Tuesday 26th April @University of East Anglia

12-1pm, JSC 3.02  

Who tells the story of today’s humanitarian disasters? Twitter, Instagram, SMS messages have entered into the defining images and texts of humanitarian disasters, theoretically
allowing survivors to play a role in the framing such crises. Yet research suggests both mainstream media and NGOs – whose symbiotic relationships traditionally framed such stories – have cloned an
d absorbed such content, potentially restricting the voices that are heard. Issues around privacy and copyright are yet to be resolved in the mainstream media, while NGOs have turned to Western bloggers ratherthan beneficiaries to mediate their message.

This seminar by City University Journalism Lecturer Glenda Cooper will draw on the recent collection Humanitarianism Communications and Change which she co-edited, as well as 50 semi‐structured interviews she has conducted with journalists and citizens reporting on humanitarian crises.