Katrina could Forever Change how TV News Covers Storms

Given the impact of Katrina, Hurricane Rita was covered differently than any other storm. Television outlets devoted great resources to coverage. Before Katrina, “the thinking had always been, ‘It's no longer a story once it's no longer a hurricane. Be there when it hits, get out by the time it's downgraded to a tropical storm,' ” CNN chief Jon Klein says. Katrina, he says, taught news outlets that post-hurricane storm surges and flooding, which destroyed levees and much of New Orleans, “are even more dangerous than the initial wind and rain. We know to stick around and wait to see how the story plays out.” The human side of Katrina -- tales of agony and misery that thousands of Katrina's victims still endure a month after the storm -- also has gripped many reporters, who want to stay on the story indefinitely. “Katrina made a lot of us in the media realize that we can't undersell a hurricane,” MSNBC anchor Rita Cosby says from Galveston. “News organizations, the government, everybody now realizes you've got to take Mother Nature seriously.” But news executives' ability to balance budgets also is being sorely tested: Not only must they operate in a tight economy, but many must also meet profit goals set by news organizations' corporate owners. And this has been one of the costliest years in terms of coverage: There has been the war in Iraq, the death of one pope and the election of another, the Asian tsunami, the London terrorist attacks and now hurricanes.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Peter Johnson]