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Aid and the news agenda: Examining the forces shaping NGO-produced humanitarian media

Michael Sunderland

Bournemouth University, Doctoral Thesis (2024), 268 pp.

"This study examines the external influences that shape NGO-produced news content concerning humanitarian crises in East, West and Central Africa. Employing a thematic analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with humanitarian communicators and a content analysis of the humanitarian press rel ... eases of four major NGOs, it seeks to establish the types of content NGO communications staff consider most effective for achieving mainstream media coverage, how they access such content, and any forces influencing their eventual production of news. In line with notions of media logic (Altheide and Snow 1979; Cottle and Nolan 2007) and news cloning (Fenton 2010), it uncovers a reliance on hard-hitting humanitarian statistics and powerful first-person testimonies, which are considered essential for achieving news coverage. Statistics are found to be most often sourced from publicly available humanitarian datasets, often managed by the United Nations, and are considered susceptible to politicisation by authorities implicated in certain crises. First-person testimonies are usually gathered in-person by NGO staff and are affected by issues of physical access to crisis zones including monitoring by local authorities and demands for media sign-off. Additionally, a humanitarian NGO’s decision on whether to speak out publicly about a crisis is found to be often weighed up against threats to staff and programme safety. Examining these issues through a lens of agenda building theory (Cobb and Elder 1971), this study introduces the concept of agenda erosion, describing the phenomenon by which powerful actors, including host authorities and western governmental and intergovernmental donors, exert influence to undermine agenda building activities by NGOs in the context of humanitarian crises. Methods of agenda erosion might include demanding sign-off of media content, the control of physical access to crisis zones for communications staff, and the politicisation of humanitarian data. Unlike the traditional view of NGOs being producers of information subsidies (Gandy 1982), this concept recognises that, as news producers, NGOs also accept information subsidies, including humanitarian data, from other actors. These subsidies are used by NGOs to increase their own agenda building effectiveness but can also allow other, potentially conflicting, priorities to influence the media agenda too. NGOs are now widely regarded as important players in the production of international news (Cottle and Nolan, 2007; Cooper, 2011; Powers 2018) and these findings suggest agenda erosion is in-part responsible for the continuing adherence of aid organisations to established patterns of news construction (Cottle & Nolan 2007; Fenton 2010; Waisbord 2011; Powers 2018). Only crises with hard-hitting data or emotive personal stories are likely to achieve mainstream media coverage but exposure to such sources is often closely guarded by the most powerful actors in certain crises. As a result, some crises continue to go underreported and NGOs risk being silenced or, worse, used as proxy mouthpieces by powers implicated in the humanitarian context to which they are attempting to respond." (Abstract) more

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Case Study: Talk to Loop

GSMA (2024), 6 pp.

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Disaster Management: The Standards Perspective

ITU-WMO-UNEP Focus Group on AI for Natural Disaster Management

Geneva: ITU (2024), viii, 14 pp.

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Pathways for strengthening community feedback and complaints approaches in Papua New Guinea

London: CDAC Network (2024), 5 pp.

"Acknowledging the contextual challenges in Papua New Guinea, CDAC recommends the following actions to UNDP and other response organisations to strengthen approaches to two-way communication with communities in disaster response activities. 1. Utilise the newly established Community of Practice for ... more

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Empowering crisis-affected communities in Papua New Guinea through information: Guidance on using media channels and key messages for responders

London: CDAC Network (2024), 34 pp.

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Journalism as the Fourth Emergency Service: Trauma and Resilience
Deep Insights

Lisa Bradley, Emma Heywood (eds.)

New York et al.: Peter Lang (2024), xviii, 257 pp.

"Journalists have often been considered the "fourth emergency service". They are first on the scene, alongside paramedics, fi re and police, running towards danger rather than away, and providing independent, veritable and crucial information in the public interest. And yet, unlike frontline workers ... more

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The Identity Work of Journalists and Humanitarians in South Sudan’s Protection of Civilians Sites

Rebecca Sutton, Richard Stupart

Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, volume 18, issue 1 (2024), pp. 81-98

"This article interrogates the simplistic juxtaposition of protectors and protected in South Sudan’s Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites, by asking: who was civilian in South Sudan, and how were civilians being protected? We present a civilian landscape that is much broader and more complex than t ... more

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AI and natural disaster analysis: Needs analysis during disaster using Artificial Intelligence by Citibeats, February 2018 - September 2021

Citibeats; UNESCO (2024), 21 pp.

"The main conclusions drawn from the analysis of online opinions during natural disasters in Africa are highlighted below: ● Climate change is one of the main concerns of the African population in recent years. This climate problem is considered to be causing more and greater natural disasters on ... more

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Recommendations for strengthening communication and community engagement in the Libya floods response

London: CDAC Network (2024), 7 pp.

"This bulletin summarises the key findings and recommendations for strengthening collective efforts on communication and community engagement in the Libya floods response. The findings are drawn from a qualitative consultation with more than 30 representatives from the humanitarian community conduct ... more

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Mapping humanitarian tech: Exposing protection gaps in digital transformation programmes

Giulio Coppi

Access Now (2024), 69 pp.

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The State of Open Humanitarian Data 2024: Marking Ten Years of the Humanitarian Data Exchange

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) (2024), 33 pp.

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How to spot harmful information in crises

London: CDAC Network (2024), 2 pp.

"In times of emergency, finding reliable information online can be challenging. This guide offers practical advice to help you identify trustworthy information and avoid misinformation. By asking the right questions and using the tools provided, you can make informed decisions even during a crisis." ... more

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Introducing Anticipatory Action: A Feasibility Study for Malteser International

Marie Wagner, Alexander Gaus, Julia Steets

Berlin: Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI); Malteser International (2024), 36 pp.

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Conjuring a Blockchain Pilot: Ignorance and Innovation in Humanitarian Aid

Margie Cheesman

Geopolitics (2024), 28 pp.

"When aid professionals adopt high tech pilot projects, ignorance, blind faith, misplaced trust, and authentic expertise all come into play. Based on ethnographic research in Jordan, I examine how a refugee aid organisation produces and applies a blockchain pilot. Innovative pilots help internationa ... more

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Spreading Like Wildfire: The Securitization of the Amazon Rainforest Fires on Twitter

Natalia Umansky

International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 91-111

"As a tool of political communication and information diffusion, social media has transformed the process of securitization, allowing (in)security messages to spread and scale up rapidly. Focusing on the case of the Amazon rainforest fires in 2019, this article seeks to answer two questions: How doe ... more

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Communication and community engagement in the Libya floods response: A round-up of social media listening, media analytics and resources for practitioners

London: CDAC Network (2024), 6 pp.

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Breaking the Silence: The 10 Most Under-Reported Humanitarian Crises of 2023

London: Care International (2024), 26 pp.

"For the second year in a row, all ten of the most under-reported crises are in Africa. From conflict in Angola to climate change in Zimbabwe, every entry in this report represents countless human tragedies taking place in the shadows of the world’s gaze. Our second most under-reported crisis coun ... more

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The World’s Most Neglected Displacement Crises 2023

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) (2024), 19 pp.

"All crises featured in this year’s report are protracted and have been affecting the lives of communities for years, sometimes even decades. The calamity in Sudan is a stark warning of what happens when neglect deepens and the world turns its back on a crisis. In 2023 Sudan plunged into devastati ... ng warfare, forcing over 10 million people to flee their homes and making Sudan the world’s largest internal displacement crisis. Despite the severity of the situation, the looming threat of famine and the immense needs, the country remains on this list, and the people of Sudan remain neglected. This year’s list represents a race to the bottom, with Burkina Faso maintaining its position as the world’s most neglected displacement crisis for the second year running. The country saw a record-breaking 707,000 new displacements and hundreds of thousands of people cut off from aid. Media coverage fell as access became more difficult for both journalists and humanitarian organisations. Meanwhile, the situation in the country worsened and needs rose at a rapid pace. Across the world, there was a record-breaking USD 32 billion shortfall in aid budgets, leaving 57 per cent of humanitarian needs unmet in 2023. The human cost of the growing funding gap is high, and it is life-shattering for millions across the world. Neglect has become so ingrained and normalised that the reality of this gap no longer elicits shock. In many of the countries on this list, the gap translates into people not having enough to eat, families fleeing over and over again in search of safety and resources, children unable to access education, and individuals losing their means of earning an income. The funding gap means humanitarian organisations struggling to reach those most in need, selective allocation of aid, and compounding crises. It means that when severe climate disasters hit, people will not be prepared to withstand potentially disastrous consequences. Neglect is also fuelling rising hunger levels across all countries on our 2023 list. Each country is now experiencing, or is predicted to experience, severe levels of hunger. Food insecurity is in turn compounded by cuts or suspension of humanitarian and development funding. Most of the countries are dealing with the effects of conflict both within and outside their borders. War in Sudan spills over into poverty-stricken Chad and South Sudan, while Cameroon grapples with mounting internal pressure amid a broader regional conflict. Protracted neglect has consequences that cross borders and create crises within crises. Society finds itself in a state of crisis fatigue. Travesty after travesty is splashed across news screens but distressing images no longer retain their shock value, and the page is simply swiped, flipped, or clicked away. Amidst this worrying desensitisation and the acceptance of record-breaking statistics from the world’s neglected displacement crises as the new normal, lies the danger of complacency. We must not give up hope and allow ourselves to become numbed by the ceaseless barrage of crises. We need a reboot of global compassion and a refocus on where needs are greatest." (Page 4) more

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Advancing disaster risk communications

I. S. Stewart

Earth-Science Reviews, volume 249, issue 104677 (2024), 14 pp.

"Effective communication of disaster threats to decision makers and at-risk communities is a growing challenge in a people-centred approach to disaster risk reduction. Traditional communication approaches tend to involve either top-down risk management practices or bottom-up community health and edu ... more

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OCHA and Meta: Partnering to give humanitarians open access to population data

Kate Katch

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) (2024), 10 pp.

Journalism as the Fourth Emergency Service: Trauma and Resilience Deep Insights

Journalism as the Fourth Emergency Service: Trauma and Resilience
Deep Insights