Post-Hurricane Katrina: Progress in sight?

This blog was modified from "New Orleans of the Future May Stay at Half Old Size," by Adam Nossiter. The story was originally published in The New York Times on January 21, 2007. Read the full story here.

After Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans was reduced to empty streets, deserted homes, and a population skeptical that their city would return to its prior way of life.

Seventeen months later, the growth of one of the Gulf Coast’s largest cities remains stagnant, and experts still wonder if it will ever achieve a full recovery.

“Where there are high concentrations of poverty, people can’t see a way out,” said William Oakland, a retired economist from Tulane University who has studied the city’s economy for decades. “Maybe the diaspora is a blessing.”

That diaspora has brought dramatic change to the Big Easy. Prestorm, the city’s population stood at 444,000, and was on decline since it’s peak value of 627,525 in 1960. Currently, the population is 191,000, well below half the prestorm total, with little influx of new residents.

“It will be a trickle based on what we know now,” said Elliott Stonecipher, a consultant and demographer based in nearby Shreveport, La. “Low tens of thousands, over three or four or five years, something in that range. I would say we could start losing people, especially if the crime problem doesn’t get high visibility.

But did Katrina spur problems that had never existed before?

Before the hurricane, about 4 out of 10 men of eligible were unemployed or disinterested in attaining one. The unemployment rates among blacks were above 25 percent, with more than half of black men ages 16-24 sitting jobless.

According to Oakland, the Lower Ninth Ward and Central City experienced endemic employment problems, as more than half of working-age people were not looking for jobs.

"The job mobility was very low among the poor, so they just stay where they are, and the social welfare system shored them up,” he said. “It’s not normal to have that level of non participation in the labor force.”

Natural disaster behind, the city’s government continues to struggle in its efforts to revive the population, let alone the city’s working class. Attempts to rebuild hospitals, schools and public housing projects have stalled.

Janet Speyrer, an economist at New Orleans, sees these stalled plans as a sign of further depths for the city. With the combination of these chronic problems and current hurdles, the near 50,000 former city residents who have established themselves elsewhere may be even harder to bring back.

“The longer it lasts, the more likely it is that our population is plateauing, the longer the uncertainty continues,” she said.

For more coverage and information on post-hurricane efforts, visit here:
Recovery Budget - Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour
Katrina Flash Photos - Minnesota Public Radio
Chris Ackerley's Hurricane Witness Diary - BBC News

Visual Journalism: The World's Cheapest Airfare

As an aspiring young journalist, one of the most attractive elements of this field is that it takes you places.

Unlike a print story, visual journalism allows journalists to take readers places using photos, voices, and graphics, in addition to the “outdated” form of written words.

Although I have a car and am not one of those guys who displays an adamant distaste for the usage of maps, a 24-hour day can only take you to so many places. The journalist’s eye for facts and perspectives combined with multimedia technology makes it easy to “visit” places that one may never venture to in their lifetime.

Take the Georgia Capitol Building. I have never been to Georgia and don’t plan on visiting any time soon. But with the Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s (AJC) multimedia feature, I can visit the Capitol Building without needing a hotel room or $500 for gas.

http://www.ajc.com/multimedia/content/multimedia/projects/statecapitol/index.html

The AJC’s feature on the structure grants users an interactive timeline of Georgia’s governors and their terms, with photos of each politician and a short blurb describing their background. It also contains an interactive map of the four capital cities prior to Atlanta. This relays a historical perspective, which allows readers to step back in time and understand the changing life conditions around this single structure.

The feature also allows readers to go inside the capital building. A page with each floor comes up, fully equipped with three-dimensional floor plans and corresponding photos of the rooms. With just a click of the mouse, I can capture an inside look of the famous fourth floor House and Senate galleries, where state legislative issues are discussed and voted on in session.

And best of all, with this form of visual journalism, no tolls or security checkpoints required. This story caught my eye because it introduced a place that is far from accessible, and most importantly, it takes you way inside that place – the White House or compound of a celebrity’s mansion first come to mind as sites that would relay similar eye-catching web hits.

But the one feature that the Georgia Capitol piece misses is voice. The AJC currently has another piece on the daily lifestyle of Iranian citizens, using a captivating mix of photos and corresponding commentary. Iran = another place I’m not planning on visiting any time soon.

From a local bazaar bustling with native clothing purchases, to a visit to local teahouses and nightclubs to smoke water pipes, this form of visual journalism gives the reader a sense of Iranian culture. Culture is often best understood by daily activities.

http://lpe.ajc.com/gallery/view/gallery/insideiran/

Spending two weeks in the nation, the reporting AJC photographer shows people living their lives – partaking in prayer, women preparing to dress properly. A normal print story could describe daily life activities of an Iranian, such as the visiting of a dentist, which is shown here. The words “pulling teeth” or “waiting in line” induce an air of familiarity.

But relying on the visual actions of the individual grants readers a reflection of practices extending beyond the select few who are highlighted. This form of visual journalism allows people anywhere in the globe to step into the nation for five minutes, which is more time than most could ever safely attain.

Pink is the New Colonial Blog

If Thomas Paine were to write “Common Sense” for the year 2007, several thoughts might come to mind. What war are Americans looking to mobilize for? What do Americans think of the current government? What sense of liberty do Americans hold?

Journalism is one of the greatest forms of liberty out there. Free media is an outlet to voice opinions about thoughts, and receive feedback in a public setting.

Dan Gilmor notes that personal journalism didn’t die with the muckrakers. The work of Stephens, Riis and Tarbell to enlighten society on microcosms of dysfunction from urban tenement life to oil blunders left a stamp of progressive action.

But do the blogs we read today leave the same trail of progressive motion that the pamphlets of the 18th century? There are news blogs out there, such as Evanston native Jim Romenesko’s guide to top stories in journalism.

Then there are the blogs on the growing topics that captivate the minds of soft news readers daily. For celebrity gossip hoards, there is “Pink is the New Blog.” For those who can’t stand reading the same Associated Press story on steroid use in major league baseball in 50 newspapers, Deadspin is a viable alternative.

By no means do I believe that hard news doesn’t exist. But when drawing a timeline from Thomas Paine to George W. Bush, the largest change that has taken place is what defines captivating news.

Just look at street corners in the greater Chicago area. The Tribune and Sun-Times sit in locked bins, requiring the ever so pricey 50 cents to purchase a copy. The Red Eye bins are often empty by 12 o’clock noon on campus.

Is there really any problem with this? Digesting thirty pages rather than butchering six sections sounds appealing. As Gilmor points to, one job of newspapers is to provoke public opinion. From their inception to the present, this still holds true, even with the Red Eye.

Size and price aside, the corporate era of journalism plays as large an impact as the shifting interests of readers’ news topics.

Companies like Gannett and the Tribune Company have a large stake in the newspaper business today. But when WGN faces off with the Tribune in a battle of resources, where will those assets go?

Gilmor cites corporatization of journalism as inevitable because of the consolidation of industries, disintegration of family enterprises and alterations to the rules of American capitalism.

He leaves out the aspect that effects most changes in public opinion: source of consumption. With the presence of technology lurking in the background, who would’ve predicted that Northwestern students consume television news via computer? Likewise, there was no telling that the crashing of an Internet network would cause more outcry than the stories displayed on news websites.

If Thomas Paine were to write this pamphlet today, he’d likely find Gilmor's assertion that the collective attention span of news consumers has shortened significantly. But most importantly, it is highly unlikely that the stories demanding coverage tomorrow will suffer from the marginalization that plagues news today.