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THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN COMPLEX EMERGENCIES

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN COMPLEX EMERGENCIES. Uzma Athar Sonia Kwon Paula Drelick. Why it is HOT?. Increasing prevalence of CE’s 90’s onwards Two key players: Humanitarian NGOs Media Organizations. Shiras, 1996. Why it is HOT?. Often thrown together in unfamiliar environments

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THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN COMPLEX EMERGENCIES

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  1. THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN COMPLEX EMERGENCIES UzmaAthar Sonia Kwon Paula Drelick

  2. Why it is HOT? • Increasing prevalence of CE’s • 90’s onwards • Two key players: • Humanitarian NGOs • Media Organizations Shiras, 1996

  3. Why it is HOT? • Often thrown together in unfamiliar environments • Competing interests • NGO’s: Publicity to get funds/donations • Media: Newsworthy information to raise their ratings • Are dependent on each other Shiras, 1996 Anzur, 2000 Avril, 2004

  4. Positive Coverage vs. Negative Coverage

  5. KEY MOTIVATING FACTORS FOR WESTERN MARKETS • global economic interest • national political advantage • involvement of westerners • “feel-good” effect THAILAND TSUNAMI VS. KASHMIR EARTHQUAKE CARMA, 2006

  6. Case Study: Thailand Tsunami UNIQUE IN THAT HUMANITARIAN RELIEF WAS MAIN MEDIA FOCUS CARMA, 2006

  7. Case Study: Thailand Tsunami • Reasons why: • Global economic impact was the driver • Unease about the dependency of the affected industries on the tourist industry that was designed to serve the needs of well-off Westerners • An urge to accelerate the reconstruction process in order to restore the industry (Davidson and Minty, 2006) • +1 minute coverage = 13.2% in donations (Davidson and Minty, 2006)

  8. Theories Surrounding the Media and CEs

  9. Theories Surrounding the Media and CEs • The CNN Effect: • Media shaping response towards emergencies • The Compassion Fatigue: • Media and Public interest

  10. The CNN Effect • Ongoing discussion • Effect/forming international policies • Shaping Western world’s response to emergencies • Not enough evidence to validate CNN effect theory Gilboa, 2005

  11. Compassion Fatigue Revolves around media coverage and public reactions - RECIPROCAL Moeller, 1999

  12. Relying On The Media • Raising awareness • accurate information? • Public funding • reliable? • Public relations • private interests? 1st photo http://www.novinite.com, 2nd photo, http://blogs.america.gov; 3rd photo http://susanjackson.net

  13. A NEW RELATIONSHIP+ low-cost + go-anywhere = real-time technology • How is technology changing the way the media reacts to disaster situations? Gowing, 2002

  14. Websites, Live Streaming • E-mail • Cell phones, Satellite phones • CNN i-Report • Social media • Text messages

  15. Utilizing the Media • Spokesperson • Celebrities via http://werichanel.wordpress.com via http://img.timeinc.net

  16. http://europeorient.wordpress.com http://scrapetv.com http://www.istockphoto.com http://www.topnews.in http://werichanel.files.wordpress.com Flow of Information and Assistance • Complex Emergency • UN and Media • Media • NGO’s, celebrities, general public, government officials • Impact • composition and direction of assistance

  17. Recommendations

  18. Suffering does not equate to interest – lay off the gruesome headlines and images of disaster victims. CARMA, 2006

  19. NGOs and media should share news and updates via international information hubs like AlertNetand ReliefWeb.

  20. NGOs and media should work together to compile a quarterly review of charity donations. CARMA, 2006

  21. The media should avoid “feeding” the conflict via inaccurate news reports.

  22. References • Anzur, T. (2000). How to talk to media: televised coverage of public health issues in a disaster. Pre-hospital and Disaster Medicine, 15, Pp. 196-198. • Avril, H. (1999). Nieman Reports, Journalists and Humanitarian NGOs. • Brown, P., & Minty, J. (2006). Media coverage & charitable giving after the 2004 tsunami. (Unpublished, The William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan. (855) • CARMA International. (January 2006). The CARMA report on western media coverage of humanitarian disasters • Gilboa, Eytan (2005) Global television news and foreign policy: debating the CNN effect, International Studies Perspectives, 6, 325 – 341. • Gowing, N. (2002) "Noisy" emergencies and the media. Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, 1-4. • Matthews, J. (2009) Media and message: Communicating crisis. Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, 44, 1-3. • Moeller, S. (1999). Compassion fatigue. In: How the media sell disease, famine, war and death, 1st edition. Routledge, Pp. 7-17. (reader) • Parr, B. (2010). Social media's true impact on haiti, china and the world. Article posted to: http://mashable.com/2010/01/17/social-media-political-impact/ • Shiras, P. (1996). Big problems, small print. In: Rotberg, R.I., Weiss, T.G. (Ed.), From massacres to genocide: the media, public policy, and humanitarian crises, 1st edition. Brookings Institution Press, Pp. 93-93, 109-113. (reader)

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