Communication, Ethics, and Society Research Paper

Communication, Ethics, and Society - Research Paper Example disaster also caused massive property damage and caused mass scale human suffering, which was exacerbated with the inability of the government and other social service organizations to make haste in their relief efforts and broaden the scope of their activities. In the aftermath of the disaster, New Orleans remained the center of the media coverage, not only because of the level of devastation, which is still apparent from the scars left from high water level on the exterior of several abandoned buildings, but also because of the cultural and ethnic diversity of New Orleans. For most of its recent history, New Orleans has been seen as the Mecca for tourists and has remained famous for its flexibility in liquor laws, voodoo, and flair for jazz. Since the devastation left the locals without any means for communication, the media agencies became the source for not only reporting the information, but also for deciding the context and interpreting the information (Cutter, et al., p. 15). Thousands of poor African Americans who found themselves isolated on the patches of dry land, stranded on the rooftops, seeking shelter in the Superdome and Convention Centre without any food or shelter became the center of the media coverage. The media did not waste any time in showing the bloated corpses that were floating in the water-filled streets of New Orleans (Cutter, p. 85). Much of the media controversy emerged primarily because of the language used by media outlets when covering this event. During the first few days of the disaster, almost all of the media outlets referred to the individuals as â€Å"refugees†. However, many critics did not receive the use of this term well because it was uncommon for media outlets to use this term for citizens of the United States living within the United States. Subsequently, many news organizations made formal announcements that they would cease to use this term and would use â€Å"victims†, â€Å"survivors†, and â€Å"evacuees† when