The Mediation of Humanitarianism: Toward a Research Framework

Abstract

The role of mediated narratives and images of distant suffering in cultivating moral response has provoked lively debate within and outside academia. In particular, since the mid-1990s, in the light of "uncivil wars" and the "crisis of humanitarianism", studies have sought to address the apparent gap between the mediation of humanitarianism -the intense visibility of humanitarian disasters and distant suffering in the globally mediated space -and the lack of commensurate response -action to alleviate that suffering, specifically by western publics. The paper examines existing research in this area, identifying two central strands, namely philosophically-oriented accounts and empirical studies of text, audience and production. The discussion evaluates their contributions, limitations and lacunas.Based on this critical review, we suggest a research framework that simultaneously builds on and departs from existing work and can help to expand and strengthen a programme of research on the mediation of humanitarianism. This framework highlights the importance of: (1) studying mediated humanitarianism as a multi-sited dialectical process; (2) moving away from prescriptive normativity to studying how the mediation of humanitarianism is experienced, affected and negotiated; and (3) "undoing" despair as the motivation and consequent impulse of critique of the mediation of humanitarianism.

Toward an ordinary ethics of mediated humanitarianism: An agenda for ethnography

“…How can we use photographs to move people into urgent action without reducing their subjects to generic victims needy for Western benevolence? These were the philosophical thought experiments posed by Boltanski (1999), Ranciere (2009), and Sontag (2003) that have been reinterpreted by in scholars in media and cultural studies engaged in normative debate around the ethics of mediating distant suffering and the moral obligation of media witnesses (e.g., Ashuri and Pinchevski, 2009;Chouliaraki, 2012;Frosh, 2011;Madianou, 2013;Markham, 2017;Orgad and Seu, 2014;Silverstone, 2007;Vestergaard, 2009).…”

Public narratives on human mobility: Countering technocratic and humanitarian refugee narratives with a “one‐world” solidarity narrative

“…Understanding the dynamics of public opinion formation on immigration has become increasingly necessary, when "public concern" is easily reduced to reactionary populist anti-refugee, anti-immigration positions foregrounded by far-right xenophobic political parties (Wodak, 2015). Contrasted by equally emotive prohumanitarian framing within the public sphere where "intimacies at a distance" are orchestrated via non-governmental organization-led humanitarian communications (Orgad & Seu, 2014).…”

Branded Solidarity in Fair Trade Communication on Facebook

“…Such representations lend producers the capacity for entrepreneurial governmentality, liberating them from the subordination of the donor-beneficiary relationship of conventional charity (Dolan, 2008). As literature on humanitarian communication suggests, portraying vulnerable others as active agents, rather than passive victims, should offer Northern audiences greater possibility for sympathy and identification (Orgad and Seu, 2014). The representation of fair trade producers as active subjects is, however, somewhat ambiguous as their agency is still dependent on the ethical conduct of Northern consumers (Goodman, 2010;Hall, 1997).…”