Crisis Leadership and Hurricane Katrina: The Portrayal of Authority by the Media in Natural Disasters

This study used the perspectives of Kenneth Burke to reveal how the media characterized the crisis responses of legitimate authorities during the natural disaster that affected the residents of New Orleans and its surrounding area as a result of Hurricane Katrina. A textual analysis of 52 articles drawn from the New York Times and the Times-Picayune of New Orleans from August 29 to September 3, 2005, indicate that positive and negative terms clustered around the military, the Department of Homeland Security, President Bush, the federal government, and the local government. The findings suggest that the media stepped outside their role of objective observer and assumed a privileged position to point blame toward those with legitimate authority. This positioning implicitly empowered the media to evaluate crisis responses and create a view of reality reflecting their perspective. Understanding how the media create images and depictions can affect how authorities frame their initial crisis responses.