Superhero, Instructor, Optimist: FEMA and the Frames of Disaster in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Using framing theory to examine hundreds of press releases posted to the Web by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), this study asserts that FEMA provided useful information on survival and assistance, but that the organization emphasized good deeds and optimism while essentially ignoring social, political, and cultural issues that publicly defined the hurricanes and damaged FEMA's image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]