COMMUNICATION & HUMANITARIANISM
MODULE OUTLINE
SPRING 2015
JN508
This module examines how we understand and explain faraway conflicts,
crises and disasters. It will start by looking at the development of the
concept of humanitarianism and humanitarian action/intervention and
move on to how media reporting of international events, in particular the
way that the western media covers and frames the developing world, shapes
understanding and responses. The module will assess how the nature of this
coverage has developed in the post-cold war period and in the digital era.
Approaches to the way the media operates (eg: Chomsky’s manufacturing
consent theory, the concept of framing and representation and the ‘CNN
effect’) will be examined as means of measuring media effects. Key episodes
of humanitarian disaster/emergency will be analysed to identify the way
that the media frames and reports these disasters – and where, as in China
during the Great leap Forward, famines can be hidden in closed or heavilycensored societies. It will discuss the growing scale and significance of nongovernmental organisations and the importance of their relationships with
the media; look at their, public relations/campaigning/fundraising
operations and their increasingly prominent role as actors in humanitarian
and other crises. It will examine the way in which the activities of NGOs are
reported, how they feed into media reportage and the emerging role of
citizen journalism in the coverage of humanitarian disasters. Attention will
be given not only to how media reporting affects relief responses to crises
but also affects other national or international interventions or the decision
not to intervene – comparing, for example, how interventions in Ethiopia,
Somalia, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Libya and Syria differed in scope and role and
the part that the media played in determining intervention or the lack of it.
The module will also cover the reporting and responses to the ebola
outbreak in West Africa. The approach will involve analysis of theoretical
approaches but have a strong element of critical examination of the content
of media reporting and the practical processes involved.
Module delivery: Spring Term 2014-2015
Lecture: Mondays 15.00-17.00 (please refer to your personal timetable for
location)
Please come prepared by studying the suggested readings and by attending
the lecture. You will be expected to contribute actively to discussion during
the seminars, so be ready to be put on the spot.
Keith Somerville
K.Somerville@kent.ac.uk
Learning Outcomes
The learning outcomes of this module are as follows:
On successful completion of this module students will:
●
Be familiar with the influence of broadcast media in the political sphere
and on the voluntary sector.
●
Critically assess the impact of the internet on media power and media
consumption.
●
Acquire knowledge of the central role that communications and media
play at national, international and global levels of economic, political and social
organisations along with the ability to articulate and explore the implications of
this.
●
Gain awareness of the diversity of approaches to understanding
communication and media in historical and contemporary contexts.
Assessment
The module will be assessed through a two hour exam (50%) in term 3 and
by an essay of maximum 3,000 words (30%) and an oral presentation
(20%) in a seminar in term 2. The assessments will be an opportunity for
you to demonstrate and us to assess your ability to: communicate in writing
and verbally; to identify and define problems and key issues; analyse and
combine information to present arguments that clearly demonstrate
understanding of the issues and acquired knowledge; carry out research
online; and meet deadlines.
General Introduction
The following books and articles give a useful overview of the subject – and
some of them will also relate to particular weekly topics below.
Absolutely essential – Suzanne Franks, Reporting Disasters: Famine, Aid,
Politics and the Media, London: Hurst and Co, 2013.
De Waal, Alexander.Famine Crimes. Indiana University Press, Bloomington,
1997. Excellent tour de force on famine in the modern world.
Franks, Suzanne. “Lacking a Clear Narrative: Foreign Reporting after the
Cold War”.The Political Quarterly, Vol. 76, Suppl.1 (2005): 91-101
Moeller, Susan D. Compassion Fatigue.New York : Routledge, 1999. (Very
good on US media and attitudes/reporting of crises but some skating over
facts and a willingness to accept types of superficial coverage rather than
question or criticize)
Keen, David. Complex Emergencies. Cambridge: Polity , 2007. Key text on the
nature of emergencies; how and why they occur in the ways they do.
Polman, Linda. War Games.The story of aid and war in modern times.
London : Viking, 2010
Reiff, David.A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis. London :
Vintage, 2002.
Richardson, John E Analyzing Newspapers London: Palgrave 2007
Sen Amartya, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1999. V good – key text on famine, democracy and the media.
Vaux , Tony. The Selfish Altruist: Relief Work in Famine and War. London:
The following websites are also of use
www.alertnet.org Reuters humanitarian network website
www.dec.org.uk
Disasters Emergency Committee
www.frontlineclub.co.uk Independent Journalism Club, London
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust BBC World Trust Service
http://www.ibt.org.uk/ International Broadcasting Trust
http@//www.africajournalismtheworld.com Africa – News and Analysis
It is also worth looking at the individual NGO websites (Oxfam, Save the
Children, Medicins sans Frontiers, the Red Cross and at the Dfid and the BBC
World Service Trust sites)
Topics – as we have a guest speaker on ebola in week 2, we will cover
topics 1 and 2 in week 1, making the two hours a combined double
lecture/seminar
Topic 1: What is humanitarianism? Why do we start care about faraway
victims of famine, conflict or natural disasters and how do we
respond?
Allen, Tim and Seaton, Jean. “Introduction”, in Tim Allen and Jean Seaton
(eds), The Media of Conflict: War Reporting and Representations of Ethnic
Violence, London: Zed Books, 1990, pp. 1-7.
Keen, David. “ ‘Who’s it Between?’ ‘Ethnic War’ and ‘Rational Violence’, in
Allen, Tim and Seaton, Jean.1990. “Introduction”, in Tim Allen and Jean
Seaton (eds), The Media of Conflict: War Reporting and Representations of
Ethnic Violence, London: Zed Books,1990.
Keen, David. Complex Emergencies. Cambridge: Polity , 2007. Pp1-24.
Vaux , Tony. The Selfish Altruist: Relief Work in Famine and War. London:
Sterling, VA : Earthscan, 2001.
Topic 2: Reporting the world and understanding the “other”. Framing
and representation as prisms through which the media projects world
events.
Franks, Suzanne. “Lacking a Clear Narrative: Foreign Reporting after the
Cold War”.The Political Quarterly, Vol. 76, Suppl.1 (2005): 91-101
Harding, Philip. “The Great Global Switch-Off International Coverage in UK
Public Service Broadcasting”, Oxfam.org.uk 2009 [PDF],
www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/.../great_global_switch_off.pdf
Herman and Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent, chapter 1 (it's uploaded to
the module page on Moodle)
Media Standards Trust Publications.“Shrinking World: The decline of
international reporting in the British press”.Media Standards Trust. 11
November, 2010. [PDF],
http://mediastandardstrust.org/publications/shrinking-world-the-decline-of-international-reporting-in-thebritish-press/
Steven Livingston, CLARIFYING THE CNN EFFECT:An Examination of Media
Effects According to Type of Military Intervention, http://www.genocidewatch.org/images/1997ClarifyingtheCNNEffect-Livingston.pdf
Steven Livingston, The CNN Effect reconsidered: mapping a research agenda
for the future
Media, War & Conflict April 2011 4: 3-11
Robinson, Piers. CNN Effect: The myth of news, foreign policy and
intervention. London: Routledge, 2002
Pawson, Lara. “Reporting African Wars”. In Communicating war: memory,
media and military, edited by Sarah Maltby and Richard Keeble, 42-55.
Arima Publishing 2009.
Somerville, Keith. British media coverage of the post-election violence in
Kenya, 2007-8, Journal of Eastern African Studies, vol 3, no 3, 2010 pp. 52642.
Somerville, Keith. Africa is Tribal, Europe is Ethnic: The Power of Words in the
Media, Committee of Concerned Journalists, New York.
http://www.concernedjournalists.org/africa-tribal-europe-ethnic-powerwords
Cottle, Simon.Global Crisis Reporting. Berkshire: Open University Press,
2009.
Topic 3: Reporting Conflicts, Emergencies and Disasters : Vietnam,
the first TV war, and why the Tsunami was more important than the
DRC.
Fair – Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. World’s Worst Disasters
Overlooked: Survey identifies biggest “forgotten” crises.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2537
Franks, Suzanne. ‘The Neglect of Africa and the Power of Aid’. International
Communication Gazette, Vol.72 n.1 (2010): 71-84
Hallin, Daniel. Presentation given at the “American Media and Wartime
Challenges” Conference – media and Vietnam. (March 21-March 22, 2003,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Uploaded to Moodle.
International Red Cross. “World disasters report : focus on information in
disasters”. Accessed November 21,
2010.http://www.ifrc.org/publicat/wdr2009/summaries.asp
International Rescue Committee – Congo, the forgotten crisis http://www.rescue.org/special-reports/congo-forgotten-crisis
Rhodes, Henry A. The News Media’s Coverage of the Vietnam War,
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1983/4/83.04.03.x.html
Vaux , Tony. The Selfish Altruist: Relief Work in Famine and War. London;
Sterling, VA : Earthscan, 2001. Humanitarian Exchange20 (2002)
Topic 4: Famine and Censorship - the Great Leap Forward famine in
China and other hidden famines.
Becker,Jasper. Hungry Ghosts. Mao’s Secret Famine, Free Press, 1996
De Waal, Alexander. Famine Crimes. Indiana University Press, Bloomington,
1997.
Dikkoter, Frank. Mao’s Great Famine: the History of China's Most
Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc,
2010.
ReliefWeb.“Starving in Silence: A Report on Famine and Censorship”.
Accessed on 21 November, 2010.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900SID/OCHA-6NMTSW?
Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1999.
Sen, Amartya, Individual Freedom as a Social Commitment, New York Review
of Books, on Moodle.
Myhrvold-Hanssen, Thomas, A Critique of Amartya Sen’s Argument on
Famine and democracy
Deveraux, Stephen, Sen’s Entitlement Approach: Critiques and
Counter-critiques, Oxford Development Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3, 2001
New York Times 1 March 2003 – Critics of Sen
www.disasterdiplomacy.org/MyhrvoldHanssenBiharFamine.rtf
Sen and famin e-democracy - powerpoint on Moodle with crux of his
argument and those of critics.
English accounts of ‘Tombstone’ book by Yang Jisheng on Chinese Famine
for example
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3561510/A-
tombstone-on-Chinas-history.html
Topic 5
The Greatest Show on Earth – Reporting Ethiopia and the Aftermath.
The birth of celebrity coverage.
Suzanne Franks, Reporting Disasters: Famine, Aid, Politics and the Media,
London: Hurst and Co, 2013.
Allen, Robert. “Bob’s Not Your Uncle”. Capital and Class Vol. 30 (1986)
BBC/Martin Plaut, On the trail of Ethiopia aid and guns.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8
548412.stm
Franks, Suzanne.Why Bob Geldof has got it wrong. British Journalism Review,
Volume 21, Number 2, 2010.
Gill, Peter. Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia since Live Aid. Oxford University
Press, 2010
Philo, Greg “From Buerk to Band Aid”. In Getting the Message edited by John
Eldridge, 104-125. Glasgow University Media Group: Routledge, 1993.
Rieff, David. Cruel to be Kind
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jun/24/g8.debtrelief
Voluntary Service Overseas. “The Live Aid Legacy.The developing world
through British eyes – A research report”. In Dochas.ie. Accessed on 21
November, 2010.www.dochas.ie/Shared/Files/7/The_Live_Aid_Legacy.pdf
Topic 6
Hour of Shame. The Rwandan Genocide and the Failure to Report.
When the media in a crisis zone becomes part of the problem –
broadcasting propaganda and hatred.
Somerville, Keith, Radio Propaganda and the Broadcasting of Hatred,
Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012, Rwanda Chapter.
Dallaire, Romeo.Shake Hands with the Devil. The Failure of Humanity in
Rwanda.New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2004.
Des Forges, Alison. Leave None to tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, New
York: Human Rights Watch, 1999.
Gourevitch, Philip. We wish to inform you tomorrow we will be killed with
our families. Picador, 1999
Kellow, Christine L., and Steeves, Leslie H. The Role of Radio in the Rwandan
Genocide. Journal of Communications, 48, 3, 1998, pp.109-128.
Melvern, Linda. “The press failed to hold politicians to account over Rwanda”.
Guardian, July 16, 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/16/rwandagenocide-media-un-policy
Moeller, Susan D. Compassion Fatigue.New York : Routledge, 1999. Chapter
Five.
Thompson, Allan. The Media and the Rwanda Genocide.London: Pluto Press,
2007
DVDs: Feature films
George, Terry. Hotel Rwanda. Lions Gate Films, 2004
Caton-Jones, Micheal. Shooting Dogs.CrossDay Production Ltd., 2005
Topic 7
The Rise and Rise of the NGO
Are they modern-day saints and should we believe all that they say?
Black, Maggie. A Cause For Our Time: Oxfam the first 50 years.Oxford :
Oxfam, 1992.
Cooper, Glenda. “When Lines between NGOs and News Organisations
Blur”.Nieman Journalism Lab, December 21, 2009. Accessed on November
22, 2010.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/12/glenda-cooper-when-lines-betweenngo-and-news-organization-blur/
Cottle, Simon. Global Crisis Reporting. Berkshire: Open University Press,
2009. Chapter 8
Glennie, Jonathan. “We need greater transparency over aid budgets”. Poverty
Matters Blog, October 28, 2010. Accessed on November 22, 2010.
Roning, Helge. “Unholy Alliance”.Rhodes Journalism Review, December
(1999): 42. [PDF]. Accessed on November 22, 2010.
http://www.rjr.ru.ac.za/rjrpdf/rjr_no18/unholy_alliance.pdf
Shamima, Ahmed and David Potter.NGOs in International Politics. Kumarian
Press, 2006.
Vaux , Tony. The Selfish Altruist: Relief Work in Famine and War. London;
Sterling, VA : Earthscan, 2001. Humanitarian Exchange20 (2002)
Warah, Rasna. Somalia’s Unholy Alliance: Media, Donors and Aid Agencies
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/545
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/povertymatters/2010/oct/28/aid-budgets-transparency
Topic 8
New Media, Citizen Journalism and the coverage of humanitarian
issues.
Monica Anderson and Andrea Caumont, How social media is reshaping
news, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-socialmedia-is-reshaping-news/
BBC College of Journalism – video discussion of new Media and the Arab
Spring - http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/blog/2011/11/big-stories-thearab-spring.shtml
Ben-Meir, Alon. The Arab Spring: A New Era in a Transforming Globe.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-benmeir/the-arab-spring-a-newera_b_1082577.html?ref=world
Cooper, Glenda. “Anyone here survived a wave, speaks English and got a
mobile?”, Guardian Lecture presented at Nuffield College, Oxford,2007.
[PDF].http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/Guardian/Nuffield%20Guardian%20Le
cture%202007.pdf
Cooper, Glenda. From their own correspondent? New media and the changes
in disaster coverage: lessons to be learnt. Reuters Institute for the Study of
Journalism.
http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/Publications/
Working_Papers/From_Their_Own_Correspondent.pdf
Economist. How Luther Went Viral
http://www.economist.com/node/21541719 A very good look at how
media has always been "new" and used by both sides in conflicts.
Hilsum, Lindsey. Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution. London: faber
and faber, 2012.
Morozov, Evgeny. The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World. London:
Allen Lane, 2011.
Twitter, Facebook and You Tube's Role in Arab Spring
http://socialcapital.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/twitter-facebook-andyoutubes-role-in-tunisia-uprising/ An exhaustive survey of the role of
social/new media in the Arab Spring.
Can intervention in Syria be legally justified? http://www.dw.de/canintervention-in-syria-be-legally-justified/a-17054717
Heather Roff, A (Sort of) Red Line: Obama's Syrian Dilemma,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-roff/a-sort-of-red-
line_b_3805075.html
Topic 9
Images of Suffering and Conflict – how images as well as words affect
our knowledge and responses
BBC – How media differ in use of images in gaza reporting:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28680590
Jeremy
Bowen
–
we
live
in
more
violent
times.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/jeremy-bowen-welive-in-more-violent-times-no-question-about-it-9179966.html
Boltanski, Luc. Distant Suffering.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999.
Chouliaraki, Lilie. The spectatorship of suffering. London: SAGE, 2006.
Chapter 7 in: Cottle, Simon. Global Crisis Reporting.Berkshire: Open
University Press, 2009.
Marinovich, Greg .The Bang Bang Club.London: Arrow Books, 2001
Moeller, Susan D.Compassion Fatigue. New York and London: Routledge,
1999. Chapter 1.
The following websites are also of use:
www.imaging-famine.org Imaging Famine
www.david-campbell.org. David Campbell Blog
Topic 10
Narratives of Humanitarianism and the impact on policy: Somalia,
ebola in West Africa, Gaza and the Syria-Iraq conflict: why states
intervene and the role of the media. The CNN effect revisited.
Barnett, Michael, and Thomas Weiss.Humanitarianism in Question: Politics,
Power, Ethics. Ithaca, N.Y.; Cornell University Press, 2008.
Al-Daini, Adnan.Western Military Intervention in Libya - How Will It End?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/adnan-aldaini/western-militaryinterven_b_938286.html
Chris Gunness of UNRWA on Gaza crisis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyJfd4EjiXg
Harmon, Matthew T. The Media, Technology and United States Foreign
Policy: A Re-examination of the “ CNN effect”, Swords and Ploughshares: A
Journal of International Affairs online, VolIII • No. 2 • Spring 1999.
Angelique Kidjo, ebola and dehumanization of Africa.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/opinion/dont-let-ebola-dehumanizeafrica.html?_r=0
Nasaw, David. US military action in Somalia: Black Hawk Down to today's
attack.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/14/black-hawk-downus-somalia
Robinson, Piers. CNN Effect: The myth of news, foreign policy and
intervention. London: Routledge, 2002
Rick Rowden – ebola and the iMF.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/30/west_africas_financial
_immune_deficiency_ebola_imf
Shaw, Martin.Civil Society and Media in Global Crises: Representing Distant
Violence. London: Pinter, 1996.
Topic 11: Revision lecture and seminar
ESSAY – ESSAY – Submit one hard copy in a plastic folder via Student
Admin and one on Moodle. Deadline is 1300 on 9th March 2015.
Choose one of the following:
•
The Vietnam War has been described as the first TV war. After the
American pull-out politicians and senior military leaders accused the
media of “losing the war” for America. Why was the media so
important in this conflict and what effect did it really have?
•
What are hidden famines and why do they occur? Examine the
Chinese famine of the Great leap Forward period, analysing why the
media failed to report it.
•
The “CNN effect” is a concept used to ascribe great power to the
media over public opinion and government policy in humanitarian
crises. It emerged with the development and potential for blanket
coverage of stories of 24 Hour news. Analyse the concept and its
application using examples from at least two of the case studies of
media coverage of humanitarian crises from the module
•
Examine the reporting of the ebola crisis in West Africa, giving
particular attention to the reasons presented in the media for spread
of the disease and the seeming failure of health systems in Sierra
Leone, Guinea and Liberia, and examining the contention that
reporting both dehumanized those affected and wrongly represented
the incidence of the disease in Africa.
0RAL PRESENTATIONS
These should be of 8-10 minutes in duration and cover a topic of your
choice from within the module. They should be accompanied by a powerpoint or some other form of visual display that illustrates and supports the
presentation. They will be scheduled in the second half of the term and will
be delivered during seminars. A timetable will be established for delivery.