Media Coverage of Recent Major Hurricanes

Keywords: hurricanes, media, demographics
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Who can forget the harrowing images of New Orleans flooding and the human misery at the Superdome due to Hurricane Katrina; however, do you remember the empty slabs and utter devastation to the Mississippi Gulf coast, which received the brunt of Katrina’s ~28 ft. storm surge? What about the destruction of Mexico Beach, Florida from Category 5 Hurricane Michael? Or Hurricane Zeta, a Category 3 storm, which blew into New Orleans in 2020? Unless you were directly affected, the answer is likely no and the reason is likely due to the varying amount of media coverage for each of these storms. Our study examines the type and amount of media coverage for the seven major hurricanes (Ian, Ida, Laura, Zeta, Michael, Harvey, and Irma) to make landfall in the United States in the last 5 years. We compare this to media coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Next, we used US Census demographic data from the immediate area where each storm made landfall to determine if demographics play a part in the media coverage.