Glenda Cooper23rd ALNAP Biannual Meeting4th June 2008

After the wave: reporting disasters since the tsunami

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Reporting disasters:

How citizen journalism is altering disaster reporting

How this, in turn, alters the cosy relationship between journalists and aid workers

Why this matters: how media coverage affects aid

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26.12.04 - a turning point

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“ It was like the entire world was suddenly spinning and rattling. I was so scared that I ran out.. not realising I did not even have any shoes on. … May Allah have mercy on all of us.”

Source: BBC

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UGC and the

In 2005, the BBC received 300 emails per day from the public

Now it receives 12-15,000 per day

Photos/videos have gone from 100 a week to 1,000

Source: BBC

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Africa: the mobile revolution A quarter of a billion

people now have a mobile here

Mobile phone usage has gone from 1 in 50 to a third of the population

£25bn is being invested in mobile phone coverage

Source: UNITU, GSMA

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Accessing BBC via mobile phones

1. England      

2. United States        

3. Canada       

4. Kenya        5. South Africa 

6. Nigeria      

7. Tanzania     

8. Uganda       

9. Norway       

10. Ireland  

Source: BBC

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Key Ingredients for a Disaster

Starving child (preferably crying) Feeding centre (complete with mothers with

shrunken breasts) Aid worker (usually a white woman, battling

against the odds) Reporter (breathless and shocked, saying how

awful it is)Source: Dispatches from Disaster Zones, 27 May 1998

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Aid agencies and UGC

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The Observer

In starvation's gripTim Judah in Cachembe, Mozambique, Dominic Nutt in Malawi and Peter Beaumont in LondonAs the sun set over the village of Mulomba in Malawi last week, a group of women and girls strolled over to a cluster of shacks. Traders were packing up their wares and the evening's entertainment was about to begin. Music floated from inside the rooms at the village's edge, where men were dancing and drinking a home-brewed maize beer. It was only 5pm but already there was a sense of excitement, and danger, in the air.Source: The Observer 9 June 2002

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Tsunami death toll

Dead/Missing Number of stories 19.12.04 -16.01.05

Indonesia 167,000 343

Sri Lanka 35,000 729

Thailand 8,200 771

Sources: UN Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery & Lexis Nexis

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How coverage affects donationsTV coverage (minutes of airtime)

Print media coverage (articles)

Amount of donation per person helped (US$)

Tsunami 250 34,992 1,241

South Asia Quake86 n.a. 300

Democratic Republic of Congo

6 3,119 213

Somalia 0 n.a. 53

Cote d’Ivoire 0 n.a. 27

Source: World Disasters Report 2006

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The Niger Crisis, 2005

May 16th - UN launch $16m appeal for Niger

July 14th - Only $3.6m raised so farJuly 18th - BBC starts reports on NigerJuly 27th - $17m raised in and outside UN

Source: World Disasters Report 2006

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Conclusions

Citizen journalism can improve disaster reporting

Journalists and aid workers must think about blurred boundaries

Disaster reporting must be as rigorous and objective as any other story