NGOS, New Media and the Mainstream News: News from Everywhere

Looking Good: Mediatisation and International NGOs

“…There has also been a related interest in how newspapers and other media outlets report on development issues and the developing world more generally (See, for example, Bullock et al, 2001;Poland, 2004;Chouliaraki, 2006;Cameron and Haanstra, 2008;Franks, 2008;Fenton, 2010;Thomas, 2011). These studies do not, for the most part, examine in any detail the way media technologies reshape accountabilities or power relations within NGOS.…”

“…It draws on a particular set of experiences working with AMREF and The Guardian, and pulls in information from published materials, reports and campaign documents from one medium-sized international NGO. I suspect the argument set out below has more relevance to international NGOs working in the 'north', many of which have moved away from their traditional work around issues of service delivery, than it does to those working in the 'south' (Fenton 2010). (Though it should be noted that some southern NGOs, such as BRAC in Bangladesh, or the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa are as media-savvy, if not more so, than many smaller northern NGOs.)…”

“…Fenton looks at how they have worked with news media organisations, to provide news that 'mimics or matches the requirements of mainstream news agendas' in a process she describes as "news cloning" (Fenton 2009a). Davis (2002) makes a wider point on how campaigning NGOs use professional press and publicity methods.…”

“…Fenton, 2010). The posting, from which the extract is taken, offers a personalised and complex account of the 2007 drought in the area.…”

“…The phenomenal growth of NGOs, their efflorescence in number, scale and scope, has been coterminous with the proliferation of information communication technologies and new media such as Twitter, weblogs and YouTube (cf. Fenton, 2010). International NGOs run dedicated websites to promote their agenda and raise funds (Werker and Ahmed, 2008).…”