The News Media and Humanitarian Aid: from Biafra to Cyclone Nargis Jonathan Benthall 23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting 4th June 2008

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Back in history… The Crimean war NGO origins in stirring opinion against blockades  Save the children – east Europeans – WW1  Oxfam – Greece – WW2 Some turning points in late 20 th century  Biafra  Cambodia  Ethiopia and live aid  Armenian earthquake 1988

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June The ‘New World Information Order’ UNESCO sponsored debate in s MacBride Report  Aim: to make flow of news more equitable  Criticized by USA and UK as attacking press freedom and passing control to dictatorial governments - Dead by mid-1980s  Probably rightly because of lack of free press in most countries served by humanitarian agencies

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Media trends in early 1990s Growing dominance of TV and reduction of time-lags Media studies  McLuhan, Raymond Williams, John Fiske  ‘Infotainment’  Narrative structure of disaster news – the ‘folk tale’ ‘Crisis of representation’  Edward Said, John Berger …  Third World as paradoxically both exoticized and disvalued (‘feminized’) Launching of IBT

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June NGO trends in early 1990s High pressure marketing  Intensified by Oxfam, Christian Aid, World Vision, MSF … Less reverent approach  Self-criticism  Serious research begins in late 1980s but still sparse

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Changes since early 1990s… Explosion of research on NGOs Rhetoric of humanitarianism explicitly borrowed by governments  ‘Humanitarian war’ Changes in the Islamic world  Al-Jazeera  Islamic NGOs

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June

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9 …changes since the early 90s Steps taken to counteract the standard narrative (e.g. Channel Four ‘Unreported World’) but decline of serious documentary at peak viewing times New technologies

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Have things really changed? Large scale disasters still fall off the media map  Somalia, Congo today Publicity does not necessarily generate remedial action  Rwanda, Cyclone Nargis Permanent tension between fund-raising and operations Humanitarian aid as basically conservative? Fundamentals little different?

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Towards a political economy of the disaster/media/relief nexus Need for a dispassionate approach but sensitive to the ethics of speaking about the suffering of others Necessary analysis of medical and hospital services should not be taken as disparaging the motives of doctors and nurses Aid workers, journalists, academics live on disasters – but so do medics on disease Danger of over-sacralization of NGOs (cf. Catholic Church?) Who controls the channels of aid? Disaster as an export commodity

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June The exports of poor countries ‘Goods’  Primary materials  Cheap manufacture ‘Services’ – ‘Invisible’ but visual-media-led:  Tourism - the seductive, exotic body and scenes of pleasure  The disaster-struck body and scenes of devastation (Giorgio Agamben: ‘bare life’) Autarkies  Would-be self-sufficient States

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June The banana industry… 20% of world production exported Coexistence of small and large producers Risks  Storms, pests, funguses – environmental impact Dominance of multinational companies and supermarkets Most of profits come from transport, ripening, retail Commercial conflict between EU and USA

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June …the banana industry Marketing classification of shapes and sizes specialized markets: organic, fair trade, ‘ethnic’ (red, baby, plantains etc.)

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Likewise disasters as exports Control of the channels of:  information TO the North - and aid FROM the North Media in symbiosis with NGOs Marketing and competition between intermediaries International regulation and political manipulation Unpredictable shifts in modes of consumption (the caprice of donors) BUT bananas and coffee have very limited security and military implications…

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Big changes to come? Rise of China, India…….  As media powers?  As new humanitarian donors? But not yet Military humanitarian programmes  Neglected? Hardly appear in the extensive evaluations of Indian Ocean tsunami relief Private sector  Venture philanthropy  Corporate Social Responsibility programmes

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June Solutions? Back to the UNESCO debates of the s? A New World Information Order favouring the South? But incorporating democratic principles? As articulated in the Internet? But politics of the Internet invisible to general public US research* suggests all new communications technologies are greeted as liberating – then follows a period of disillusion. *Dean, J., Jon W. Anderson & G. Lovink, eds. ‘Reformatting politics: information technology and global civil society’, Routledge 2006.

23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting, June In conclusion Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine:  Overblown argument but makes valid point that disasters (man-made or natural) are opportunities for  either peace-building (e.g. Aceh)  or imposition of draconian regimes, extended state of emergency. Duties of media and NGOs when interacting with traumatized populations.