I was at home Sunday when I picked up my parents’ copy of The Clarion-Ledger and saw in bold, one-inch-tall letters the front-page headline: “Landrieu, Nagin look to runoff.”
The headline, which topped a story about New Orleans’ recent mayoral election, hit home with me a year ago. I never imagined seeing that three-line, two-column headline on the front page of Mississippi’s largest newspaper. A year ago, the paper would have placed the story on an inside page and topped with a header in a 45-point font.
According to the article, 20,000 of New Orleans’ 297,000 registered voters cast ballots early by mail, fax or at satellite voting stations across the state. Others traveled by bus or car from cities such as Houston, Dallas and Atlanta to vote in the election.
These people who, before Hurricane Katrina, lived in New Orleans-people who still consider themselves residents of New Orleans even if they live for now in Jackson, Houston, Atlanta or elsewhere-voted in the mayoral election. These voters needed to be informed on the candidates before Saturday’s election and need to continue receiving information about candidates as next month’s run-off election looms.
The candidates’ missions might be the same-restore New Orleans to its former glory-but their methods and qualifications differ, and in the end what counts is whether the mayor has the knowledge and skills to complete his mission.
Although New Orleans residents are the people most affected by this election, they are not the only people interested in its outcome. Other people-donors, volunteers and news addicts across the nation-feel a special connection to the Crescent City after investing money, time and interest in the city’s future. Race and class issues surrounding the election also capture the attention of media consumers nationwide.
When editors decide whether to print or broadcast a story, they traditionally judge the story using criteria such as the impact, timeliness, prominence, proximity, conflict, oddity and human interest of the story. Journalists call these traits “news values.”
For a journalist writing for displaced residents of New Orleans, coverage of the city’s mayoral elections fits all of these categories except perhaps oddity.
For others across the nation, the coverage fits categories of timeliness, prominence, conflict and human interest. Yes, it’s current. The name New Orleans has achieved a prominence it never knew before Katrina. The conflicts of man versus man and blacks versus whites capture attention in our race-conscious nation. The city of New Orleans was full of human-interest stories before Katrina, and more poured in with the floodwaters.
In the end, though, the residents of New Orleans are affected most by this election, which may be the most important in the city’s history. I applaud media outlets, whatever their motives, for keeping New Orleans residents across the country informed.