News Images, Race, and Attribution in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, race played a defining role in the public reckoning of the disaster. This study explores the relationship between the composition of images appearing in news stories, race, and attribution of responsibility with the events surrounding Katrina as the backdrop. In the context of this racially charged disaster, we seek to extend the existing research on the mechanisms underlying attribution of responsibility by focusing on the differences between Black and White U.S. citizens’ attribution patterns. The two fundamental concerns central to this undertaking are: Do images of victims make people more or less likely to believe the government was at fault for the human tragedy that followed the storm? And, do images affect White and Black people differently? News coverage is at the core of this discussion because it is the primary source of information that people have as distant events unfold. Prior communication research clearly suggests that the way the news is told broadly affects attribution of