The Media's Post-Katrina Flaw: Boredom

THE MEDIA'S POST-KATRINA FLAW: BOREDOM
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Danny Heitman, Baton Rouge Advocate]
[Commentary] The first anniversary of hurricane Katrina has once again attracted an army of journalists to New Orleans, site of the worst natural disaster in American history. While Tuesday's anniversary promises to bring even more attention to one of the most documented events in national journalism, many residents of the flood- ravaged Crescent City continue to insist that reporters are missing the story. The locals frequently complain that even after months of coverage by TV, print, and Internet outlets, the full dimension of the disaster has somehow eluded the media's yardstick. Although some sloppy reporting has figured into the distortion, the divide between Katrina's perception and its substance seems to have less to do with negligence or intentional bias, and more to do with the inherent limits of journalism as a craft. Journalism is frequently derided for its embrace of mindless repetition, but the industry's understandable desire for what is new and interesting has not inclined it to capture the frequent monotony of existence in post-Katrina New Orleans. If the everyday challenges of post- Katrina Louisiana fail to register in the global media machine, it is perhaps because journalism, by its nature, sees the world as a series of dramatically packaged episodes rather than the dry continuum that a recovery from disaster can be.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0829/p09s01-coop.html