Reporting Humanitarian Disasters in a Social Media Age

Description

From the tsunami to Hurricane Sandy, the Nepal earthquake to Syrian refugees―defining images and accounts of humanitarian crises are now often created, not by journalists but by ordinary citizens using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. But how has the use of this content―and the way it is spread by social media―altered the rituals around disaster reporting, the close, if not symbiotic, relationship between journalists and aid agencies, and the kind of crises that are covered? Drawing on more than 100 in-depth interviews with journalists and aid agency press officers, participant observations at the Guardian, BBC and Save the Children UK, as well as the ordinary people who created the words and pictures that framed these disasters, this book reveals how humanitarian disasters are covered in the 21st century – and the potential consequences for those who posted a tweet, a video or photo, without ever realising how far it would go. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Distant Suffering in a Digital World: The Background to the Changing Nature of Disaster Reporting 3 “The Odd Mucky Weekend, Not a One Night Stand”: The Relationship Between Aid Agencies and Journalists When Covering Disasters 4 The “First Draft of History” or Just “Smoke and Mirrors”? How Journalists and Aid Agencies See the Use of UGC in Humanitarian Crises 5 Twitter Takeovers, Blogging and ‘Following the Sun’: How Aid Agencies Use the Tropes of Social Media and User-Generated Content 6 Cloning and Co-opting: How Mainstream Media Control User-Generated Content 7 ‘Tweeting the Quake’: How Ordinary Citizens Tell Their Stories 8 Ethical Questions Going Forward: Payment, Permission, Privacy 9 Conclusion Appendix of Interviewees Index