Getting into bed with charity

Abstract

Public response to disasters depends on news coverage, writes BBC producer turned academic Franks, but as budgets continue to shrink, is the media becoming too reliant on aid agencies? "Disasters - both natural and man-made - only exist when covered by the media. Plenty of terrible things happen that remain unreported. Most disasters are known about only by those directly affected. And the crises that do get media attention are not necessarily those that kill and otherwise harm the most victims. There is invariably a random element in how much, or if at all, something is reported, but this is even more so in faraway, difficult locations." As a result, she claims, aid agencies are having to employ questionable methods to obtain media attention. "Today many aid campaigns are substantial global operations and it is in the public interest that they are reported rigorously and impartially. If journalists and aid workers embrace each other too tightly, that's unlikely to happen."