The disaster-media-relief nexus
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2265145 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J Benthall (0000-0001-5825-014X, University College London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 4-5 |
| Publication date | 2008-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-8322.2008.00598.x |
| OpenAlex | W1971210352 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 7 |
This guest editorial reviews the now well recognized interdependence of aid and journalism, especially television, and the ubiquity of marketing considerations for humanitarian agencies in their drive for profile and funds. The potentially democratizing technologies of the internet and the mobile phone, as well as noticeable advances in non-Western communications media, have been hailed by some commentators as heralding a radical change. It is argued here, however, that the tensions exposed in the 1970s by the Unesco-sponsored MacBride Report, and in the associated campaign for a'New World Information Order', were never resolved and remain deep-seated. The article draws on Sidney Mintz's classic historical study of the production and consumption of sugar to propose that, in the political economy of disasters and relief aid, a continuous export flow of disaster imagery is processed by media organizations for consumption in the North, which reciprocates through the Southwards provision of aid. The banana industry, a market-led oligopoly, is adduced as a provocative metaphor. Finally it is suggested that transnational NGOs and their anthropological advisers could now have a major role in challenging the dominant market-oriented model of a global information society
Economics · Economy · Journalism · Media studies · Metaphor · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · The Internet · Disaster Management and Resilience · Law
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2016 (7) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |