2006 Hurricane Katrina and the Television News Industry Hilda Koonce University of New Orleans Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Recommended Citation Koonce, Hilda, "Hurricane Katrina and the Television News Industry" (2006). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 338. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/338 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. 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HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE TELEVISION NEWS INDUSTRY A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of New Orleans in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Film, Theater, and Communication Arts by Hilda Anita Koonce B.A. University of Southern, MS, 2003 May 2006 Copyright 2006, Hilda Koonce ii This thesis is dedicated to my first loves, Breonna and Amiyah Brewer. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I want to start by thanking God for giving me the strength and patience to write this thesis; my father, Franklin Koonce, for always believing in me even when I don’t believe in myself, my mother, Martha Koonce, grandparents, Castella and John Taylor, and my brother, Dewayne Koonce for being my own personal cheering squad, my entire family, for their love and support, my girlfriends, Jessica, Katrina, Cerise, and Kelisha for their encouragement, my boyfriend, Cedrick for being the most incredible boyfriend in the world, without you I probably would have pulled my hair out. I want to give a very special thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to let me interview them: Aaron Broussard, John Young, Joey Diffata, Johnny Adrianni, Bobby Jindal, David Vitter, Sandy Breland, Sally Ann Roberts, Eric Paulsen, Val Amedee, Shauna Sanford, Bill Capo, Melvin Santos, and Danielle Dugue. And last but not least I have to thank my committee members, Debra Daniels, David Jones, and Ken Wyatt; as well as my major professor, Wendy Jean Hajjar for their time and assistance in writing this thesis. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................................7 BACKGROUND .......................................................................................................7 HURRICANE KATRINA .......................................................................................21 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .....................................................................................34 METHODS AND PROCEDURES..........................................................................34 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ....................................................................................37 CHAPTER 3: INTERVIEWS...........................................................................................42 POLITICIANS.........................................................................................................42 NEWS INDUSTRY INSIDERS..............................................................................45 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS..................................................................................................98 RESEARCH QUESTION 1.....................................................................................98 RESEARCH QUESTION 2...................................................................................105 RESEARCH QUESTION 3...................................................................................109 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .......................................................................................115 FUTURE OF BROADCAST.................................................................................116 FUTURE OF NEW ORLEANS ............................................................................118 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................124 VITA................................................................................................................................127 v ABSTRACT This thesis is about the relationship between Hurricane Katrina and the television news industry. My goal was to record the experiences of my fellow co-workers at WWL-TV, which was the only local television station to remain on the air throughout the hurricane. I also wanted to perform a review of the news industry up until the point of the storm, in order to analyze any affects the hurricane may have had on news coverage in general. vi INTRODUCTION I selected the thesis topic Hurricane Katrina and the Television News Industry, because the news industry in general is a topic that's close to my heart, because it's the field in which I work. A study of the news industry is important, because it is a prestigious industry that is believed to be an objective source of news for the public. Many people also believe erroneously that the goal of the news industry is to fulfill a public service function by providing information to the public about the world around them. In fact, the actual goal of news organizations is to deliver an audience to advertisers. I have studied the news industry for two years now in preparation for this thesis, educating myself about issues that hamper quality journalism, such as bias and media conglomeration. I wanted to incorporate Hurricane Katrina into my topic, because it's a topic that everyone in New Orleans has been dealing with on a daily basis since the end of August 2005. Also, the subjects of the hurricane and the news industry were by nature so tightly interwoven that a study of that relationship seemed only natural. In gathering research for this thesis, a phrase that I often repeated to research participants was, "Tell me your Hurricane Katrina story." I will start now by telling you mine. On August 26, 2005, my biggest dilemma was trying to decide what to wear to the New Orleans Saints preseason football game that night. Ordinarily deciding what to wear is not a major problem for me, but that night was different. That night I knew that there was a strong possibility I would run into my on-again, off-again boyfriend (at that point we were off-again), and it was imperative that I look just right when I pointedly ignored him at the game. “I know you’re not wearing those shoes?” That was my neighbor, Kelisha Barney. “What’s wrong with these shoes? I want to be comfortable.” I replied. 1 “I wouldn’t even wear those shoes to run to the store.” She answered. For my shop-a- holic friend not even being able to wear shoes for a trip to Wal-Mart was the ultimate rejection. Instead of pointing out to her that she wore make-up, jewelry, and curled her hair in order to run to the store, I simply admitted defeat and went to change into the shoes that I’d originally planned to wear the entire time. I had so much fun horrifying my fashion conscious friend! Although the Saints lost that night, I had a great time, especially after my on-again, off- again boyfriend called and we were back on again. No one talked about the storm barreling towards New Orleans that night. Maybe they were all like me and simply didn’t know about it. That would soon change. By the end of that weekend there wouldn’t be a Gulf Coast resident alive who didn’t know about the hurricane. It was the next day, on a Saturday, when I found out about the approaching storm. My on-again (soon to be off-again, permanently) boyfriend sent me several text messages asking if I was leaving (exclamation point), because there was a major hurricane headed our way, (exclamation point times three). At this point, I finally turned on my television and began watching coverage of the approaching storm. I was scared. I was really scared, but I also knew that due to my financial situation I would probably be staying in the city in order to continue my work as a camera operator at WWL-TV. I woke up early that Sunday, August 28, morning and immediately turned on my television to watch the storm coverage. Overnight Katrina had turned into a Category 5 hurricane. That information shook me to the core. At this point I decided that I would evacuate only after I’d finished working my regular shift which began that morning at 11:35 and ended at 10:30 that night. I called my boss to tell him about my decision and request that I be relieved after my shift ended by a camera operator who was not planning to evacuate. I didn’t think the 2 request would be a problem since my boss had called just the day before to ask me whether or not I would be evacuating at all. At this point my boss informed me that, according to our new general manager, anyone who did