"Die visuelle Kommunikation von Entwicklungsorganisationen ist geprägt von Spendenplakaten. Anhand einer eingängigen Bildsprache wird Aufmerksamkeit generiert. Mit einer postkolonialen Perspektive zeigt die Autorin auf, wie das vermittelte Afrikabild visuellen Stereotypen folgt, die bis in die Kol
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onialzeit zurückreichen. So werden Personen und Landschaften entsprechend tradierter Muster dargestellt und rassistisch geprägtes visuelles Wissen reproduziert. In der Analyse der Bildmaterialien wendet die Autorin die Methodologie der Diskursanalyse, und hierbei eine wissenssoziologische Perspektive an. Über das Zusammenspiel von Form und Inhalt arbeitet sie visuelle Repräsentationspraktiken und darin manifeste Wissensordnungen heraus." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This Communication Strategy takes a holistic approach to communication. Additionally, it takes a long-term view in implementing effective ways of influencing discourses within the information environment. The communication strategy underlines the fact that all FAO activities have an important infor
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mation and communications component. As such, communications is not an adjunct or after thought activity but should be embedded in the planning, implementation and review of FAO activities in Yemen. This Communication Strategy is a living and working document, meaning that while it serves to guide overall communication, it is open to changes and adjustments in response to the sudden changes that characterise a fluid situation such as the one obtaining in Yemen. This document guides the office’s annual communication workplan and informs project-specific communication plans developed under projects and programmes implemented by FAO Yemen. The strategy aligns with FAO’s Corporate Communication Guidelines, FAO Yemen’s Plan of Action (2022 – 2024) and FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative efforts to improve knowledge sharing on agricultural best practices, engage in data-driven development work and advance agricultural innovation to help small-scale food producers achieve better production and build better lives. A Communication workplan for 2023 is attached to this strategy document as an annexe. The workplan maps out communication priorities and activities for 2023, taking into consideration operational challenges, needs and gaps as well as the feasibility of communication activities with the available capacity of human resources." (Introduction)
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"This project demonstrates that there is another way of gathering and sharing the stories of people living in poverty around the world. Until now, there has been much positive and enthusiastic discussion amongst INGO communications and fundraising professionals about how to change the way we tell st
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ories, but no one has ever put their money on the line to test whether participant-led fundraising is possible [...] Conclusions: Participant led fundraising appeals can be as, or more effective at raising funds than charity led appeals [...] Stories produced by people from the communities in which the programmes are happening can create a stronger emotional bond with donors [...] Participant led stories feel more authentic to donors [...] It is not necessary to outline to a supporter their role when communicating an issue [...] Participant-led storytelling challenged some of the saviourist narratives INGOs are accused of perpetuating, with both participants and donors recognising this and reacting positively." (Conclusions, page 24-25)
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"Welche Darstellungen von ‚fernen Anderen‘ finden im Globalen Norden Verbreitung und Anklang? Welche nicht? Wer spricht für wen? Wer bleibt ungehört? Und: Weshalb scheint es zunehmend wichtig und geboten, diese Fragen zu stellen? Die sozialwissenschaftliche Studie analysiert und diskutiert kon
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troverse Debatten um epistemische, politische und ethische Aspekte der Repräsentation in Zusammenhängen humanitärer und wissenschaftlicher Wissensproduktion. Sie zeigt auf, wie kritisiert aber auch gerechtfertigt wird, dass internationale NGOs nach wie vor mit Elendsfotografien um Spenden werben, und beleuchtet, warum Forschung über, für oder mit marginalisierten Personen politisch und ethisch verantwortungsvoll betrieben werden soll." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Meine Reise in die Slums von Bangladesch“ heißt ein Video, das Julien Bam im Mai 2019 auf Youtube veröffentlicht. Julien Bam ist mit mehr als fünf Millionen Followern einer der erfolgreichsten deutschen Influencer. Seine aufwändig produzierten Clips sind meist laut und albern, er singt und ta
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nzt, parodiert Musikhits. Auf dem Video aus Bangladesch schlägt der 31-Jährige leisere Töne an. Er reist durchs Land, trifft Menschen, die mit Armut und den Folgen des Klimawandels zu kämpfen haben, und denkt darüber nach, was all das mit ihm zu tun hat. Mehr als 1,9 Millionen Aufrufe zählt das Video auf Youtube. Viel Aufmerksamkeit für das Kinderhilfswerk Unicef, dessen Projekte Bam in Bangladesch besucht hat. „Das Feedback war toll“, sagt Daniel Debray, der bei Unicef für Influencer-Kooperationen zuständig ist. „Es gab 16.000 Kommentare auf Youtube und wir haben durch die Aktion 90.000 Euro an Spenden eingenommen.“ Vor allem hat Unicef eine begehrte Zielgruppe erreicht: junge Menschen, die sich eher über Youtube oder Instagram informieren als über klassische Medien. Taugt das als Vorbild für andere Hilfsorganisationen, die nach Wegen suchen, das Interesse Jugendlicher und junger Erwachsener an entwicklungspolitischen Themen zu wecken? Dieser Frage gingen Fachleute Mitte November bei einer Veranstaltung der Filmtage Globale Perspektiven an der Evangelischen Akademie Frankfurt nach." (Einleitung)
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"The chapters in this collection offer original interrogations of the representation of humanitarian crisis and catastrophe, and the refraction of humanitarian intervention and action, from the mid-twentieth century to the present, across a diverse range of media forms: traditional and contemporary
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screen media (film, television and online video) as well as newspapers, memoirs, music festivals and social media platforms (such as Facebook, YouTube and Flickr). Addressing humanitarian media culture as it evolved over a period of more than seventy years, the chapters offer a critical assessment of the historical precedents of our contemporary humanitarian communications. The contributors to the book are all specialists in the fields of media and communications, film studies, cultural studies, history or sociology: these different disciplinary perspectives inform their approaches to and understanding of the relationship between humanitarianism and media culture. Our authors reveal and explore the signific nt synergies between the humanitarian enterprise, the endeavour to alleviate the suffering of particular groups, and media representations, and their modes of addressing and appealing to specific publics." (Introduction, page 2)
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"This study develops a technosocial framework for assessing the efficacy of global aid agencies’ use of Twitter’s algorithmic affordances for participatory social change. We combine computational and interpretive methods to examine tweets posted by three global aid agencies—U.S. Agency for Int
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ernational Development, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the International Committee of the Red Cross—as well as public tweets that mention these agencies (N = ~100,000). Results indicate that when an agency (a) replies to or retweets public tweeters, (b) includes publicly oriented hashtags and hyperlinks in its tweets, and (c) tweets about topics that the public is also interested in and tweeting about, the social network that develops around the agency is more interconnected, decentralized, and reciprocal. Our framework can help development institutions build more participatory social networks, with multiple voices helping determine collective goals and strategies of collective action for sustainable social change. We also discuss the theoretical implications and methodological significance of our approach." (Abstract)
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"El análisis de contenido y las entrevistas en profundidad han revelado que las redes sociales son utilizadas por las tres ONGD como altavoz para amplificar su mensaje, pero no para construir comunidad e incitar el diálogo. Hay un déficit manifiesto por interpelar a los usuarios y por promover qu
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e estos participen de la evolución de la entidad más allá de donar o de integrarse como voluntario." (Conclusión)
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"Closely examining the relationship between foreign correspondents of international news media and humanitarian organisations, Lena von Naso shows how the aid and media sectors cooperate in Africa in a unique way. Based on more than 70 interviews with foreign correspondents and aid workers operating
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across Africa, the book argues that the changing nature of foreign news and of aid is forcing them to form a deep co-dependency that is having a serious and largely unnoticed effect on Western news coverage." (Publisher description)
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"When we hear stories of distant humanitarian crises, we often feel sympathy for victims, but may stop short of taking action to help. Past research indicates that media portrayals of distant suffering can promote helping behavior by eliciting sympathy, while those that prompt a more rational respon
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se tend to decrease helping behavior by undermining sympathy. The authors used an online experiment to test whether certain media frames could promote helping behavior through a more rational, rather than emotional, pathway. The study tested whether framing distant suffering as either solvable or unsolvable might promote helping behavior if a rational evaluation of a crisis leads one to determine that help is efficacious in solving the problem. Survey respondents were randomly assigned to read one of three messages: a high solvability message, a low solvability message, or a control message. Contrary to expectations, both low solvability and high solvability conditions increased participants’ intentions to help. The results suggest that this is because framing problems as unsolvable drives up sympathy, thus promoting willingness to help, while framing problems as solvable drives up perceived efficacy, also promoting willingness to help. The authors conclude that, in contrast to earlier studies, and to the assumptions of many of those working in media, emphasizing rationality can promote helping behavior if audiences rationally interpret the problem as solvable." (Abstract)
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"Matthias Kuhnert geht der Frage nach, wie zivilgesellschaftliche Gruppen bei der Bevölkerung um Unterstützung für ihre Tätigkeit warben. Am Beispiel zweier britischer NGOs, War on Want und Christian Aid, wird deutlich, welche Emotionen humanitäre Organisationen einsetzten, um ihre Botschaften
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zu vermitteln und Hilfsbereitschaft zu generieren. Durch den Vergleich christlicher und linker Organisationen kann der Autor zeigen, dass sich mit dem Wandel des Humanitarismus in der Nachkriegszeit nicht nur die Art und Weise humanitären und entwicklungspolitischen Engagements, sondern auch die emotionale Dimension humanitären Handelns veränderte. Zum ersten Mal liegt nun eine Untersuchung über die Transformation humanitären Engagements von der Nachkriegszeit bis Anfang der 1990er Jahre vor, die emotions- und wissensgeschichtliche Ansätze verbindet." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Development institutions communicate about development through mediated communication strategies. The advent of image-intensive digital spaces such as Instagram has facilitated communication for these institutions, making ‘development’ more accessible to the public. However, the representation
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of development in these institutional digital spaces remains largely unexamined. By conceptualising Instagram as an emerging context for the ‘public face of development’, we conducted a content analysis of 300 Instagram posts by three major bilateral development agencies (USAID, DFID, and SIDA) in order to address critical questions concerning how they communicated about development agendas, subjects, and processes of development to the public. The study reveals that these representations of development in digital space largely adhere to feminised and infantilised visions of ‘ideal victimhood’ when projecting ‘what’ and ‘who’ should receive attention. These representations thus served to justify the Western-centred, neoliberal modes of development. Overall, these agencies’ communicative patterns regarding ‘how development can be achieved’ articulate perspectives on development to ‘look-good’ at home and ‘do-good’ abroad that make social change seem readily achievable." (Abstract)
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"This study examines whether changes in the media, political, and civic landscapes give leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) increased news access. Using longitudinal content analysis (1990-2010) of a purposive sample of US news outlets, it compares the prevalence, prominence, and story loc
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ation of news articles citing leading human rights NGOs to human rights coverage more generally. In all outlets, NGO prevalence rises over time; media-savvy NGOs drive much of the growth. By contrast, prominence decreases, as do the number of NGO-driven stories. In all outlets, NGOs typically appear in stories already in the media spotlight; as sources, they appear after the statements of government officials. Finally, the news outlets most receptive to NGOs are those that commit the fewest resources to international news coverage. Overall, findings suggest that while NGO news access has indeed increased over time, such access continues to be shaped by established patterns of news construction." (Abstract)
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"Natürlich ist Grundlage unserer Arbeit auch der Pressekodex. Darüber hinaus haben wir überlegt, was ist das Besondere von uns als katholisches Lateinamerika-Hilfswerk, als „Adveniat“. Wie spielt das mit rein in unsere Bildethik, unsere Ethik in der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, die Ethik unserer B
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erichterstattung. Die Grundlage für uns ist der Mensch als Ebenbild Gottes mit seiner unveräußerlichen Würde. Notleidende Menschen und Menschen in Krisensituation wollen wir daher immer auch als Subjekte ihres Handelns darstellen und nicht als Opfer. Ganz wichtig ist außerdem: Wir akzeptieren das Recht auf das eigene Bild. Es gibt bei uns auch keine gestellten Bilder, selbst wenn das möglicherweise auf Kosten der Bildauswahl geht, die hinterher zur Verfügung steht. Wenn zum Beispiel ein Journalistenteam in einem Armenviertel für uns ein Projekt, das von „Adveniat“ unterstützt wird, recherchiert und dazu Familien in diesem Viertel besucht, dann werden nur mit Einwilligung dieser Menschen Fotos gemacht. Wenn eine Familie sich also schämt für ihre ärmliche Hütte und nicht möchte, dass man drinnen Bilder macht, dann gibt es eben nur ein Bild vor der Hütte – und damit müssen wir auskommen. Es kommt durchaus vor, dass wir Bilder, die wir gerne gesehen hätten, nicht bekommen. Möglicherweise gibt es dann am Ende sogar mal kein Motiv, bei dem wir sagen, das ist richtig plakattauglich oder es muss lange darum gerungen werden, weil kein entsprechendes Bild verfügbar ist." (S439-440)
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"The analysis deals with the presentation of hunger and related emergencies in the mass media. It focuses on problems and structures of journalistic production processes and symbiotic relationships between the media and the aid industry. Mass media often create the impression that “hunger” occur
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s unexpectedly and abruptly. In this way media and journalists produce their own news value, which they need for selling the topic. Bad weather, climate change and natural disasters fit into the concept of mass media, their news selection processes as well as their production structures much better than the fact that hunger is a political phenomenon mostly, at heart, a major political scandal. Such scandals require profound analysis, investigation and a high level of journalistic independence and know-how." (Abstract)
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"Using exclusive access to the BBC archive, the article examines how and why media coverage of Africa has been misleading and misinformed in the postcolonial period. It examines the extent to which the close relationship between media coverage and aid agencies has damaged the cause of informing the
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public. Aid agencies have seen a huge growth since the mid-1980s – partly precipitated by the power of media imagery. As media organizations have reduced their commitment to investing in reporting on Africa so journalists have in turn become more dependent upon aid agencies, which have filled a vacuum. This symbiotic relationship requires a degree of transparency otherwise there is a danger that it can compromise journalistic accountability." (Abstract)
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"In 1993, this was the first book-length study of the representation of disasters in the media and of the marketing methods used by major relief agencies. In the preface to this new paperback edition which reviews the major developments in aid and in the media since the early 1990s, Jonathan Benthal
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l contests the view of some commentators that the emergence of new technologies – the Internet and the cellphone – has radically changed the balance of power between the aid system and afflicted populations. He develops his original theme to argue that a ‘stable system’ is in place, whereby representations of misery in the South are exported to the North as consumables which are continuously reciprocated by flows of humanitarian aid. When the allotted role of Third World victimhood is repudiated – for instance, by migrant workers – the North sets up stern political barriers." (Back cover)
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"This paper asks how images of children are used by prominent signatories to NGO codes of conduct. The answer is that images of childhood and shared codes of conduct are both means through which development and relief NGOs produce themselves as rights-based organisations. The iconography of childhoo
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d expresses institutional ideals and the key humanitarian values of humanity, neutrality and impartiality, and solidarity. Images of children are useful for NGOs in reinforcing the legitimacy of their ‘emergency’ interventions as well as the very idea of development itself. But the dominant iconography is also inherently paradoxical, as the child image can be read as both a colonial metaphor for the majority world and as a signifier of humanitarian identity. The question then for NGOs using this image in social justice campaigns is whether overtly political accompanying texts can nullify the contradictory subliminal messages that emanate from the iconography of childhood." (Abstract)
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