Hurricane Katrina Lesson Three: Editorial Decision Making

One way to help students analyze news coverage and understand how it is constructed is to put students into the role of news director or newspaper editor - the person who makes key decisions about how the story will be covered. Below are some scenarios you might use.
For more ideas on how to teach about construction of news, download "The World in 22 Minutes: Constructing a TV News Line Up" - http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/pdf/MLK_classroomguide_1c.pdf

Instructions
Before beginning the exercise, divide students into small groups. Tell each group that they must arrive at a consensus decision, as if they were one person. This kind of group work forces students to articulate the reasoning behind their opinions.

When you reconvene the full class, rather than focusing on the final decisions each group made, draw attention to how the groups came to their decisions. What kind of criteria were they using? What kinds of persuasion did they use to convince others in their group? Did everyone start with the same assumptions about what was important? If not, how did they differ?
Help students see that decision makers are people. The choices they make are influenced by their own personal perspectives, their professional experience, and the pressures of their jobs, as well as their beliefs about what makes "good" journalistic practice.

Scenarios

• You need to decide which reporter to send to cover the story in Mississippi. You have two reporters with experience in covering natural disasters. One of your reporters is from Biloxi and knows the Gulf Coast well. They have family who evacuated and are safe but whose homes were demolished by the storm. The other reporter has no personal ties to the region. Who would you choose to send and why?

In the follow-up discussion, be sure students consider how personal involvement might influence a report.

• Your photographer submits a photo of two black people carrying water and diapers that they had apparently just taken from the drug store behind them. Which of the following captions would you choose and why:

a. Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding necessities from a local drug store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.

b. Two residents walk through chest-deep water after looting a drug store in New Orleans.

As background for this scenario, you might have students look at two actual photos from Katrina coverage, one using a version of caption "a" and featuring white people, the other using a version of caption "b" and featuring black people. The photos, as well as explanations from the photographer and a statement from an editor who ordered his writers to stop using the word "looting" are available at medialit.med.sc.edu/compare_contrast.htm and www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45

In the follow-up discussion, ask students to think about how they could accurately report a story in which most victims are black and/or poor without reinforcing negative stereotypes.

• Your crew submits footage of a woman with the body of her dead husband at her feet. His face is clearly visible. She says he died of dehydration because they have been stuck on a concrete overpass in the heat with no water for four days. Do you run the footage or not?

In the follow-up discussion, be sure students consider the ethics involved in showing dead bodies. When does the dignity of the individual outweigh the need to convey the gravity of a situation? Are there ways other than showing dead bodies to indicate that people are dying? Would those ways have as much impact in helping viewers feel the reality of the situation?

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