Hurricanes and hashtags: How the media and NGOs treat citizens’ voices online in humanitarian emergencies

Cooper, Glenda

doi:10.1386/iscc.6.2.233_1

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Cooper (2015) points out that these optimistic accounts of community inclusion are often "wishful thinking" on behalf of media and NGOs, as digital voices mostly include white, middle class, and privileged groups. Big crisis data reflects the "digital divide", as it contains and can further amplify the geographical (North/South), economic, social, and political contexts of the people producing it (Burns 2015;Madianou 2015) and can therefore be unrepresentative or biased (Aitamurto 2016;IFRC 2013;Murthy 2013).…”

Section: The Promise Of Direct Communication With and By Audiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Volunteer Networks and Humanitarian Crisis Reporting

Chernobrov

2018

Digital Journalism

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Digital technologies and big data are rapidly transforming humanitarian crisis response and changing the traditional roles and powers of its actors. This article looks at a particular aspect of this transformation-the appearance of digital volunteer networks-and explores their potential to act as a new source for media coverage, in addition to their already established role as emergency response supporters. I argue that digital humanitarians can offer a unique combination of speed and safe access, while escaping some of the traditional constraints of the aid-media relationship and exceeding the conventional conceptualizations of citizen journalism. Journalists can find both challenges and opportunities in the environment where multiple crisis actors are assuming some of the media roles. The article draws on interviews with humanitarian organizations, journalists, and digital volunteer networks about their understanding of digital humanitarian communication and its significance for media coverage of crises.

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