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Linking to New Orleans

As New Orleans rebuilds, so does its Internet community. Here's a list of the Big Easy's liveliest sites.

Michael Tisserand

September 1, 2006

In addition to the Web sites of established media such as the Times-Picayune and the talk radio station WWL 870 AM/FM 105.3, online media include the city’s alternative paper, Gambit Weekly, and the web-only www.neworleans.indymedia.org, which also features audio programming.

In-depth coverage of the new challenges facing New Orleans’ music community can be found at WWOZ.org and Offbeat.com. And in the weeks after the flood, the web-only Nolarefugees.com emerged as the city’s freshest new media voice, offering a mix of satire, essays and reporting about the city and its recovery.

Most activist groups and civic organizations have a web presence, including the Common Ground Collective and the Common Ground Health Clinic, and Levees.org. Several post-Katrina web sites launched after the flood to offer extensive news clearinghouses, information for activists, and original research and reporting. These include the Katrina Information Network, LeveesNotWar, and the Institute for Southern Studies’ www.reconstructionwatch.org.

National blogs with regular post-Katrina commentary include Harry Shearer on the “Huffington Post” and the After the Levees section on Joshua Marshall’s “TPMCafe.” The roster of independent bloggers in New Orleans is continually changing. The most comprehensive list is currently posted at thinknola.com/wiki/List_of_New_Orleans_bloggers.

Most bloggers offer political commentary, on-the-ground reports of life in New Orleans, and links to other bloggers. The most insightful include “Your Right Hand Thief,” “People Get Ready,” “Suspect Device,” “The American Zombie,” “The G Bitch Spot,” “Gentilly Girl,” “Library Chronicles,” “Suspect Device” and “Ashley Morris.”

Michael TisserandMichael Tisserand, the author of Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember (Harvest), is currently working on a biography of New Orleans-born comic strip artist George Herriman.


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