A Forgotten Crisis?: Coverage of Post-Katrina Gulf Coast Poverty Since 2005
The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation and Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity have issued a report calling attention to a significant decline in media coverage of Gulf Coast poverty since Hurricane Katrina. Written by the principals at Freedman Consulting, the report, A Forgotten Crisis?: Coverage of Post-Katrina Gulf Coast Poverty Since 2005 (7 pages, PDF), found that print media coverage of the relationship between poverty and the aftermath of Katrina fell by 83 percent during the past three years, even though coverage of Katrina in general remained relatively high. The report also found that between December 2005 and May 2009, newspapers ran almost six times as many stories about New Orleans sports teams than about poverty in the region.
