The ICRC and UNHCR

The relationship between humanitarian NGO communication and user engagement on Twitter

“…The second most prevalent frame was the victim frame, which inevitably portrays refugees in dire conditions, struggling with different aspects of their journey—from housing and food to gender-based violence. This finding is consistent with the evolution of humanitarian advocacy as a field (Bradley, 2016; Brysk, 2004; Vestergaard, 2021). The NGO messages examined here were less likely to discuss administrative aspects and least likely to incorporate the diversity frame in their online communication.…”

“…Even within the specific subgroup of organizations we analyzed, there is considerable variety in terms of capacity and scope. The different size budgets and staff as well as their diverse organizational history and culture would naturally affect the types of communication campaigns that each organization engages in, as shown in previous work (Bradley, 2016; Budabin and Pruce, 2018; Geddes, 2021).…”

“…. This has been especially important for introducing new claimants who lack agency or recognition to the human rights agenda.” Increasingly, humanitarian work involves engaging in communication campaigns not only to demonstrate results, but also to engage global and local publics with refugee acceptance, integration, and legal rights (see Bradley, 2016: for an overview).…”

“…One of the few institutional actors that can produce their own narratives, in addition to traditional media, are NGOs. In the case of the humanitarian sector, such organizations are tasked with offering humanitarian services to different segments of the population, for example, women or youth, and increasingly engage in external communication (Bradley, 2016; Powers, 2014). The term NGO is often linked to the concept of civil society where multiple actors work together to effect social change (Barisione et al, 2019; Butler, 2017).…”