The Tornado Spin: A snapshot of United States Media Coverage of the 2011 tornado surge.

April 27-28 a series of extreme tornadoes hit the southern region of the United States. The tornadoes killed over 300 people in six states and towns were literally flattened leaving rumble where homes once stood. Areas hit the hardest were Tuscaloosa, Alabama and areas in Northern Mississippi. This was the worst set of tornadoes to hit the southern region in the last four decades.

During the same time as the storms British Prince William Arthur Philip, eldest son of Prince Charles and the Late Princess Diana was preparing to wed Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011.

Although this wedding technically has nothing to do with the United States, or really even foreign policy it seems to garner an extreme amount of press, especially in the United States. I decided to compile some screen shots from mainstream and ethnic press in the United States. The goal was to see who the media gives more attention to, rich foriegners getting hitched or hundreds of Americans losing their lives and the thousands who trying to find a way to rebuild their lives. Take a look to see what I discovered.

CNN.com April 28, 2011 approximately 11:00pm: Kate and Will in the Middle, tornadoes off to the side.

CNN.COM April 29, 2011 approximately 11:30am- Just One Day later Tornadoes not even mentioned on front page. Royal Wedding and an advertisement for Subway Sandwich shop consume whole front page.

MSNBC.com April 29, 2011- Royal wedding is headling story. Tornadoes a featured post on the side.

African-American Media

What was most interesting was the lack of coverage on African-American targeted websites. Some of the hardest hit areas have large to mid-size African-American populations. The 2010 United States Census reports that Tuscaloosa, Alabama, an area that was hit the hardest by the storm is 31.2 percent African-American. The small town of Aberdeen City Mississippi that has been almost completely flattened by the tornadoes has over 60 percent African-American population. I wanted to see if popular African-American news sites would be covering this story. This is what I found on their front pages.

Theroot.com April, 29, 2011: Tornadoes not even mentioned on first page. Although there are several advertisements for Treme a drama series on HBO that showcases New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Newsone.com April 29, 2011: Newsone.com's tagline is “For Black America”. The tornadoes are not mentioned at all. Instead they decided to continue sensationalizing the debate about Barack Obama's Birth certificate.

Thegrio.com April 29, 2011: Tornadoes not even headlining news. One story about Obama's visit is tucked away at the far bottom of the site.

Conservative Media

The areas hit hardest by the storms, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Oklahoma are in areas that are strongly supportive of the republican party and conservative media. The governors of all the states most impacted are republican as well as the senators. I took a look at Foxnews.com the leading conservative news source in the United states to see if and how they were covering the tornadoes.

Foxnews.com April 29, 2011: The site carried headlines like “Devastation” and “Just Pray” to discuss the tornadoes aftermath. Presidents visit to Tuscaloosa is headline news. Although no minority communities are brought to the forefront of the conversation.