The Visual Framing of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina: A Comparison of Newspaper Coverage in Three Countries.

Newspapers worldwide produced different images of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and of hurricane Katrina in 2005, two natural disasters that have recently stunned audiences all over the globe. This study examines how newspapers in the United States Great Britain, and India framed the disasters and their aftermath by analyzing the content of all photographs they published during the first week after the calamities hit. The most salient frames used by the three papers are lives lost, lives saved, physical, emotional and political. Results show that the American newspapersÂ’ visual coverage of hurricane Katrina was more restrained compared to the way they depicted the tsunami that occurred in Asia. The British and Indian newspapers, however, covered the two disasters almost in a similar fashion, relying heavily on the physical damages and emotional frames. Examining the salient frames showed that perhaps local flavor and audience expectations influenced the selection of frames besides journalistic routines and ideology. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]