COMMUNICATION & HUMANITARIANISM
MODULE OUTLINE
SPRING 2013
JN808
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/interventionand 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 heavily-censored societies. It will discuss the growing scale and significance of non-governmental 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 – comparing, for example, how interventions in Ethiopia, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Libya differed in scope and role and the part that the media played in determining intervention of the lack of it. The module will involve some analysis of theoretical approaches but have a strong element of analysis of the content of media reporting and the practical processes involved.
Module delivery: Spring Term 2012-2013
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
Office telephone: 01227 82 4943
Learning Outcomes
The learning outcomes of this module are as follows:
On successful completion of this module students will:
●Develop a detailed understanding of the influence of broadcast media in the political sphere and on the voluntary sector.
●Be able to demonstrate sophisticated critical assessment of the impact of the internet on media power and media consumption.
●Show a detailed 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 in detail.
●Develop critical and sophisticated 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.
Cottle, Simon.Global Crisis Reporting. Berkshire: Open University Press, 2009.
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
Hilsum, Lindsey. Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution. London: faber and faber, 2012.
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)
Kapuscinski, Ryszard. Travels with Herodotus. London : Penguin, 2007.
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
Price, Monroe E, and Thompson, Mark (ed) Forging Peace: International Intervention, Media and Conflict (International Communications): Intervention, Human Rights and the Management of Media Space, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002.
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.
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. 526-42. Media and framing of Africa.
Terry, Fiona.Condemned to Repeat: The paradox of humanitarian action. Ithaca, N.Y. ; Cornell University Press, 2002.
The following websites are also of use
Reuters humanitarian network website
Disasters Emergency Committee
Independent Journalism Club, London
BBC World Trust Service
International Broadcasting Trust
http@// 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)
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.
Wheeler,Nicholas J. Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society.Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000.
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],
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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],
Richardson, John E Analyzing Newspapers London: Palgrave 2007
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. 526-42.
Somerville, Keith. Africa is Tribal, Europe is Ethnic: The Power of Words in the Media, Committee of Concerned Journalists, New York.
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.
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.
International Rescue Committee – Congo, the forgotten crisis -
Rhodes, Henry A. The News Media’s Coverage of the Vietnam War,
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.
Gill, Peter A Year in the Death of Africa: Politics, Bureaucracy and the Famine. Paladin/Grafton Books, 1986
ReliefWeb.“Starving in Silence: A Report on Famine and Censorship”. Accessed on 21 November, 2010.
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
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
Topic 5
The Greatest Show on Earth – Reporting Ethiopia and the Aftermath. The birth of celebrity coverage.
Allen, Robert. “Bob’s Not Your Uncle”. Capital and Class Vol. 30 (1986)
BBC/Martin Plaut, On the trail of Ethiopia aid and guns.
Fielding, Helen .Cause Celeb.Penguin Books, 2002(novel about aid worker by author of Bridget JonesDiary )
Franks,Suzanne. “How Famine Captured the Headlines”. Media History Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2006): 291-312.
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
Harris,Paul and Robin Palmer.News Out of Africa From Biafra to Band Aid. Hilary Shipman Ltd.,1987
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
Voluntary Service Overseas. “The Live Aid Legacy.The developing world through British eyes – A research report”. In Dochas.ie. Accessed on 21 November, 2010.
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.
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.
Mamdani, Mahmood.When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda,Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002.
Melvern, Linda. “The press failed to hold politicians to account over Rwanda”. Guardian, July 16, 2010.
Moeller, Susan D. Compassion Fatigue.New York : Routledge, 1999. Chapter Five.
Somerville, Keith. Chapter on hate radio and the Rwandan genocide from forthcoming book. Draft on Moodle.
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.
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.
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
Topic 8
New Media, Citizen Journalism and the coverage of humanitarian issues.
BBC College of Journalism – video discussion of new Media and the Arab Spring -
Ben-Meir, Alon. The Arab Spring: A New Era in a Transforming Globe.
Cooper, Glenda. “Anyone here survived a wave, speaks English and got a mobile?”, Guardian Lecture presented at Nuffield College, Oxford,2007. [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.
Economist. How Luther Went Viral 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.
Newman, Nic .The Rise of Social Media and its impact on mainstream journalism. Reuters Institute publication, 2009
Sambrook, Richard .“Citizen Journalism”. In Owen, John and Heather Purdey, eds. International News Reporting: Frontlines and Deadlines. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2009.
Twitter, Facebook and You Tube's Role in Arab Spring An exhaustive survey of the role of social/new media in the Arab Spring.
Topic 9
Images of Suffering and Conflict – how images as well as words affect our knowledge and responses
Clark, David. ‘The Production of a contemporary famine image; the image economy, indigenous photographers and the case of Mekanic Philipos”.Journal of International Development 16 (2004): 693-704
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.
Wilson, Richard, and Richard Brown.Humanitarianism and Suffering.The Mobilisation of Empathy.Cambridge University Press, 2008
The following websites are also of use:
Imaging Famine
David Campbell Blog
Topic 10
Narratives of Humanitarianism and the impact of media upon policy: Somalia, Yugoslavia and the Arab Spring – why states intervene and the role of the media.
Reiff, David. A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis. London : Vintage, 2002.
Robinson, Piers. CNN Effect: The myth of news, foreign policy and intervention. London: Routledge, 2002
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?
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.
Kannyo, Edward. Nato intervention in the Libyan civil war: costs and prospects for the future.
Nasaw, David. US military action in Somalia: Black Hawk Down to today's attack.
Shaw, Martin.Civil Society and Media in Global Crises: Representing Distant Violence. London: Pinter, 1996.
Topic 11: Revision lecture and seminar
ESSAY
Choose one of the following:
•Describe how media coverage of conflicts, disasters and other humanitarian crises has developed since the 1960s, with particular reference to key events and their reporting.
•Examine critically Amartya Sen’s thesis that famines do not happen in democracies and where there is a free press.
•The “CNN effect” is an argument suggesting media influence over government decisions to intervene. Using examples such as Bosnia, Libya, Syria, Rwanda and Somalia, discuss how it is applied and its limitations.
•The rise of citizen journalism, new media and social media are changing the practice of journalism. With reference to the advantages and disadvantages of these media platforms and methods, discuss how they are affecting humanitarian coverage.
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 power-point 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.