pele often with they did not want to hearnd my dad said to me if you are doing your job as a newspaper man it's hard to have friends. >> and you say he's comfortable with that? >> i think that he's very comfortable with it. and i think he has friends,t's just at certain times people are not your friend. if you do the job consistently and you don't play favorites they come around and understand what you're doing is for everybody's benefit including their own. my father was a realist about this though. he didn't put friendship above what he considered to be the responsibility that our newspaper had. i think that's the way to ru a newspaper. .. >> we need the hot air. but the hot air without the co is a very dangerous thing. >> host: we have been having a naon cveation about traditional media verses the new media and the blogosphe going on 10 years. whenl it shakeout? >> gst: where ishe beginning of this a digital world? all of us in this media environment recognize the world was coming it will be a digital world. i bieve you can have digital world also print magazines and print newspapers and radio and other things that are not simply on the web of. that will be its own place and profoundly powerful and all of the other entities will have a representation on the web. we can choose. we'll have a web or other things as well but for where it is going, we're just beginning and where it is going is anyone's guess. but where it is going we should try to guided it rather than let that happen because it is to importuned, a two big. if we become a world, a nation where l we do ie oursels on the web and that will not be a sustainable democracy. that would be a dangerous thing for our hope that will not happen. hard-core news that we are in danger of losing is critical to keep at from happening. >> host: here is tha cover of the book, losing the news. published by oxford. >> thnk you everybody. i will try to spk up. basically, and thank you doby bookfor posting me in houston and brian excited to have this book final out and available. i have a visua prentation which will tell you aut how the project came to be an something about the characters and their stories. let's get started. i come from a tradition of non diction common books -- comic books the one who writes american splenr it is a long-running autobiographical comiabout his life his everyday life and another influence is mark spiegelma wh wrote the story of his father's survival the hocaust another big influence is theffstage author of persepolis. that was about her growing up during the revolution in iran. and the largest influence has been the author was an american born cartoonists who was like a war correspondnt and comic-book artist and has want done a lot of journalm d areas in conflict of the middleast, palestine and the foer yugoslavia which is where this is and actually i am one of the illustrators for americans under which i have been doing for about 15 years. this is a recent sample of what we have done together we're actually may nice i am a character and the story in the lower right-hand corner. that was cool i got to be an american splendor and draw it all in one. harvey's iluence has been so important it allowed me to draw some stories about my own life including a few pat -- perfect hours the second of fiveears ago it is about one 1/2 years i spent backpacking around the world living inthe czech republic and in soueast asi and all the misadventures my girlfriend and i had during that period and another collaboration that i did was say collection of true life story is of the business world docume things the characters of caterina call tides of finance report was written b the current "new york times" columnist rob walker and saashvili person who was in new orleans and it went to visit him before the hurricane e wrote a book called letters from new orleans. that brings us to aut four years ago i live in new york and en hricane katrina hit the gulf coast and the levees broke and the city flooded, i was at home watching on tv like millions of other people around the country or around the world watching as the evts unfolded especially in new orleans with people trapped on their roofs and on a highwayverpass with the convention center and the superdome bright took some of that sadness and feeling of helplessness and i volunteered with the american red cross with the new york chapter then eventually was trained to be a disaster response worker and i was deployed down to biloxi mississippi and i rked down there about six weeks after the hurricane that i worked for about one month delivering hot food, lunch and dinner to folks who were trying to move back into their homes that were still being repaired and they did notave the ability to cook for themselves or provide meals so we were there toelp them out. the main reason i am telling you that is to show my experience there, although nothing rehated to the people who rvived the hurricane gave me ctacts for later when i came to right "a.d." when i saw what the hurricane had done and it gave me some id of the project was about to embark upon. these are just a couple the shots from biloxi. i did get to visit new orleans during that time and it was shortly after the flood waters have receded in before people were let back into the city proper. th is one image that struck me of a boat at a gas station. one of the random things. and one of the things that stuck in my mind was the waterline on all of the buildings so high off the ground it made you think what it was really like and the markings on this side of the building's left by the search team that checked to makeure there wa no dead bodies or animals. about one yr after the hurricane, i was inved to do a comic bookreatment of the katrina story. here is a screen shot. i was bot excited and petried to tell a story of this ec type of comic-book form and i took about four o five months to discuss with the edir how w wanted to tell thetory and how we wanted to frame it had to co about making this into a serial webb, it. eventually what we decided to do, we decided to tell the story through theoices of six in new oeans residents that survived the hurricane wi experience from those trappeand the floodwaters, a convention center, those who lost everythin of the who left home and still have not been able to return and one person who was hardly affected at all. of these were real people who agree to have their stories told in this comic book form in "a.d." and allows me to intrude in every detail of their lives while i was researching this story and i am eternally grateful. the first pact was to take them from themselves and turn them into comic-book characters. whitenesses are not m strong suit by feel i captured some qualy of them. the most important thing when i was going forward was to get to the committee of my subjects and show them has more than just victims. one of the things we decided mr. show them before the hurricane as it hit, the floodi, the director aftermath, where they ended up with the evacuation and continue from there and did not fus on the defense from the storm. "a.d." was online until last summer then all through last fall i said to work or 18 new material, revising and expanding to whole thing through the book additio which is out. there is about 25% lew material in the book that was not on the web. so let's meet the characters. is here is quame. i read and writhim in a college alumni magazine. he was a current student than they had writtenn article about him and his hurricane katrina experi and the editor and i both want to do have a young person and since katrina struck when quame would be a senior in high school, he was perfect. he agreed. leo a. and michelle. 20 somethings native new orleans residents living with the cy and involved in the underground publishing and music scene. and leo came to me because of a blog i kept with the red cross that was publicized and a lot of people were reading it. and he heard of me because i was say cartoonist and he came across my blog -- blognde also kept him a natural fit with the comic-book world. then there is abass and his frie turnout whoame to me and myriend is the cousin o abass and i asked him to be a part of the project. abass was born in iran but it is raising a family there. then we have a doctor who is a real life southern dandy who lives in the french quarter, a very well-known figure, a foer house commissioner of the city of new orleans and a freqnt customer and i have him here at the restaurant with his favorite way tour. finally, we have denise do when the book starts she is a social worker living with her mother and her niece and is in an apartment in mid city. and in researching "a.d." i und through aadius show she dr. of her experiences at the conveion center and what she had to say was counter to what people had heard about there being violence with rapes and gang members shooting each other and she was talking about how when she was there they gang members were acting as a calmi force and agreed to have a truce and were ptecting the women and children in making sure everybody had enough food and water. it was importanto me to have that voice there t counter what a lot o outsiders have a perception of what was going on with the aftermath. she became part of the project. now we met the main characters that me tell you about each of their stories. as "a.d." opens, a quame family besides to evacuate to tallahassee where one of his brother's is going to college. they figure they will only begun a couple of days of the most but jusin case he fills th bathtub withater in case there is no running wer when they get back. when quame get to tallahassee it is on the cusp of katrina hitting your lanes and all they can do is watch and wait. as awful theory is unleashed like everybody else they watched the coverage on tv and it is not good. as the scope of the disaster becomes more and more clear, a quame realizes he will not return home anytime soon. and in fact, he is about to begin on a yearlong odyssey that takes him all over the country before he can return home to new orleans and as of this day he still has not been able to return home. leo and michelle. of the day before the hurricane strikes come after debating this issue like so many other people will it come or tn to the east? they finly decide they will evacuateo a friend's place in houston like thousands of others, ty faced with a loss of their possessions including his huge comic book collection he had closat 15,000 comicooks. but in the end, he only takes a couple of bags a one comic-book before they leave and in houon a couple of days later, leo is awakened by a phone call from his mother who tellsbout the breaching the levies and of the flooding of the city's. and he has a waking nightmare about losing his comics and everything else that he owns. later as leo amish sw continued their journey trying rendezvs with his parents in st. louis he reacts angrily to the outsiders judging the city and its people and the storm's aftermath. abass and darnell. having decided to stay behind to protect the three store from looters they are prepared and settled and think they're ready for anything. even talking how it will be just like svivor. after weathering the storm, that's is not too bad and they think they are in the clear and they start to celebrate. everything is clear but then the floodwaters start to rise. and prize. they try to make the best of tal is thinking of the water will receive any minute and even go around the neighborhood to bring cases of bottled water to stranded neighbors and people who did not evacuate like themselves to our stock in their homes. at 1.a vote comes by offering to take them to the evacuation point*. you can see the water is getting higher. abass turns down the offer optimistic he has things under control and is stillorried builders will come to his flooded store. he says no. but that night they have to spend nine on the roof of his toolshed and was a totally eaten up by mosquitoes. the doctor is secure in his french quarter home and he invited some friends over to a shelter and throws a hurricane party. he is not worry. but the next day and aware that much of the city is starting to flood, the french quarter did notead and many peop did not en know the city was flooding the doctor goes to the local bars to see if anybody needs help and he tends to so cuts and bruises and tells them to drink some water some bar stayed open the tire time. they areery proud they do not even have locks onheir doors so they cannot close. th are open no matter what. as the-- passed the doctor swings into action and working with a group of the anti-who ca in from all over the country he sets up the health clinic and takes all comers r free. so now on to denise. when she and her niece and her grandniece arrive at the hospital, it is already packed with people sheltering and there arno priva rooms for denise and her family. associates angrily decides to go back to her apartment to weather the storm by herself. that is aid decision she soon comes to regret when the hurricane hits. she doesurvive the hurricane, barely, and ends up rendezvous ith her family at the hospital then there evacuated to the conventn center whichs almost worse than anywhere else. then you are stuck there for days in the heat and all of the other people trapped without any running water or medical suppls or any evacuation buses or anything including national guard soldiers coming by with guns pointed at peopland they are just asking for water that is when denise realizes thousandsf people as all of herself have basically been abandoned toheir fate. that is where i will lead off with the story for you can read more in the book obviously rt of the rest of the book traces their lives since the hurricane. they all di@ survive thank god and hopefull reminds people how important new orleans is as a city and how it has struggled to rebuild and people in houston no how many people were never able to return and ended up selling here. "a.d." is a four year long journeynd these characters' stories are a few of the thousands coming out with a hurricane and my goal is it is somehow a worthwhileddition to katrina and the people of new orleans and the city itself from i will end this presentation with a silent movie the style preview fr the oping scenes of the book which is a bird's-eye view of the storm as it builds and sweeps into a golf coast and hits both new orleans and biloxi mississippi those of the two places and focused on. i will take it from here. >> thank you. that is it [applause] if you have any questions i will be happy to answer them. please go stand over there by the microphone. no questions? >> before this book you had done some journalistic work but it must have been a tremendous learning experience of that type of thing. is there any one tng that you did learn doing this sort of work at that time? yes. how hard a job is being a journalist. realizing the responsibility have when you tell people stories to get to the truthf their experiences and makin sure your facts are right and you do the diligence and background research you need to do. and you need to do a ton of research and interviews with the ball and get a lot o reformation that you need to coalesce the small park that will make it into the story. so even just taking notes and being able to keep up with some 11 they're talkng a not knowing shorthand for speed typin skills were the chalnges but unfortunately at the beginning, larry smith who was the editor at the magazine comes from a jourlismackground and came withe when we first went dnwn to new orleans for the first time and took a lot of notes which is how fall and also having the blogs and journals of a couple of the characters themselves really helped in my research just again to make sure that i thght everything right. following along in that vein, one of the things i ended up doing with a couple of the characters with denise and leo, there were certain scenes that were critical but i felt needed to be done exactly right d not get any details wrong so iran at the scripps by the first and let them take a look at it. that is not sometng i normally do is a cartoonist or lot of journalist but becse i was not trying to expose these characters that the world did not know i was trying to tell their stories, anted to make sure they had full approval in make sure i got their dialogue great and whatever special dialect issues might come up or accentssues tha i got those rights. that is a very long winded response to your questn. anybody else? thank yo. [applause] josh neufeld is the author of katrina came calling hepent three weeks following katrina assets a volunteer with the american red cross iniloxi mississippi. sit josh comex.com. . . my files, etc.. i work -- i think when youere doing complicated things li john paul ii or trying to make a serious argument on public policy matter is hard to think through the sequence of things before you actually start writing. in the writing becomes the telling of a story within that out line and i think that gives it some liveliness and fresess, so it allappens right here around this desk. i don't think anybody can write more than three and a half hours, four hours max, then he need a break. so my best writing times are like naim-1 in the morning and may be 4-7:30 or 8:00 in the evening. there's other parts of my life i have to attend to. i am a great believer in maps. i think naps are a great invention at least greatest contbution to hihuman civilization beyond the 97i will make an exception for that. so, on right to periods of the day aneight hours is eight. no one can do mo than that and expect to be putting out something that is coerent. in that point of time i usuly give 20 to 25 pages done and then something appaching in readable form. i had never taken on a hug project ke the biography of john paul ii befor i had spent a year and a half talking to people, talking to him at great length, gathering materials and it seemed to me if i didn't sit down and get acs out line in place, the beast was going to be writing me rather than me writing the beast so i went to a friend in south carona and spent a week locked up in his church directories and produced 165 page outline of what became witness to hope the biography of john paul ii. in a case of my book faith reason and the wargainst jihadism i had points i wanted to make in that lecture and that became the spine of the bk and then you simpl fill out the points in book form. i writa weekly column catholic press and the united states. that is primarily a question of jolting some notes down and letting the flow go. it's oy 700 to 740 words. but for longer things, essays, books, etc., i think an outline is a good discipline on an author. any kind of extended ght and i think the book takes back @t some points, a life of its own and you were only ae to guide it in the direction you want, if you've got a track for it to follow. i am very old fashioned of organizing research, mean and i am a paper person. i dhave electronic copies of interviews and notes and what not that ienerally work with paper and on paper. and then actually when i was abouto start writing witness to help my wife desigd this rt of wraparound desk so i can have the materials i know i am ing to be meeting rightere, the outline here, the computer his year and the hot line is there, so everything is within an a's reach and yoq can leavet out at the beginning of the day and work on that all day. >> you're first book over 20 ars ago did you say? if you take a look at the way u write a book than versus now can you dcribe the differens? >> well it is the difference between a k-pro4 andauney word peect tan. the technology has moved multle generations. we used to have these floppy disks that really w