“Controlling Disasters: Recognizing Latent Goals After Hurricane Katrina” by Lee M. Miller, focuses on the impact of Hurricane Katrina which occurred in late August 2005 Which had put tons of thousands of people in unimaginable hardship. It also set in motion several recovery processes that needed to take place. Miller discusses many different topics about Hurricane Katrina; like those that normal minds would not ponder. In "Controlling Disasters" Miller raises the topic of social media and how it can be distorted to gain public attention. Miller argues successfully on this topic. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay One tactic Miller used is found on page 125 where he states, “The white people had just 'found' food and the black person had 'plundered.'” In this quote is the common misconception about how racism happens. In a way blacks are doing the same thing as whites. Unlike when the white man does it, it is considered a crime. The media has had a lot of fun with this because of the large percentage of blacks who live in this area. According to the text before the storm, “sixty-seven percent of New Orleans residents were black” (Miller 125) With such a large population, the media could easily alter the perspective of what people watch at home they could see. Especially since much of this population represented the majority of the poor who lived in that area. Another way in which the media had distorted what the public had seen was that they only showed, according to Miller on page 126, “images of. chaos and anarchy." .” When the public realizes this, why would anyone want to help people who don't even help themselves? This left many people stuck and worried about what they could do for themselves, or even how they would regenerate themselves once it was all over. Overall, this helped the government send the National Guard to come into play and look like a hero. If it weren't for this, people would still be suffering from the enormous damage that occurred. Another aspect that Miller focused on in the article was the idea that the criminal justice system had a “risk management” agenda. On page 126 Miller introduces that the prison had been opened for regularly scheduled training even though 25,000 people were still in desperate need of help. These 25,000 people were still waiting to be rescued. It appears that the criminal justice system has only helped itself and has never acted to help people in need. This doesn't sound like their "risk management" agenda has been widely disseminated to the public, but only to their own party. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay As one could tell after reading this that Lee M. Miller had successfully argued that social media had dramatized ongoing actions to gain public attention. This was done using racism and actions of chaos and anarchy during the situation.
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