Glenda Cooper 23 rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting 4th June 2008 After the wave: reporting disasters since the tsunami

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Reporting disasters: How citizen journalism is altering disaster reporting How this, in turn, alters the cosy relationship between journalists and aid workers Why this matters: how media coverage affects aid

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June a turning point

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June “ It was like the entire world was suddenly spinning and rattling. I was so scared that I ran out.. not realising I did not even have any shoes on. … May Allah have mercy on all of us.” Source: BBC

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June UGC and the In 2005, the BBC received 300 s per day from the public Now it receives 12-15,000 per day Photos/videos have gone from 100 a week to 1,000 Source: BBC

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Africa: the mobile revolution A quarter of a billion people now have a mobile here Mobile phone usage has gone from 1 in 50 to a third of the population £25bn is being invested in mobile phone coverage Source: UNITU, GSMA

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Accessing BBC via mobile phones 1. England 2. United States 3. Canada 4. Kenya 5. South Africa 6. Nigeria 7. Tanzania 8. Uganda 9. Norway 10. Ireland Source: BBC

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Key Ingredients for a Disaster Starving child (preferably crying) Feeding centre (complete with mothers with shrunken breasts) Aid worker (usually a white woman, battling against the odds) Reporter (breathless and shocked, saying how awful it is) Source: Dispatches from Disaster Zones, 27 May 1998

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Aid agencies and UGC

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June The Observer In starvation's grip Tim Judah in Cachembe, Mozambique, Dominic Nutt in Malawi and Peter Beaumont in London As the sun set over the village of Mulomba in Malawi last week, a group of women and girls strolled over to a cluster of shacks. Traders were packing up their wares and the evening's entertainment was about to begin. Music floated from inside the rooms at the village's edge, where men were dancing and drinking a home-brewed maize beer. It was only 5pm but already there was a sense of excitement, and danger, in the air. Source: The Observer 9 June 2002

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Tsunami death toll Dead/Missing Number of stories Indonesia167, Sri Lanka35, Thailand8, Sources: UN Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery & Lexis Nexis

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June How coverage affects donations TV coverage (minutes of airtime) Print media coverage (articles) Amount of donation per person helped (US$) Tsunami25034,9921,241 South Asia Quake 86n.a.300 Democratic Republic of Congo 63, Somalia0n.a.53 Cote d ’ Ivoire0n.a.27 Source: World Disasters Report 2006

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June The Niger Crisis, 2005 May 16th - UN launch $16m appeal for Niger July 14th - Only $3.6m raised so far July 18th - BBC starts reports on Niger July 27th - $17m raised in and outside UN Source: World Disasters Report 2006

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Conclusions Citizen journalism can improve disaster reporting Journalists and aid workers must think about blurred boundaries Disaster reporting must be as rigorous and objective as any other story