Josh NeufeldReseñas

A strange read now a days, I think. At least for me.
I started it without realizing that the author was writing from the experiences of others. I thought that the author was writing based from known events and created characters based in that reality. At the end of the read, the story was given a different context when I realized that what I'd just read was real life recollections via interviews that the author conducted with people.

I'm not sure how to feel about that. Especially when the interviews seemed to have been done within a few years after Katrina, not within the 2010s, then published in 2009. Four years after Katrina, not a decade and some change.

I am sure if I did some research I could answer this question, but as it stands, I wonder (and hope) that the author gave any and all money gain from this book to those that he interviewed or to non profits at the time of the publication. Areas impacted by Katrina are thankfully in much better conditions, or they have been abandoned due to not receiving any help in timely fashions, or they're neighborhoods of those unable to economically restart in those areas....

That being said...

The art and color direction of the book was fantastic. Using hard coloration in the beginning and contrast towards the end was a distinctive and memorably was to bring things from the sharp sameness of Katrina's impact to the 'we're moving on' contrast that the coloration did to the 'characters' with their environments. The color direction lost a lot of its impact due to the characters not being characters but real people, however, but perhaps to someone else, this impact does remain.

Because this book takes from interviews and stories of real people, props must be given to the parts of the book where the author's imagination and interpretation of the interviews come in clearly. I'm glad that they're there, since everyone, including those that were not there when it happened, were impacted by Katrina. That shows and I'm glad for it.

Okay, rambling over~

Boring. I had to skim through a lot of it. I agree with reviewers who wondered who the audience was for this. No reason for it to be a graphic novel. The pictures added nothing, and there were way too many words, to be honest. I'm saying this as somebody who also reads a variety of things, including regular non-fiction and 1000 page fantasy epics, so it's not necessarily that I have a short attention span... It's just that I was expecting something more engaging from a graphic novel, I guess, and this was just boring. It's also by no means revolutionary, and honestly just kind of toes the mainline Democratic line pretty neatly, as far as I could tell. Maybe I'm just crazy left-leaning, I don't know. It just seemed like it was supporting the same old corrupt (sorry, they are corrupt) institutions. Definitely not a "maifesto" by any means. Yawn. Oh well.

This is the 2012 "one book one school" summer reading for incoming freshmen at Millersville University
Very thought provoking.
Could supply many opportunities for discussion in government and/or English classes

I have a thing for journalism comics like this. I watched Katrina on TV, and it just wasn't comprehensible, but through the eyes of these seven people, it's become a lot more vivid and personal. Makes you feel closer to what happened there.

Brilliant look at the history of media and its relationship to audiences and government. A graphic novel to boot. Worthy of about 16 rereads.

A rich, compelling, and devastating set of firsthand narratives from Hurricane Katrina. There is a bit of disconnect between beginning and end but a worthy read overall.

Interesting perspectives from locals in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I didn't feel there was as much depth as there could have been (as I have found to be the case with other historical/biographical graphic novels), but I did enjoy it.

It was quite eye-opening to learn some of the personal stories that came out of the tragedy of Katrina. All in all very good.

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans on August 29, 2005. In this graphic the author depicts the horrors of this event through the first-hand experiences of seven people who lived there while they described the events leading up to the storm, the storm itself and how they have been impacted forever by that day. It is an awesome look at one of the worst moments in our nation's history.

This surprised me. I was sure that I wasn't going to like it, but I did. I'm constantly ticked off by the media. Constantly. I can't watch more than five minutes of the mainstream news before a new stress twitch starts somewhere around my eyes. It's not new for me. My media "black pill" was back in the mid-80s when someone I knew was murdered and I had to read the press coverage in the NYC press. I don't completely believe anything they say unless I can verify it with at least two or three other sources.

I developed the habit of checking and rechecking events that mattered to me. With the advent of the Internet, it became so much easier to track down sources. I wasn't confined to the library to do my checking on important stuff. I had a huge resource sitting in my house. I could go to other sources, listen to multiple sides of an issue and find witnesses to an event talking directly to the public. So much better.

Gladstone essentially says the same thing. We shouldn't trust what we read or hear. We should check and double check the things that are important to us. Don't rely on Twitter for the news. Figure out what those Facebook posts really mean. And most important, don't blame the media when you misinterpret things. Headlines are not the news. Headlines sell the paper (or get the clicks). That's what they are meant to do.

So yeah! The illustrations kept this light-hearted and she had a lot of really good things to say.

I picked this up after noticing a review of it on SMBC. It's a pretty neat way to learn a little bit about the hurricane and how it touched a few lives, although the format does not make a great deal of depth possible.

I'm not a big fan of graphic novels, but A.D. New Orleans After The Deluge is actually better as a graphic novel than it would be if it was simply a written story. The artwork adds to the story, but does not overwhelm the story.½

This graphic novel about Hurricane Katrina is an excellent example of a comic telling a true story. Josh Neufeld follows five individuals before, during, and after the storm. Cleverly, the title is A.D, stands for After the Deluge, however could still represent after death considering how many lives were lost in this tragedy. This book brought a new level of appreciation for the people of New Orleans, and their experiences. The inside cover quickly introduces you to the people telling their stories, along with rave reviews from established magazines. The book begins with an overview of the disaster as well as a short background of each of the individuals.

As graphic novels are on the rise, this book will remain popular among young people. The contrast of colors guide the reader through the varying perspectives with ease. The book is divided into sections, The Storm, The City, The Flood, The Diaspora,and The Return. It is easy to relate to the people who shared their story with Neufeld. Denise, a sixth-generation New Orleanian, Leo and Michelle a young couple, Leo well known for publishing AntiGravity, Abba, owns a family operated convenient store, Kwame, son of a pastor in New Orleans East, and Dr. Brobson, a medical man-about-town. Each of this individuals faced different aspects of the storm. Everyone had to decide if they should evacuate or try to withstand the storm. For many, staying in New Orleans was not a choice, as Denise, Leo, and Michelle point out. The storm was due to hit before the 1st, a day most people receive their paychecks. If you couldn't afford to leave, your options were limited. Dr. Brobson, living in the French Quarter, firmly beleived his apartment could withstand even the worst of storms. Dr. Brobson hosted a hurricane party, a common and popular event hosted during hurricanes. Each page is well documented with the timeline of events, dates and times as the storm progressed. Denise attempted to seek shelter at the hospital where her mother worked, only to find overcrowding and a lack of resources. Kwame evacuated to Tallahassee just in time, while Abba chose to stay to protect his store.

No one could have predicted how unprepared New Orleans was for the nightmare that was to ensure during and after Katrina. Neufeld did an excellent job choosing such a variety of people to share their stories, each provides a different angle to this historical event. The book uses illustrations and actual conversation to show how the people of New Orleans came together in a time when authorities were unable to help. The Cajun Navy banded together to save as many people as their boats could carry. "Thugs" and "Gangsters" broke into stores to take much needed food, water, and medical supplies for the people stranded. It is always inspiring to read about how a community comes together in a tragedy. In the final section of the book, Neufeld shows himself calling from New York as he interviews the individuals about the aftermath. I enjoyed that Neufeld added himself in there to show his journalistic approach to writing this story. In the Afterword, Neufeld explains why he wrote the book and how it came together.

Overall I would recommend this book to anyone grades 9-above. As an educator, I must warn there is plenty of "bad" words. As a teacher in New Orleans, I would definitely keep this in my classroom. Though teenagers today were only small children when Katrina hit, this is still part of their culture and history. Depending on where you teach I suppose you would have to be aware of the language used in the text. Because Neufeld used actual conversations and quote, I believe the language adds to authenticity to the situation. I do not support censorship and as a teacher it is our job to provide books that give their readers the truth.½

Nice book. A bit thick on the outside and thin on the inside. There are perhaps too many stories, so no character gets to deliver the full force of their experience.

Album intéressant pour son message et sa démarche pédagogique.
Comme le précise elle-même Brooke Gladstone dans la postface, le choix de traité ce sujet des médias par la bande dessinée permet de présenter en peu de mot des principes, des thèses, des idées. Cependant, cet apport ne m'a pas paru convaincant, le graphisme m'a semblé ne faire que de la paraphrase des textes sans vraiment apporter un complément fort d'information.

This would be a great book for teens to talk about the tragedy of Katrina in New Orleans, but there are waaaay too many bad words. I realize they are appropriate to the story and the characters, but it makes it less share-able among teens.

Great stories, though, and done in a way that doesn't endear only pity, but also empathy and anger.

This is a book about Rhetoric, which gets such short shrift these days that I don't have a shelf for it. It was an assigned text for Veronica, and I see something catching lying around, I have to snake it from other family members, otherwise they wouldn't know where to look for it. If you're unfamiliar with rhetoric, this makes a fabulous introduction, and if you already know about it, you'll enjoy how everything is tied to modern media. The graphic novel format makes it feel lighter than it would otherwise, a delightful way to slip in education. Gladstone knows whereof she writes: she's been covering media for NPR for quite a few years. Excellent.

Copy borrowed from high school text collection

This is a thoughtful look at the history of the media. It might be helpful to use in certain classrooms.

I like books that educate me. And I really like graphic novels that explain things, like Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud or the Chrome graphic novel (also by Scott McCloud), or the Feynman graphic novel.

Judged against those books, The Influencing Machine was just alright. The Influencing Machine is strongest when it talks about the history of the media, e.g. the trial of John Peter Zenger where truth became a defense against libel in the United States. The book is also especially strong when talking about the history of war in terms of news coverage and how laws in the United States changed in response to wars.

But the book founders when it attempts to address the present and future state of the media. The later chapters felt more disconnected.

Nonetheless, the book covers a great deal of material in a way that makes it more likely for facts to stick. The book also broaches a lot of important topics, like the duty of a citizen to self-inform themselves, even when it might not make that much difference to the future if a single person is well-informed or votes.

Overall, this is a quick read and I'd recommend it for anyone interested in journalism, the media, or civic responsibility. The book would be especially good for high school or college students who aren't familiar with some of the history and material that the book covers.

Excellent history of the media's role in our world and how wwe shape the information we receive from news outlets.

Amazing account of everyday people trying to survive Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. What makes this more poignant is the fact that each of these people are real, great reporting.

Several interesting essay in graphic form on media studies. There was one item I learned more about. I had been aware that many newspapers had their origins as party news. If you were a Democrat/Republican you would read a paper that often had Democrat/Republic in its name. I figured the reader did not want fair, unbalanced, objective news. The reader expected the party line on events. I learned that there papers were fairly expensive. The New York Sun was a ground breaking paper with a new model of news - only a penny versus about 6 cents for a party paper but it used advertising heavily to lower the price. This new model of paper took over the marketplace and would eventually buy out the older papers. The new model of newspaper would be independent of funding from the political party and would print almost anything to sell the goods. I recommend it as a good intro to the issues involved with news and the media.

This is a graphic non-fiction book by NPR radio host Brooke Gladstone, in which the reader is given a history of journalism in the United States, a discussion of bias and accountability and objectivity and clashes between the media, the public and those in power, and thoughts on the future of communications. It was pretty interesting. My favourite bits were the ones about people's perceptions and expectations of the media, with their attendant discussions about cognitive dissonance and other interesting psychological phenomena. Worth picking up if you're interested in the media and journalism.

It took me a while to get into the format but I did and found the book very intriguing. It is very well done and the illustrations are a good complement.