The News Media and Humanitarian Aid: from Biafra to Cyclone Nargis

1. The News Media and Humanitarian Aid: from Biafra to Cyclone Nargis Jonathan Benthall 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting 4th June 2008

2. Back in history… • The Crimean war • NGO origins in stirring opinion against blockades • Save the children – east Europeans – WW1 • Oxfam – Greece – WW2 • Some turning points in late 20th century • Biafra 1967-70 • Cambodia 1979-80 • Ethiopia and live aid 1984-5 • Armenian earthquake 1988 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

3. The ‘New World Information Order’ • UNESCO sponsored debate in 1970-80s • MacBride Report • Aim: to make flow of news more equitable • Criticized by USA and UK as attacking press freedom and passing control to dictatorial governments - Dead by mid-1980s • Probably rightly because of lack of free press in most countries served by humanitarian agencies 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

4. Media trends in early 1990s • Growing dominance of TV and reduction of time-lags • Media studies • McLuhan, Raymond Williams, John Fiske • ‘Infotainment’ • Narrative structure of disaster news – the ‘folk tale’ • ‘Crisis of representation’ • Edward Said, John Berger … • Third World as paradoxically both exoticized and disvalued (‘feminized’) • Launching of IBT 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

5. NGO trends in early 1990s • High pressure marketing • Intensified by Oxfam, Christian Aid, World Vision, MSF … • Less reverent approach • Self-criticism • Serious research begins in late 1980s but still sparse 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

6. Changes since early 1990s… • Explosion of research on NGOs • Rhetoric of humanitarianism explicitly borrowed by governments • ‘Humanitarian war’ • Changes in the Islamic world • Al-Jazeera • Islamic NGOs 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

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9. …changes since the early 90s • Steps taken to counteract the standard narrative (e.g. Channel Four ‘Unreported World’) but decline of serious documentary at peak viewing times • New technologies 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

10. Have things really changed? • Large scale disasters still fall off the media map • Somalia, Congo today • Publicity does not necessarily generate remedial action • Rwanda, Cyclone Nargis • Permanent tension between fund-raising and operations • Humanitarian aid as basically conservative? • Fundamentals little different? 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

11. Towards a political economy of the disaster/media/relief nexus • Need for a dispassionate approach but sensitive to the ethics of speaking about the suffering of others • Necessary analysis of medical and hospital services should not be taken as disparaging the motives of doctors and nurses • Aid workers, journalists, academics live on disasters – but so do medics on disease • Danger of over-sacralization of NGOs (cf. Catholic Church?) • Who controls the channels of aid? • Disaster as an export commodity 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

12. The exports of poor countries • ‘Goods’ • Primary materials • Cheap manufacture • ‘Services’ – ‘Invisible’ but visual-media-led: • Tourism - the seductive, exotic body and scenes of pleasure • The disaster-struck body and scenes of devastation (Giorgio Agamben: ‘bare life’) • Autarkies • Would-be self-sufficient States 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

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14. The banana industry… • 20% of world production exported • Coexistence of small and large producers • Risks • Storms, pests, funguses – environmental impact • Dominance of multinational companies and supermarkets • Most of profits come from transport, ripening, retail • Commercial conflict between EU and USA 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

15. …the banana industry Marketing • classification of shapes and sizes • specialized markets: organic, fair trade, ‘ethnic’ (red, baby, plantains etc.) 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

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18. Likewise disasters as exports • Control of the channels of: • information TO the North - and aid FROM the North • Media in symbiosis with NGOs • Marketing and competition between intermediaries • International regulation and political manipulation • Unpredictable shifts in modes of consumption (the caprice of donors) • BUT bananas and coffee have very limited security and military implications… 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

19. Big changes to come? • Rise of China, India……. • As media powers? • As new humanitarian donors? But not yet • Military humanitarian programmes • Neglected? Hardly appear in the extensive evaluations of Indian Ocean tsunami relief • Private sector • Venture philanthropy • Corporate Social Responsibility programmes 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

20. Solutions? Back to the UNESCO debates of the 1970-80s? A New World Information Order favouring the South? But incorporating democratic principles? As articulated in the Internet? But politics of the Internet invisible to general public US research* suggests all new communications technologies are greeted as liberating – then follows a period of disillusion. *Dean, J., Jon W. Anderson & G. Lovink, eds. ‘Reformatting politics: information technology and global civil society’, Routledge 2006. 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008

21. In conclusion • Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine: • Overblown argument but makes valid point that disasters (man-made or natural) are opportunities for • either peace-building (e.g. Aceh) • or imposition of draconian regimes, extended state of emergency. • Duties of media and NGOs when interacting with traumatized populations. 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June 2008