Conference addresses Katrina

Students and faculty in the Department of Mass Communication were treated Friday, April 21 with a panel discussion on “crisis communication” during the department’s annual spring conference, which brought together experts in the field to discuss their experiences during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The conference was held in the Harrison D. Lawless Auditorium of William W. Stewart Hall, and featured four speakers who attempted to answer the conference’s panel inquiry: what did we learn from Katrina?
“This year, there was nothing more compelling than Katrina,” said Mahmoud Braima, department chair of mass communication.
Braima said the conference is a community service type of activity that aims to tackle a different topic every year that is of social relevance to the university’s surrounding community.
“Katrina is an experience none of us will never forget,” said Marc Goldstein of Creative Video Productions.
Goldstein opened the conference with clips from a documentary he filmed for Entergy, who commissioned the former news reporter to film for 18 days post hurricane Katrina.
Goldstein said although the documentary hadn’t started out that way, he realized after filming that he had unknowingly recorded a lot of “crisis communication in Entergy’s scramble to get power back on.”
“There was fear in the air,” he said. “It was a time in our history that will be recalled many, many times.”
Louisiana State and Dillard University professor Jinx Broussard followed Goldstein with a message of strategic planning for students interested in public relations doing a time of crisis.
“If you are in P.R., at times of crisis, those of us who work for government, we better be ready to serve the public,” Broussard said. “There must be order, there must be structure when there is this type of crisis.”
Broussard criticized the public relations team for New Orleans’ Mayor Ray Nagin for abandoning him when he needed them most. She also pointed out that the purpose of a public relations specialist is to maintain order during a crisis so that the voices spoken to the public, by state leaders, are in one accord.
“We know that the media can be our best ally,” she said. “And I do believe the media were the allies of the city (New Orleans), and the state during Katrina.”
Attendees were exposed to the journalistic side of “crisis communication” when Times Picayune city editor, and Pulitzer Prize winner, David Meeks succeeded Broussard with his first hand account of his experiences, post-Katrina, with a team of misfit colleagues who chose to remain in the city with Meeks and “cover the story.”
Meeks, who dispelled rumors of death and random acts of violence in the Superdome, told the intimate crowd that it was his love and dedication to the city of New Orleans that convinced him to stay behind and get the story right amidst the flood of over exaggerated news tales that were flooding the airwaves and network television.
“It’s very, very important that you not report what someone heard, or what someone told them (interviewees),” he said. “You need to ask them this question: what did you see?”
Meeks said he told his team of reporters and photographers, “If we don’t do this, the truth will never be told.”
Before ending his speech, Meeks let students, who plan to pursue careers in journalism and mass media relations, know that strategic planning and a understanding of the community is a necessity to good reporting, but the instinct to know when to deviate from that plan is also a important element in journalism.
The program closed with WAFB Chief Meteorologist Jay Grimes speaking on his experience during both storms, and their impact on him.
“Hopefully these were my one and only super bowls,” Grimes said.
Braima said he thought the speakers did an excellent job of communicating well-informed, clear messages to those who participated.
“Those in public relations should have learned how important it is to plan,” he said. “Students in journalism should have learned the importance of verifying your sources.”