Displaying items by tag: Media

In Haiti, as is the case in the aftermath of many natural or man-made disasters, the opportunity for affected communities to have their voices heard is still rare. The communications effort following the Haiti earthquake last January was unprecedented in scale and scope. This was the first-ever humanitarian operation with a collective, multi-agency initiative focused on dialogue with affected groups. Working from the premises of an emergency media centre created by Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), the Inter-Agency Working Group on Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) (www.cdac-haiti.org) provided an important coordination platform for an unparalleled collective communications effort, with daily radio…

Over one million people live in Karamoja, a region found in the north Eastern part of Uganda. To a visitor passing through from the capital city Kampala, Karamoja may look like any other region in Uganda but appearances can be deceptive. The region is characterised by the worst humanitarian and development indicators in Uganda. The problem of underdevelopment in Karamoja is often characterised as a ‘cultural’ problem, however, this needs to be understood within the delicate livelihood systems that operate within the region. The people of Karamoja have traditionally based their livelihood on agro-pastoralism. Like many other pastoral societies in…

Humanitarian agencies rely heavily on the media to raise awareness of crises and generate income. For the media, however, the driving force is the search for a story. Despite levels of death and destruction far outstripping the acute crises which seize the headlines, chronic emergencies such as civil wars and ongoing famines are neither immediate nor spectacular enough to warrant extensive coverage. Millions have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), making the conflict there the deadliest since the Second World War, dwarfing the combined death-tolls of all the other high-profile natural disasters and acts of terrorism of the…

HPN organised a meeting with ALNAP and Reuters Alertnet to look at the relationship between journalists and aid workers, and the lack of trust that is often a central characteristic of this relationship. Media and aid workers frequently rely on each other for information, access, profile and support; we work together in difficult circumstances in the same complex environment. In times of increasing competition, 24/7 news coverage and the popularising use of new media, how is the environment changing for both groups? As these forces play out in complex, emergency environments, aid workers and journalists are often pushed together in…

The 8 October earthquake had a devastating impact on the media in affected areas. Dozens of journalists were killed or went missing, and newspaper offices, broadcasting facilities and press clubs were destroyed. The capacity of the local media was significantly reduced, and local and national outlets struggled to respond adequately to the tragedy with news and information about the nature and scale of the earthquake and the progress of the relief effort. The media response Pakistanis first learnt of the disaster from private television channels and FM radio stations. It took a couple of hours before the state-owned electronic media…

Humanitarian aid organisations need the press. Good coverage can help with fundraising, smooth the way to cooperation with host governments and raise staff morale. Journalists need humanitarian organisations to provide on-the-ground expertise and resources, and the raw material of their stories. It is therefore surprising how little each side understands the other: • NGO press officers complain that few journalists know about chronic, long-term problems such as HIV/AIDS in Africa or the comeback of malaria. Journalists say that they do know about these issues, but need better reasons to run stories on chronic issues today, rather than at some point…

There is little doubt that the media can have a profound impact on complex emergencies. The best known example is the notorious use of hate radio in Rwanda and Bosnia to encourage ethnic cleansing. Less well-known is the potential for the media to do the opposite – that is, to support the efforts of humanitarian aid agencies in complex emergencies even to the extent of helping with peace-building efforts. International agencies are increasingly interested in the notion that, if handled appropriately, the mass media could deliver ‘smart aid’ – information which can be translated into the kind of knowledge that…

A large part of the momentum that propels a crisis onto the international agenda is generated by the media. But with new technology bringing wars, disasters and their humanitarian consequences to the attention of publics, governments and aid agencies more efficiently than ever, the question is not how much coverage there is, but what kind. It is a self-perpetuating myth that increasingly there is less media coverage of humanitarian emergencies. The revolution in information technology and low-cost, lightweight means of recording and transmitting means there is now more reporting than ever from even the most remote and dangerous theatres of…

Cape Town, South Africa, 6–11 December 1998 This workshop brought together for the first time those who are leading the way in using media to help build peace in different parts of the world. Organised by the Radio Partnership of the Geneva-based International Centre for Humanitarian Reporting in conjunction with the South Africa Media Peace Centre (MPC), it was part of a wider project funded by DfID’s Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Department to draw up guidelines of ‘best practice’ in this challenging field. Participants included media practitioners, those involved in conflict resolution, academics and evaluation specialists from 30 organisations in…

27 May 1998, London, UK Organised by 10 UK relief agencies and ECHO, this conference critically examined the reporting of humanitarian emergencies by both international humanitarian agencies and international broadcast news media. Key questions were asked: How good was the source information, where did it come from and by whom was it being manipulated? What quality of analysis was being offered to the audience, how much was it shaped by ‘stereotypical’ understanding and portrayal? The 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the flight and plight of the Rwandan refugees from camps in east Zaire westwards into the Zairean forest made up…