There was the Yahoo story that captioned similar photos but identified a black victim as “looting” food and a white victim as “finding” food. There was the opinion column by The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd citing the city as “a snake pit of anarchy, death, looting, raping, marauding thugs.”
Andersen, professor of communication and media studies, knew something was not right with the reporting.
“Katrina was an extreme example of the media’s disaster myth coverage,” she said. “News outlets and police reports were focused on looting, rape, and themes of anarchy and chaos—all described with terrible vituperative language and portraying residents and victims as deviants and criminals. That was never true.”
A decade later, the exaggerated and often unfounded misreporting has been exposed thanks to multiple efforts, said Andersen. She points especially to Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke, the work of investigative journalist A.C. Thompson exposing the cover-up of a man shot by police, and an HBO show called Treme.
Examining Katrina Coverage
A new book by Andersen, to be published next year by Lexington Press, examines Treme as a critique of previous media narratives, through offering portrayals of the disaster through the eyes of its victims. The book focuses on how the show helped the full story of post-Katrina rise to the surface.
“Not many television programs can justify an entire book, but this one can,” said Andersen of the show, which is named for the New Orleans sixth-ward neighborhood that saw flooding and widespread damage. “With its diverse cast, Treme disrupts, undermines, debunks and transforms the disaster narrative of post-Katrina New Orleans.”
The show ran from 2010 to 2013 on HBO, following the lives of several post-Katrina New Orleans residents. It is the story of how the flooding devastated family and professional relationships, businesses, and emotional and physical health, and yet, how tradition and culture revived even the hardest-hit.
Andersen first heard about Treme through a lawyer friend working with Katrina victims on recovering paperwork on home ownership and other possessions to qualify for grant funding. The show was produced by David Simon and Eric Overmyer, the team behind HBO’s extremely realistic series, The Wire. In following the formula of their earlier production, they filmed Treme onsite and authenticated the experiences and culture of the inhabitants through music, food, and use of non-actor-locals as characters in the series.
One “strong redress” of initial media coverage, said Andersen, is when the character Creighton Bernette (a writer and professor played by John Goodman) throws a newscaster’s microphone into the river after listening to the reporter tell an international audience that the city is too ramshackle to rebuild. Another, in season three, is the discovery of a police murder and cover-up by investigative reporter L.P. Everett (played by Chris Coy and based on the real-life murder of Henry Glover).
“The show clearly wanted to set the record straight about the news coverage,” said Andersen. “They turn the disaster myth—in which the victims were criminalized—on its head.”
Humanizing Victims
Hurricane Katrina remains one of the century’s most devastating disasters. Approximately 1,800 people died and 182,000 homes were severely damaged when nearly 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded and rescue operations were slow and botched for weeks.
Treme, said Andersen, is an example of how a media-constructed crisis narrative can affect the nation’s ability to plan for future disasters.
It’s terrific television,” she said. “You go from a disaster myth coverage to a human perspective, told through the eyes of the victims of the storm. This allows the public to empathize, to feel compassion for the people on the ground, to say ‘If I were in that situation, I would feel that same way.’”
It is critical to tell the stories of disasters from the human perspective, said Andersen. Any humanitarian crisis needs support from a national and a global public, and the amount of that support is often determined based on the public’s ability to empathize with the victims.
“That is what Treme does—move the narrative from dehumanization of the victims to humanization,” said Andersen. “This may well be the program’s most important legacy and greatest cultural significance.”
Photo by Derek Bridges
— Janet Sassi
]]>Hillary Exter, director of student organizations and publicity for PIRC, received the commendation from the Student Hurricane Network (SHN). Law students at Fordham and other universities in and around New York created SHN in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. It now includes more than 100 law schools across the country.
“Law students, like everybody else, watched the news and were totally shocked at the destruction in the Gulf Coast and the inaction of the government,” Exter said. “As law students, they knew they had skills and talents that could help those affected navigate the web of legal tangles the storm created.”
Since helping form the network, Exter has traveled to the affected areas with SHN students six times, along with 4,400 law students.
Their projects have included: advising immigrant day laborers who are helping with the cleanup on basic job protections like access to masks and gloves; counseling residents in FEMA trailers on their rights; and helping create instructional videos so those affected by the storm know their legal options.
“We advised criminal defendants in the Orleans Parish Prison,” Exter said. “Many of them had passed their sentence dates and were lost in the system, but because of our work, more than 100 people were released.”
In addition, Exter has advised SHN’s student leadership, promoted SHN’s achievements to bar organizations and public interest organizations, and helped organize events in New York to educate the greater legal community to the legal needs of the Gulf Coast.
“She has been our friend, our champion, our reality check and our career counselor,” said Josie Beets, who sits on SHN’s National Advisory Board. “We honor her with this award in the hope that she will honor us by remaining dedicated to SHN’s social justice work.”
]]>Fordham is one of 12 universities that have sent more than 345 student volunteers during the winter break for weeklong stints to help with the backlog that is estimated to be as high as 6,000 cases. As part of the project, students are interviewing indigent defendants in jail, some of whom have been waiting to see a lawyer for months. The students are being supervised by Ian Weinstein, J.D., professor of law and director of clinical education, and Martha Rayner, J.D., associate clinical professor of law.
The volunteers are part of the Katrina-Gideon Interviewing Project in which law schools from throughout the country send teams of students to provide behind-the-scenes assistance in an effort to help get Louisiana’s courts moving again, and the Student Hurricane Network, a national association of law students and administrators dedicated to providing long-term assistance to communities affected by Hurricane Katrina.
]]>“It’s really hard to blame this on a natural disaster,” said Erik Olson, the senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, about the severity of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
According to Olson, who is also the chair of the Hurricane Katrina Task Force of the Green Group, some of the resulting devastation was a “nature-triggered man-made disaster.” He pointed to the destruction of more than 1,000 acres of wetlands in southern Louisiana, as a contributor. Without the wetlands and the natural runoff of the Mississippi River, the land sank below sea level making it susceptible to powerful storm surges.
“Intact habitats, rather than modified habitats, fair better [during natural disasters],” said Sanjayan Muttulingam, Ph.D., the lead scientist from the Nature Conservancy.
Born in Sri Lanka, Muttulingam assessed the damage to the coastline of Indonesia immediately after the December 2004 tsunami. Like in New Orleans, Muttulingam said, development of the environment contributed to the severity of damage in some areas. He pointed to two regions in close proximity to one another; the more severely damaged area had removed natural protections against a storm surge, such as dunes and coral reefs, while the less damaged region had left these protections in place.
A lot has to be done before the regions that were affected by the disasters are back to normal, and it will take time, according to Annie Maxwell, a partnerships and outreach officer with the U.N. office of Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery.
“Survivors are in desperate need to return to normalcy. The need for housing, either temporary or permanent, has put tremendous stress on development,” she said.
The panel discussion was hosted by Fordham University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and was the first in a four-part series on the topic of people and the environment. The next installment in the series, “Educating Future Leaders to Meet Poverty Alleviation Goals,” will take place on March 9 at 6 p.m. on the Lincoln Center campus.
]]>DATE: FRIDAY, OCT. 14
TIME: 4 P.M. TO 10 P.M.
PLACE: LOMBARDI FIELD HOUSE
ROSE HILL CAMPUS
441 EAST FORDHAM ROAD, BRONX, NY
The event will feature live music, games, authentic Cajun food, raffles, a dunk tank, a pie-eating contest and much more. To date, the University has raised more than $80,000 for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and has admitted more than 100 displaced college students from the New Orleans area. All proceeds from the event will be contributed to the University Relief Fund, which is being donated to Catholic Charities USA.
Assistance to Displaced Students:
By the end of last week, the University had enrolled a total of 104 students from the colleges and universities on the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina. Of these students, 74 have been admitted to our undergraduate schools; 28 second- and third-year students have been admitted to the Law School; one has been admitted to the Graduate School of Business; and one has been admitted to the Graduate School of Social Service. (Although the vast majority of the students whom we have welcomed to our campuses are from either Loyola of New Orleans or Tulane, there are a small number of students from the other affected colleges and universities.) Moreover, as a result of the generosity of a number of students who volunteered to take in “hurricane triples,” we have been able to offer space in our residence halls to all of the displaced students who requested housing.
The Law School conducted a special orientation session for the visiting students whom it admitted last week; the undergraduate schools will conduct their targeted orientation sessions later this week. (Our faculty, staff and students, however, have not waited for formal orientation sessions to make our guests feel at home. Far from it. They have gone out of their way to reach out to them and to help them adjust to life at Fordham.)
Assistance to the Colleges and Universities on the Gulf Coast:
As you know, the entire American higher educational community is concerned about the effects that the storm will have on the long-term viability of the colleges and universities on the Gulf Coast. Therefore, the national educational associations in Washington (e.g.,
In accord with these protocols:
a. Fordham has not charged tuition and room fees to those students who have already paid their fees for the semester at their home institutions. We have, however, charged them for board, fees and incidental expenses.
b. While we will do all that we can to make these students feel at home on our campuses, we will also do all that we can to encourage them to return to their home campuses at the end of the Fall Semester so that the long-term prospects of those schools are not harmed in any way.
Fordham’s Hurricane Relief Fund:
As of 12 September, the members of the University community had donated $38,740 to the Hurricane Relief Fund that I established two weeks ago. (When combined with the $25,000 start-up grant that I made from the President’s Discretionary Fund, the University’s Relief Fund now stands at more than $63,000.) Since the immediate needs of the people affected and displaced by the hurricane are so great, we will send our first contributions to the American Red Cross and Catholic Charities USA by the end of this week.
We will not, however, stop there. In light of the magnitude of the devastation suffered by our brothers and sisters in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, we will continue our efforts to collect money for them for the next six weeks. If you would like to contribute to the fund, I would ask you to send your contributions to the “Fordham Hurricane Relief Fund” c/o Mr. John Lordan, The Office of the Treasurer, The Administration Building, Fordham University, Bronx, New York 10458.
Honoring the Victims:
As it has throughout these past two difficult weeks, the University community will continue to pray for all of the victims of Hurricane Katrina — both living and dead. Moreover, as a sign of our respect and sorrow for those who died in this terrible tragedy, we will fly the flags on all of our campuses at half-mast until the Month’s Mind, which will be observed on 5 October.
Fordham’s Community of Concern:
I have always been both consoled and impressed by the depth of compassion that resides in the hearts of all of the men and women of the University. In the course of the past two weeks, I have come to appreciate this compassion even more. Indeed, it would be hard for me to put into words the gratitude and pride that I feel for and in our beloved Fordham at this time. In spite of the inadequacy of my words, I would like to thank all of you for the concern and goodness that you have shown to the victims of the storm: the admissions staff for the comforting way in which they helped the displaced students complete their applications for admission to the schools of the University; the deans who worked long hours to make sure that the newest (albeit temporary) members of our community had schedules and were able to navigate their first challenging days on our campuses; the faculty members who made sure that the late-arriving students were not disadvantaged in any way; the students who offered the displaced students shelter from the storm by taking them into their rooms (and their hearts); and the student affairs staff who organized special orientation sessions for our Gulf Coast guests.
Finally, I would like to thank all of the members of the Fordham family who have either already contributed to the Hurricane Relief Fund or are organizing fundraising activities in the coming weeks. You have all confirmed in word, prayer and deed that Fordham is deeply committed to being a community with a difference: a community of men and women for others.
]]>Fordham University School of Law is accepting second- and third-year law students from Loyola University School of Law and Tulane University School of Law, both located in New Orleans. Nearing full capacity, 24 students have already committed to attend Fordham Law for the fall semester as visiting students.
“We have reached out to the deans at Tulane and Loyola and offered to take in their students as auditors, so they can graduate on time and, if the deans wish, as visitors,” said William M. Treanor, J.D., dean of Fordham Law School.
The law school will not charge tuition or fees to students who have paid full tuition to their home institutions. Workspace and communications support at Fordham are also being offered to Tulane and Loyola law faculty and administrators. Tulane and Loyola students interested in attending Fordham Law School as a visiting student should contact Assistant Dean Stephen Brown immediately at 212-636-7178 or
[email protected].The Law School is recruiting its own law students and faculty to assist the visiting students in their transition. Also, through its Public Interest Resource Center, the Law School is collecting donations for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.
The Graduate School of Business (GBA) is accepting students from colleges and universities in the Gulf Coast region that were forced to delay or cancel the fall semester due to the hurricane. Students wishing to attend GBA as a visiting student should contact the Office of Admissions immediately at 212-636-6200. All admissions will be subject to Fordham’s minimum enrollment requirements.
“We will do everything we can to help affected students continue their studies here at Fordham as visiting students,” said Frank Fletcher, director of MBA Admissions. “We will also encourage them to join in the Gulf Coast’s recovery by returning to their home schools when they reopen.”
Fordham’s Graduate School of Business Administration was established in 1969 and has been recognized nationally for the quality, innovation and comprehensiveness of its programs, which prepare graduates for global competition. The school’s part-time MBA program is ranked 12th by U.S. News & World Report.
Fordham University School of Law was founded in 1905, and has more than 14,000 alumni practicing in all 50 states and throughout the world. Over the past 100 years, Fordham Law School has secured a place as a national leader in corporate law, international law, alternate dispute resolution, legal history, human rights law, clinical education and legal ethics.
]]>Fordham is accepting applications from students who were forced to vacate the Gulf Coast regions. Students are accepted based on the University’s qualifications for admission and its ability to meet the student’s housing and academic needs. So far, the University has received more than 150 inquiries and has admitted third-year law students, graduate students and undergraduates. As classes are already underway, displaced students wishing to continue their studies at Fordham are urged to take action immediately so that they can begin classes by Sept. 9. Over the Labor Day weekend, students may inquire about admission via email at [email protected] , and they may apply online atwww.fordham.edu/admissions.
In an effort to assist families and schools already strained by the hurricane’s destruction, students who have paid tuition at their home institution for the fall of 2005 will attend Fordham’s fall semester tuition-free. Additionally, Fordham upperclassmen have been invited to offer space in their rooms to accommodate an additional student in residence halls that are currently at capacity. Fordham will honor this outreach by not charging room fees to these visitors. Students will be registered at Fordham as visitors and encouraged to return to their home schools as soon as they reopen to help ensure the long-term security, stability and viability of the Gulf Coast schools.
To aid the people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., the president of Fordham University, has called upon all members of the University family to join him in a hurricane relief effort.
Father McShane has initiated a fundraising drive with a $25,000 donation from the president’s discretionary fund. The University community will seek to double that amount by the end of October. All of the money raised on campus will be designated for hurricane relief efforts by the American Red Cross and Catholic Charities USA.
“Let us continue to pray for the souls of those who died, for the consolation of those who mourn, and for the recovery of those who are struggling to rebuild their lives,” said Father McShane in a University communication. “And let us, who were helped and consoled by the generosity and kindness of so many of our fellow citizens in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, resolve to make a difference in the lives of the survivors by reaching out to them in their hour of need.”
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