The polyphonic choir of well-doers: Do the voiceless get their voices heard via humanitarian organisations?

Abstract

The global mediascape has changed. New technology has opened new information avenues, but this very fact has also meant growing competition in the attention game, including the areas of concern of humanitarian activity. Celebrities have emerged as politicians, diplomats and humanitarians. Politics has turned into a branding exercise; it is equally important how a public move looks as what it actually means. How have all these developments influenced the strategic communication of international humanitarian agencies? This article analyses the online information dissemination of six international humanitarian organisations, with special attention to the use of new technology and social media, as well as delivery. Whom do these agencies want to reach? The assumption that UN organisations appear more formal than the rest is not supported. Even one-issue movements, such as Reporters Without Borders, do not give much space to the ‘voiceless’. All these organisations frequently use new media but in an old-fashioned way, aiming at mediated information distribution via mass media, while avoiding discussion and debate.

Keywords:

• strategic communication
• democracy
• crisis management
• cultural diplomacy
• dialogic communication

Websites

Carma:

• www.carma.com

Doctors Without Borders:

• http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Oxfam:

• http://www.oxfam.org

Red Cross/Red Crescent:

• http://www.ifrc.org

• http://www.ifrc.org/en/get-involved/go-social-dev/

• https://www.twitter.com/federation

• https://plus.google.com/u/0/+IFRC/posts#+IFRC/posts

• http://www.flickr.com/photos.ifrc

• http://www.youtube.co.ifrc

• www.ifrc.org/en/get-involved/go-social-dev/

Reporters Without Borders:

• http://www.rsf.org

UNHCR, Geneva, communication department:

• http://www.unhcr.org/4a098c0d6.html

• http://www.unhcr.org/4a09806215.html

• http://www.unhcr.org/4a0999864a6.html

• http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin-texis/vtx/search?page=&comid=4a0950336&cid=49aea93a7d&scid=49aea93a40

UNHCR, Stockholm:

• http://www.unhcr.org.se/hem.html

Blogs

Jamam camp:

• http://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blogs/12-07-10-jamam-refugee-camp-community-approach-sanitation (Retrieved 23.10.2012)

Dadaab:

• http://www.refugeesinternational.org/blog/worlds-largest-refugee-camp-complex-problems-remain (Retrieved 23.10.2012)

• http://www.care-international.org/Featured-Articles/blog-from-dadaab-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp (Retrieved 23.10.2012)

Nakivale:

• http://menuchadirector.worldpress.com/2012/04/04refugee-camp-and-the-return-home (Retrieved 23.10.2012)

Kakuma:

• http://kanere.org (Retrieved 23.10.2014)

• http://kanere.org/about-kakuma-refugee-camp (Retrieved 23.10.2012)

• http://en.gravator.com/kakuma (Retrieved 23.10.2012)

Notes

1. http://www.unhcr.org; www.unhcr.se/en/the-un-refugee-agency.html

2. http://www.unicef.org; www.unicef.fi.

3. Reporters Without Borders/Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) is a France-based, international non-profit, non-governmental organisation that promotes and defends freedom of information. The organisation has consultant status at the UN.

4. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) works in nearly 70 countries, providing medical aid to those most in need, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation.

5. The information was mainly collected by Mr Mikko Merilinna, a student of Communication Studies at the University of Helsinki. He functioned as a research assistant for the project.

6. The views are based on several interviews with UNHCR personnel working in Eastern Africa. The interviews were carried out in November 2010.

7. http://www.ifrc.org; www.ifrc.org/en/get-involved/go-social-dev/

8. www.ifrc.org/en/get-involved/go-social-dev/

9. www.oxfam.org

10. Although Oxfam was formally established in the 1990s, it originates from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in Britain in 1942 to distribute food to Greece.

11. Plan was established more than 75 years ago and is thus one of the oldest and largest children's development organisations in the world (http://plan-international.org/).

12. http://kanere.org

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ullamaija Kivikuru

Ullamaija Kivikuru is Professor Emerita in Journalism at the University of Helsinki, Swedish School of Social Sciences. Her special interest areas are media policy, media and democracy and media activities in Africa. She has worked in several Eastern and Southern African countries.