new media & society
Copyright © 2009 SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC
Vol 11(4): 795–814 [DOI: 10.1177/1461444809105353]
ARTICLE
‘If you had been with
us’: mainstream press
and citizen journalists
jockey for authority over
the collective memory of
Hurricane Katrina
SUE ROBINSON
University of Madison-Wisconsin, USA
Abstract
Using the anniversary coverage of Hurricane Katrina, this
textual analysis explored how reporters and citizen journalists
considered themselves and each other in their different versions
of a specific news narrative. This research indicated that online
citizen writers undermined the mainstream news story by
offering an often contrary version of Hurricane Katrina. Their
collective memory focused on personal experience, asserting
their right to tell this societal story. By inserting themselves
into the news production process of collective memory
formation, these citizens renegotiated their relationships with
journalists and with journalism. In some cases, this resulted in
complete role reversals. The findings suggest that new patterns
for information flow are being created, renovating the existing
institutional power structure involving the press and society.
The conclusion of this article suggests that theorists evaluate
citizen journalism alongside mainstream journalists’ work, for
they are now part of the same news production process.
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Key words
authority • citizen journalist • collective memory • Hurricane
Katrina • journalist • online journalism
Journalists perform as storytellers and watchdogs, guidance counselors
and history writers from within the established American institution of the
press (Cook, 1998; Jamieson and Waldman, 2003; Kovach and Rosenstiel,
2007; Zelizer, 2005). In news stories, citizens become ‘authorities’ or
otherwise serve as representative exemplars in the event. People have relied
on journalism to guide them in everything from their jobs to relationships
to commemorations. However, online interactivity changes these dynamics.
The press is no longer a singular gatekeeping institution, rather a collaborative
platform for constructing the news, and thus collective memory. We have
entered a ‘communication revolution’ (McChesney, 2007) in which citizens
can practise ‘gatewatching’ (Bruns, 2005), ‘networked journalism’ (Jarvis,
2006), or simply, ‘citizen journalism’ (Allan, 2006).
One recent American tragedy, Hurricane Katrina, offered a chance to
explore how citizen journalists’ online writings about this event’s anniversary
challenged the traditional roles of both the press and audience in forming
an enduring collective memory for society. This textual analysis compared
the journalism surrounding Hurricane Katrina’s anniversary in 2006 with
citizen journalists’ coverage in cyberspace. The study attempted to isolate
how reporters and citizen journalists consider themselves and each other in
these transformative online roles that allow for new levels of agency. The
research could help in understanding what internet interactivity means for the
distributed information hierarchy of mass communication.
The findings indicated that online, citizen writers undermined the
mainstream news story by offering a new, often contrary version of Hurricane
Katrina at its anniversary. This citizen-produced collective memory focused
on individual experience and personal connection in a way that asserted the
citizen’s right to tell this societal story. Citizen journalists recast themselves
in the news narrative with new roles that often contradicted and challenged
their depictions in print. By inserting themselves into the news production
process of collective memory formation, these citizens renegotiated their
relationships with journalists and with journalism. In some cases, this resulted
in complete role reversals. These findings suggest that new patterns for
information flow are being created, renovating the existing institutional
power structure involving the press and society. The conclusion of this
article suggests that theorists evaluate citizen journalism alongside mainstream
journalists’ work, for they are now part of the same news production process.
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THE ROLE OF THE PRESS IN COLLECTIVE MEMORY
This research is most concerned with the press’s role in forming collective
memory, which is an agreed-upon version of a news event’s remembrance
according to the contemporary circumstances of society. Collective memory
scholars suggest that the journalists’ role is to explain tragedy through stories
that help to guide society in healing while reaffirming the dominant set of
values and ideology (Edy 1999, 2006; Halbwachs, 1992[1925]; Kitch, 2003;
Zelizer, 2005). Journalists report on and contribute to societal rituals of
processing grief, but also politicize and contextualize them (Kammen, 1993;
Kitch, 1999; Schwartz, 1998; Zelizer, 1998).
In such stories the narrative often ends up being as much about the
profession as it is about society. For example, in the Kennedy assassination,
reporters inserted themselves into the story, employed omission and
synecdoche to craft a careful narrative, and then declared the coverage a
‘triumph’ of journalism (Zelizer, 1992). Reflexivity – where a reporter
highlights their role in the press as an institution within the news story –
occurs when the media are ‘part and parcel of the drama of structuring
and releasing information that would become the basis for the shaping of
knowledge’ (Tuchman, 1978: 190). Any self-revelation on the part of the
journalist is chosen carefully, with the intent of enhancing the collective
authority of the group (Zelizer, 1990).
It is inevitable that much information is ignored in transmission, especially
that which does not fit the symbolic mold of the agreed-upon story (Bennett
and Edelman, 1985). When an individual contradicts the pack, journalists
‘repair’ the story by reframing the information back to the consensual story
(Bennett et al., 1985). Rarely are reporters depicted in press scholarship as
working autonomously; they are always part of a larger ‘pack’ (Crouse, 1973)
or ‘interpretive community’ (Zelizer, 1997[1993]). All of this helps journalists
to achieve authority, so that their profession is relevant to society.
Citizens’ journalistic roles
When people appear in news stories, they tend to be symbols of the
institutional power elite (Bennett et al., 2007) or archetypal characters who
relay societal ideologies and values (Gans, 1979; Lule, 2001). In the collective
memory scholarship most relevant to this study, researchers have shown
‘regular’ working-class people to be cast as heroic exemplars in the September
11 coverage (Kitch, 2005), and individuals with AIDS representing an entire
disease in news stories during the late 1980s (Sturken, 1997). In general,
citizens are portrayed as passive, disengaged and two-dimensional, with little
agency or even a desire for agency (Lewis et al., 2005).
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Studies have shown that people’s memories of an event mirror the
mediated version (Lang and Lang, 1989; Sturken, 1997). Readers seek
comfort in news stories (Vincent et al., 1998[1989]). Although people
influence news construction (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996) and actively
decode its product (Hall, 1986), citizens’ literal production agency and
participation has been impeded by the existing information structure.
Online shifts in journalists’ and citizens’ roles
New roles are created once people outside of accepted institutions have the
ability to disseminate and manipulate information (Jenkins, 2006; Marshall,
2004; Meyrowitz, 1985). In particular, the internet is forcing a ‘realignment’
between journalists, their sources and audiences (Pavlik, 2001: 1).
Interactivity chips away at singular authorial power (Heim, 1987). Indeed, the
interactive nature of the internet obligates people to have an active agency
in producing societal narratives (Bruns, 2006; Gillmor, 2004; Kovach and
Rosenstiel, 2007). Many citizens have answered this call.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
For the purposes of this article, citizen journalists are defined as those
people who are making use of the tools available to them to participate in
the information world as bloggers and forum contributors. Much has been
written about how citizen journalism is adding diversity to the public sphere,
changing press routines and providing new democratic opportunities (Allan,
2006; Gillmor, 2004; Glasser, 2004; Thurman, 2008; Tremayne, 2006).
These online writers represent a new class of information disseminators,
and one of the main goals of this article is to explore their influence on a
particular news story. This research compares how journalists and citizen
journalists jockeyed for the authority to form the collective memory of a
story of national proportions, Hurricane Katrina. The research questions that
guided this work were as follows:
RQ1: How did media reports portray journalists and how did citizen journalists
write about media in this collective memory story? How were these portrayals
different from each other, and from what scholars have found previously about
the journalistic role as traditionally presented in the news?
RQ2: What roles are citizen journalists starting to play in collective memorymaking? In other words, how did people who were sharing (information,
memories, news) online consider themselves in this particular story, compared to
how the press portrayed ‘regular people’?
RQ3: How are journalists and citizen writers exercising their role in the
information world online?
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METHOD
Study selection
This study answered these questions by examining the coverage of
Hurricane Katrina’s anniversary during August 2006. National traumas
tend to accentuate the relationships between journalists and their audiences
while emphasizing the press’s societal function. Hurricane Katrina, which
blew through New Orleans, MO and Biloxi, MS, in late summer 2005,
was no exception. The massive destruction of entire cities and diaspora
of hundreds of thousands of people captivated the nation for weeks. The
tragedy was exacerbated by inadequate local, state and federal response.
Reporters descended on the cities, particularly New Orleans and its notorious
Superdome, which became a center of mayhem for people trying to survive
the hurricane. Scholars studying Katrina showed that mainstream news
‘articles portrayed a multitude of community and public officials working to
repair damage and to ensure a return to normalcy’ (Kitch and Hume, 2008:
39). Reporters did not rely merely on official sourcing, but also turned to the
populace (Durham, 2008). In addition, journalists declared themselves to
be the heroes of the crisis (Fry, 2006), which allowed them to assume the
authoritative role in the tragedy (Littlefield and Quenette, 2007). Across
the country, people entered cyberspace to blog, post comments, email and
otherwise contribute to the news narrative, which touched on national
ideology involving ‘race’, class, community and other such topics. Katrina’s
citizen journalism blurred the boundaries of physical and virtual and allowed
the marginalized voice to be heard (Allan, 2006).
The hurricane’s anniversary offered a moment when journalists and citizen
journalists could recreate the Hurricane Katrina story in newspapers and
online to form an enduring collective memory, perhaps highlighting the
theorized growing tension between the traditional roles of journalists and
their audiences. Thus, this event was particularly suited to exploring the
research questions.
Sample
The sample for this study comprised both national and local news coverage
of the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina between 24 August 2006 and
10 September 2006: anniversary articles in CNN, National Public Radio,
New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Time, Newsweek, U.S.
News and World Report, The Times-Picayune, the New Orleans television
stations WWLTV and WDSU – in all, about 200 news articles, video and
radio broadcast stories. The corresponding online sample included all of
the reader forums or blogs with commentary of those publications that
were available (CNN, MSNBC, Nola.com; www.nola.com) as well as the
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four most popular Hurricane Katrina blogs (Tim’s Nameless Blog, http://
timsnamelessblog.blogspot.com; Thanks Katrina, http://thanks-katrina.
blogspot.com; Beyond Katrina, http://www.hurricane-katrina.org; and
Metroblogging New Orleans, http://neworleans.metblogs.com) as identified
on Technorati (www.technorati.com), the blogging database. About 300 blog
entries and comments, chosen with the search words ‘Hurricane Katrina’
during the sampling time period, were analyzed. These print and online
publications were selected in order to have both local and national authors
and several different genres of media. The unit of analysis for this sample was
the news article, blog entry or the individual comment.
Data analysis
The sample underwent a structural textual analysis, informed by Goffman
(1974) and others’ use of framing methodology. Frames are particular
‘schemata of interpretation’ for organizing experience in such a structure that
presents a particular way of seeing the world (Entman, 1993; Goffman, 1974;
Pan and Kosicki, 1993). By textually analyzing media artifacts, researchers can
reveal the ‘encoding, interpreting, and retrieving’ process that journalists and
other authors exercise to construct a meaningful text (Pan and Kosicki, 1993:
57). Within these frames exist a pattern of social relations that represent a
dominant system of rule playing out in mediated texts (Foss, 1996): ‘The idea
elements in a culture do not exist in isolation but are grouped into more or
less harmonious clusters or interpretive packages’ (Gamson and Lasch, 1983:
198). For any particular idea element, Gamson and Lasch suggest deciphering
its ‘signature matrix’ made up of metaphors, depictions, catchphrases,
exemplars, roots, visual images, consequences and appeals to principle. The
analysis of that framework could deduce the nature of a particular news
discourse (Pan and Kosicki, 1993; van Dijk, 1988).
This study’s ‘idea elements’ entailed the normative roles of the press and
citizen journalists in the formation of collective memory. Thus, the signature
matrix included the following.
• Character depictions – how was the author presenting himself and his
sources, particularly the press, citizens, and citizen journalists? What
kind of action did they perform in the narrative?
• Main themes – what were the underlying themes in the overall story?
What is the author’s main point?
• Descriptors – how was the information relayed and characterized?
What kinds of anecdotes are relayed? What tone is used?
• Overall message – what was the overriding lesson that the reader
should learn about the press and citizens from the piece? Who can be
depended upon for accurate, credible information in this story?
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• Strategy for establishing authority – how did the author attempt to
assert their right to tell this story? For example, did they attribute
information, use quotes, cite official documents, or report eyewitness
accounts?
Each story or comment was deconstructed for each category by examining
the following:
• word and image choices – particularly their symbolic connotation,
such as ‘bride’ or ‘flag’;
• activity or passivity of characters;
• audience considerations – such as a familiar tone, use of the secondperson ‘you’ and references to specific locales and individuals;
• authorial self-reflexivity – use of the first person or other indication
of the author’s thoughts and actions in the work;
• presence of ‘official’ sources; and
• other evidence of journalistic functions – such as repair work,
documentation techniques and explanation of authorial purpose.
For example, the analysis showed 10 roles for journalists and citizen writers
in both the mainstream and online coverage, including ‘hero’, ‘witness’,
‘narrator’, ‘partner’ and ‘villain’. These categories derived from the literature
on both news accounts and collective memory (as laid out in Fry, 2006;
Kitch, 2005; Lule, 2001; Zelizer, 2005 and others). A character was coded
‘hero’ if the only details in the article involved their overcoming some
adversity for the greater good in an altruistic move (and often, the descriptor
‘hero’ was actually used). In contrast, a ‘villain’ depiction involved someone
with impure motivations and no redeeming qualities (described using only
negative words and images).
RESULTS
The press as portrayed in mainstream coverage
In the coverage of Hurricane Katrina’s anniversary, journalists followed
Barbie Zelizer’s (2005) cataloguing of press’s roles in society, from
authoritative witness to diligent watchdog to history writer. As in the JFK
coverage (Zelizer, 1992), reporters personalized their accounts with selfreflexivity that demonstrated the press’s presence: ‘And may I say that the
crew was extraordinary ... One of my cameramen has worked with a broken
foot since 9:00 o’clock this morning to try to get this story to you’ (Cooper,
2006). In three-quarters of these stories, reporters assumed the roles of
hero and watchdog for society (Carr, 2006; Stanley, 2006). New York Times
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reporter David Carr wrote about a Times-Picayune food critic as someone
persevering despite personal anguish, quoting him as saying:
The practice of journalism has been a tool for coping and for dealing with what
has happened. The notebook, the pen, the deadline, it all forces you to not live
in denial. (Carr, 2006: C1)
In relating the specific detail of the broken foot or by pontificating about
the purpose of their jobs, journalists emphasized their bravery and persistence
in reporting the story, i.e. in performing their traditional function for society.
One can see here how journalists offer up newsgathering secrets selectively,
in order to bolster the professional impression as a benevolent authority.
Journalists often connected their role to community-building and societal
improvement – major themes of their self-portrayals: ‘[T]he question a year
after Katrina is not who will save us the next time but how will we save
ourselves’ (Ripley, 2006: 51). The inclusion of the ‘us’ in this sentence
reminds audiences that journalists are subject to the same tragedies and
humanity as those they are writing about. Similarly, in this New York Times
piece, the anchor of the NBC Nightly News is described as a ‘nonresident’
rather than as a journalist:
Even nonresidents couldn’t shake their sense of ownership. Mr. Lauer asked
Mr. Williams, who hails from New Jersey, about his personal attachment to the
story. ‘If you had been with us in the Superdome, Matt’, the anchor of ‘The
NBC Nightly News’ replied, ‘this would be your cause’. (Stanley, 2006: 19)
The implication here is that ‘nonresidents’ and journalists are not supposed
to have a sense of ownership, which in this situation they could not ‘shake’.
Williams employs the term ‘us’ here to mean all of the people who suffered
in the Superdome (although in truth, he had resources available to him
in that place which the masses did not). The journalist is perceived as an
experienced witness, as someone in the know and a credible source with the
right to speak for the whole.
One lesson to be learned from both local and national mainstream coverage
was that people can count on the press in times of crisis, as in this CNN
broadcast:
Soledad, tonight a year since Katrina, trailers wasted, deadlines unmet, money
unspent or misspent and promises not kept. Still, we’re keeping them honest,
looking for progress and talking with people. (Cooper, 2006)
The catchphrase ‘we’re keeping them honest’ relays a sense of
responsibility, establishing the watchdog function for CNN. Journalists
were part of an elite group whose job it was to guide Americans in moving
forward from this tragedy. The press was highly cognizant of its role as a
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meaning-maker (Duncan, 2006; Larson, 2006). These journalists revealed
private parts of themselves or their newsgathering, but offered only those
scenes that reinforced the enduring story about the hurricane they wanted
to convey, as well as the journalist’s authority to tell that story. This act
represented a certain self-promotion on behalf of the profession, but it was
also a form of communal promotion, as Lule (2001) suggested: their self
reflexivity provided a strategic means of authority and a way to lace the story
with American values, as well as a blueprint for moving forward according to
those national ideals. Almost half the mainstream sample included some kind
of self-reflexive accounting.
The press as portrayed in online coverage
In cyberspace media were heroes and eyewitnesses (about 50 percent of the
time), but they were also sources, partners, neighbors and friends, children
and villains. Citizen journalists reassured media sources that their role as a
history writer and meaning-maker was acknowledged (‘Anderson Cooper’s
blog on 360’, 2006; JoAnn, 2006; Lily, 2006; Schneider, 2006; Wood,
2006). Many of these writers addressed their posts directly to the reporter in a
gesture of familiarity.
Citizen writers connected their own remembering of the hurricane to
the media, acknowledging the role of the press in constructing that memory
(Florita, 2006; Milwaukee, 2006; Sonu, 2006): ‘Katrina taught us a lot as long
as we don’t forget what happened. History has a way of repeating itself when
we forget. Keep us all honest, Anderson’ (Fairfield, 2006). Here we see the
CNN catchphrase ‘keeping them honest’ used for another purpose: to accept
the press’s position as a watchdog and an authority. People remembered
Hurricane Katrina through media images (Linda, 2006; Melinda, 2006):
The thing that made it ‘more real’ (if that makes sense) for me was reading
about it in your book. That was when it became more personal for me. Thanks
for that. I’ll see you tonight. (Milwaukee, 2006).
The concluding ‘I’ll see you tonight’ solidified this feeling that the
journalist (in this case, Anderson Cooper) had become part of individuals’
personal rituals (such as in Toronto, 2006; Wood, 2006). ‘My Katrina story
is based on the images I saw on your show’ (Toronto, 2006). For these
people, the journalism represented the real in their minds (a concept going
all the way back to Lippmann, 1921). Such comments served to reinforce
the traditional function of the press as a hegemonic vehicle which provides a
sense of stability and guidance in times of crisis.
However, more often in this sample, citizens used the forums and blogs
to question the journalistic version of the story. Anti-media sentiment
bubbled up on these forums and blogs, as in ‘MSN has missed the point on
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this (Anonymous, 2006a)’ and, ‘First, for the press. Please stop fueling this
fight with mis-information’ (Anonymous, 2006e). Citizens expressed rage:
‘SICK OF THE MEDIA AND THE KATRINA STUFF!!!’ (Anonymous,
2006b); and disdain: ‘Irresponsible journalism at it’s [sic] most pathetic’
(Wemtiechick, 2006); and sarcasm: ‘With all the media hype in town, it’s
a media’s playground and just like for the President, it’s another photo op’
(Schneider, 2006). Some posts provided alternative reporting (Wbennetti,
2006). The phrasing ‘missed the point’ indicated that citizen writers not
only rejected MSN’s version, but also that the citizen writer knew the real
‘point’. In declaring media coverage to be misinformation, these citizens were
asserting their right to recognize and relay ‘truth’. Writers assumed a didactic
tone with journalists (Schneider, 2006): ‘Please don’t be afraid of becoming
emotional over a story like this one, the minute you deny your own
humanity it is time to quit’ (JoAnn, 2006). Furthermore, citizens critiqued
and guided the journalists: ‘It would be so nice if you would cover a working
class evacuee family with a FATHER and mother as they rebuild their lives’
(Wemtiechick, 2006). Subtly, a balance shift was occurring here.
In some posts, reporters were considered partners:
The idea is that old and new media seem to be coming together in a way that is
more than either and bigger than both and that’s really what excites me about
blogging. (Beyond Katrina, 2006a)
The blogger Beyond Katrina suggests a new relationship for media with
citizens as ‘coming together’. Citizen writers were considering themselves
on a par with the trained professionals: this was a key strategy for citizen
writers to establish authority in relation to the press. By commenting on the
journalists’ newsgathering, these citizens were situating themselves as being
privy to that backstage, and thus in the ‘know’ and in possession of the real
‘truth’. The media portrayals in the citizen anniversary coverage ultimately
undermined the press-fueled perception that journalists have any special
jurisdiction over information.
Citizens as presented by media, citizen journalists in mainstream
coverage
In the mainstream coverage, citizens showed up in the narrative as officials
and other institutional characters representing US authority. Characters play
out the dominant values deemed important by the reporter, who wants
each source to bring credibility, drama and meaning to the story. In these
narratives, journalists wrote about people as heroes and victims, officials and
soldiers (Chapple, 2006). In other words, people were not merely ‘regular
people’ in these news stories, but symbols and metaphors advancing narrative
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plot. In the following example, Mr Davis is an exemplar for American
perseverance:
Out in the neighborhoods Tuesday, work went on, painfully and defiantly,
in the 100 degree-plus heat. Plunging on ahead with rebuilding, as more than
one demonstrated they were doing Tuesday, was a way of remembering too
– of not being conquered by the long-tentacled disaster and its aftermath …
‘What happened has happened’, he said, proudly showing off his ‘totally gutted,
reframed’ house. Living quarters, for now, is a FEMA trailer in the back yard.
‘We’ve got to move on,’ Mr. Davis said. (Kornblut and Nossitger, 2006: A1)
The writer employs Mr Davis to construct the moral, ‘We’ve got to
move on’. In the aftermath of the battle between man and nature,
Mr Davis will ‘remember’ by not being conquered; he is a soldier,
representing endurance and will. Note that Mr Davis does not complain
about the heat, or memorialize about lost loved ones, or even elaborate on
the ‘pain’ that is mentioned. Every detail points to rebuilding – the main
message in the journalistic coverage (as in Nolan, 2006).
Indeed, it is not so much citizens who show up in this narrative as the
concept of citizenship (Scott, 2006; Simon, 2006). One CNN journalist
selected the Tulane University president to suggest that the hurricane had
been a blessing, a way to reinvent itself in true American fashion:
Ms. Frierson: There’s a new sense of citizenship. You know, we’re reaching out
to each other like never before. They say this mutual support that has emerged
after the storm crosses racial lines. (Scott, 2006)
The terminology ‘emerged after the storm’ symbolized a cleansing that
will transcend the racial problems of the past. In this rebirth, the collective
‘reaching out to each other’ will trump adversity.
Often in this coverage, journalists assumed the role of citizen (Farris, 2006;
Hezeau, 2006): ‘But then there were the faces of people like mine, soaking
wet, uncertain and scared’ (Hezeau, 2006). Here, the WWLTV reporter
positions herself as a victim, one who was authorized to tell the story of the
hurricane because she witnessed it alongside other victims. She continued:
So a year later Katrina continues to affect our lives. It’s in our thoughts, actions
and the recovery is always in our hearts. And yes, I will be a Katrina bride.
The reporter makes a point of advancing the grand narrative toward
redemption and recovery. She even invoked the label ‘bride’, which
symbolizes a beginning. The Times-Picayune, local radio stations, CNN, the
books that were published, even New York Times articles – all wrote stories
with the pronoun ‘we’ to situate the news organization and its individual
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journalists as part of the citizenry. In this WWLTV piece, reporter Meg Farris
shares her thoughts about the hurricane a year later:
When people ask me what I am going to do, I tell them I want to build, way
off of the ground with hurricane windows and solar panels. I have the chance to
not be a victim again. We all have the chance to do it right this time in so many
aspects of our personal and community lives. (Farris, 2006)
For a brief moment, the reader glimpses Meg the Person, albeit an
empowered American. Because the reporters had proven themselves to be
part of society as citizens, they became sanctioned to write everybody’s story.
Citizens as presented by media, citizen journalists in online coverage
Online, citizen writers considered themselves storytellers, journalists,
whistleblowers, counselors, journal writers, history drafters, meaning-makers,
and opinion leaders:
One of the really interesting things about being a citizen journalist is I
sometimes get to turn the tables on the traditional journalists. We’re all
inquisitive storytellers at heart so when you get a few of us in the room together
there’s just no telling what might happen. (Beyond Katrina, 2006a).
Here, the blogger was in a figurative as well as a literal ‘room’ with the
journalists. In this place, Beyond Katrina asserted himself as one of the ‘us’
usually reserved for the press’s exclusive interpretive community. He defined
himself as a ‘journalist’ and identified with reporters. The bloggers and
forum contributors practised reporting (becoming watchdogs, for example).
Many of the blogs introduced their own characters and sources as a way to
provide information. ‘I just heard from New Orleans blogger and Rising
Tide Conference organizer, Mark Folse reporting on the situation at the
17th Street Canal’ (Beyond Katrina, 2006b). The citizens recast themselves as
characters performing in this new narrative:
I just got a tip about residents of a housing project in NOLA who are being
confronted by New Orleans police because they won’t leave their property ...
I am not sure if there is anything to it, but I have passed it on to local media.
(Beyond Katrina, 2006c)
These messages positioned the writers as sources at the beginning of the
newsmaking loop. For example, in a previous comment, the blogger Beyond
Katrina had declared himself to be a citizen journalist with the power to
‘shape the stories ... through powerful inquiry’ (Beyond Katrina, 2006a).
Here citizens have assumed a new agency in the distributed information
architecture inherent in the media system.
Those authors who failed to play the part of credible informer in a
competent manner were portrayed in other posts as being lazy, and their
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comments were ‘repaired’ (Anonymous, 2006c; Anonymous, 2006d). Citizens
were hyperaware of how they were being depicted in the press and elsewhere:
And I especially cringe when I hear folks call those impacted by Katrina,
‘victims’. No victims here as far as I’m concerned ... only good, honest, decent,
ordinary folks who are going through a major transition. But for the sake of
brevity, if we’ve got to have a label to describe a population of people who’ve
been impacted by the disaster, I prefer to use ‘survivors’. (Beyond Katrina,
2006d)
In one lengthy Nola.com forum posting, Debra Mercer (writing under the
handle ‘Arkgurl’) blasted all the dominant institutions, including government
and the media:
Now that the hurricane has come and caused mass devastation everyone is on tv
wanting ‘to be honest’ and tell the truth regarding the safety of our community
… I feel a complete lack of ‘HONESTY’ for what is being told to the people
who once populated our neighborhoods. No, no one told us to live there,
no one told us that all of our elected officials were lying to us, but I feel that
ommision [sic] is betrayal. (Arkgurl, 2006)
Like many other writers, Mercer felt compelled to correct people’s
impressions of the ‘reality’ of New Orleans’ recovery. She co-opted the press’
catchphrase ‘honesty’, manipulating the context so that it suited her point.
She employed the first person, including herself as one of those who knows
the ‘real’ story; thus, she has the authority to tell this story (i.e. to fix the story
put out by the media) properly.
In this rewriting, different themes (or at least thematic foci) developed. In
contrast to the theme of citizenship, these citizen journalists wrote most often
using a theme of personal connections. Citizen journalists were in control
of what information they shared; many revealed private selves in this public
sphere, as in this Nola.com piece: ‘Re: How much did you CRY today? very
tough day ... many mixed emotions, but mainly felt blessed’ (Alquima, 2006),
and this one:
Each day I do what I need to do to keep myself sane, maybe even happy, and
don’t worry about the rest. If I have time to help clean, write letters, campaign,
volunteer – great. If I don’t, I don’t and I don’t feel at all guilty. (Sistasista,
2006)
In some ways the forums were the first draft of people trying to construct
some kind of meaning from the event, as in this comment on Beyond
Katrina: ‘The truth is, though, I’ve been searching for my own unique place
in the story. I haven’t been able to find it’ (Saizan, 2006). The comment
was followed by a discussion of whether such a ‘unique place’ would ever
be found in such a story. In commiserating together, the participants created
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that unique place – a public place of private remembering where collective
memory of Hurricane Katrina was reformed with the press’s influence.
The journey had become more meaningful because it was both public
and collective, but on a personal level; they could share it with others in
cyberspace, as in Oseeanbeauty (2006) and the following entry:
[W]hat will you be doing to commemorate Katrina’s anniversary? I will be
doing what I love, sitting right here at this computer being a blogger, a citizen
journalist, a story teller, a life coach focused on large scale healing change – and
using this new medium as a vehicle for that larger cause … Drop a line, a
comment, share your thoughts ... get connected ... be part of the story. (Beyond
Katrina, 2006e)
Within these posts, they recreated and remembered, trying to find some
sense of connection to those that experienced the hurricane:
Yeah this is me ‘Patrick’ the Navy guy ... I left N.O. the day before Katrina and
took Merlin and Sid, my two roommates and we ended up in TEXARKANA
... they are fine, I email them regular. I am in NYC now working for Dept of
Homeless Services (go figure) as an engineer. My email is [address omitted].
Write me. (pwalsh, 2006)
The ‘Navy guy’ chooses to reveal that he had been in New Orleans,
which imbued the writer with authority. In giving his email address, he offers
a direct way to create a connection. He and his friends are portrayed not
only as survivors, but also as people with community. The forums and blogs
became a tool for self-definition, self-renewal and self-expression of both the
individual and a group community (as opposed to a nation or citizenry). It
was this willingness to share private details (emotional and otherwise) that
seemed most valued in these citizen journalism places, creating new collective
memories via individual chronicling.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
In their coverage of Hurricane Katrina, journalists assumed the roles of hero,
witness and watchdog in order to assert their authority to tell the story.
In their writings, citizens were institutional officials or archetypes guiding
audiences in recovery. Online, citizen journalists had the opportunity to
rewrite that story, and recast both journalists and themselves in the narrative.
While some of their posts reaffirmed the roles of the media, many instituted
a complete role reversal. To these new authors of the story, journalists
were also partners, friends, children in need of guidance, villains and naive
scapegoats. Citizen journalists wrote about the press as an entity whose
authority is not inevitably entrenched in society. They practised self-repair
and self-assertion, often in contrast to the journalism and their assigned
archetypical characters. Table 1 demonstrates the particular Hurricane
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Robinson: ‘If you had been with us’
Katrina anniversary matrix for the press and citizen or citizen journalist
portrayals according to character depictions (media or the citizen), main
themes, descriptors, overall message and strategies for authority construction.
In cyberspace, some citizens are undermining the role that journalists
have long determined for them, and are asserting their right to be part of the
collective memory construction in a formal way. This role shift indicated
vulnerability in that established hierarchal information structure (which
Bennett et al. (2007) referred to as a power prism). Furthermore, some citizen
journalists in this coverage rejected the traditional understanding of the press–
audience dynamic in order to (re)position themselves as more authoritative
than journalists. Taken together, this evidence suggests that citizen writers are
trying to occupy a dominant place in the tiers of the information hierarchy as
co-producers of collective memory.
The field could benefit from research that explores how the increasing
mass co-production of collective memory (or any cohesive news story) will
alter what we know about ourselves as well as how we can move forward
as a society with some sense of a larger community still intact. In particular,
triangulating this research with in-depth interviews of journalists and
citizen writers online combined with an audience study would offer a more
complete understanding of authority construction. This study’s limitations lie
in its lack of ability to be generalized, but also the always tricky maneuver to
sum up 500 articles’ worth of content from several dozen different authors
into something cohesive, constructive and accurate.
However, this evidence does seem to suggest that citizen journalists are
strategically presenting themselves in new narrative realms, thus creating
• Table 1
Signature matrix for press-citizens in mainstream vs. online coverage
CITIZEN/CITIZEN
PRESS
PORTRAYAL
MAINSTREAM
Heroes,
watchdogs
Redemption
ONLINE
Friend,
partner, villain
Mediated
reality/fiction
Descriptors
Personal anecdotes Relationships
to exemplify
with press
Overall message ‘We were there’, Press not an
press can be
exclusive
depended upon
institution
Strategy for
Self-reflexivity,
Newsgathering
authority
‘repair’ work
strategies
construction
revealed
Character
Depiction
Main Theme
JOURNALIST
PORTRAYAL
MAINSTREAM ONLINE
Institutions,
archetypes
Citizenship
(macro)
Exemplars
Self
Connection (micro)
Personal anecdotes to
connect
Citizens need ‘We were there
the press
too’, citizens also
dependable
Journalists are Journalist techniques,
citizens too
individual experience
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New Media & Society 11(5)
new information flows and dynamics that will have implications for
information power structures. If these roles for citizens are changing, so are
the expectations for journalists, understandings of information authority,
levels of productive reciprocity and contiguity of content (Papacharissi,
forthcoming 2010; Yaros, forthcoming 2010). Boundaries of information
and, most importantly, information control are becoming liquid and diffused
(Deuze, 2007). Indeed, it is the quality and level of connectedness that seem
to matter (Jung et al., 2001). If an information producer can prove their right
to connection (and establishing connection), they have achieved a certain
authority in this new world.
If the press writes to ensure its longevity as an institution and does this
through these strategic techniques such as eyewitness accounts, self-reflexivity
and repair work, we must ascribe the same motivations to bloggers and
citizens online. Seeking their ‘own unique place in the story’ (Saizan, 2006),
citizens are rewriting and overwriting the journalistic account and sometimes
bypassing that account completely. The resulting news narrative (in this
case, the Hurricane Katrina collective memory) is a patchwork of journalism
and citizen work that represents the acting out of the tensions from these
role shifts. As news scholars and other media watchers move forward in
evaluating news stories, their research should consider the new roles that
citizen journalists are occupying. Their versions online have become part of
the ‘curriculum’ of coverage that James Carey (1986) once implored media
scholars to consider.
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SUE ROBINSON is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research
interests include online journalism, news narrative, journalistic authority, collective memory and
citizen media. She was a business reporter before becoming an academic.
Address: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
821 University Avenue, 5148 Vilas Hall, Madison, WI 53706, USA. [email: [email protected]]
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