Chapter Three: The Katrina Time Window

When the public knows what the media knows, and the media knows it, then the equation will change.


The week of Katrina, in September, 2005, gave us a rare opportunity to look back through time at exactly what the news is.

Scenes and stories from New Orleans provided the spooky opportunity to travel back hundreds of thousands of years, to the time of the formation of the human reaction package created by unprotected people living on the ground, with survival their only purpose.

“New Orleans After Katrina” provided us a living, instant view of the beating heart of the news that was born in “The Dawn of Media.” Conflict, Disaster, Prominence, Proximity, Human Interest, Consequence, Novelty, Sensationalism. The ancient, original human values of news were on display on our television screens in all their mute, primitive reality.

New Orleans, even more than 9/11, showed how helpless, how motionless, humans are, against the news values in their original strength. Conflict totally erases Progress, and Prominence cowers before Disaster. More than anything, humanity in New Orleans needed a leader. Always, humans unsure of their survival have needed someone who believes in survival and will move toward where he thinks it is, so at least the people will have someone and something to follow, and be reassured by the simple act of moving.

And as always, there were humans preying on humans. We were watching a news story unique in its originality. Watching it wasn’t easy, and it showed what survival is really like, no food, no water, no protection, no leadership, no direction, with violence all around, It is a unique opportunity for anyone curious about how to read media, to witness media where it originated, with humanity locked in its eternal battle to survive.
©Michael Grant 2006