commbox Disasters & Humanitarian Crises

Il faut qu’on parle : La communication efficace sur les risques liés au virus Ebola nécessite à la fois du respect et de la transparence et demeure plus vitale que jamais. Évaluation des besoins et des préférences de communication changeants à Beni, Nord-Kivu

C. Fricke

Translators Without Borders (2019), 44 pp.

"Les entretiens menés en septembre 2019 avec des communicateurs en santé et des résidents ont révélé que les barrières linguistiques empêchent la compréhension d’informations cruciales sur l’Ebola. Les informations diffusées en français et en swahili ne sont pas comprises par tout le ... monde. Les gens ont du mal à interpréter le sens de termes médicaux en français qui paraissent pourtant simples. Le swahili est mieux compris dans la variante locale de Beni, tandis que les femmes et les personnes âgées de la région ont besoin d’informations dans la variante locale du nande. Pour les militaires et leurs familles, c’est en lingala qu’il faut donner les informations. Pour communiquer de façon efficace au sujet d’Ebola, il faut relayer l’information dans ces quatre langues. L’utilisation de la terminologie technique présente sa propre barrière linguistique. Certains termes médicaux clés spécifiques à l’Ebola sont en français et ne sont pas toujours traduits de la même manière. Les personnes chargées de la communication en santé ellesmêmes se trompent sur leur sens. Les participants de cette étude ont expliqué que certains des mots liés à l’épidémie sont inacceptables sur le plan social et culturel. Ces mots sont perçus comme étant violents et offensants, surtout ceux associés à la mort. Par conséquent, beaucoup de gens rechignent à les employer. Les communicateurs en santé les remplacent par leurs propres explications enveloppées d’euphémismes. Ces alternatives peuvent parfois être incohérentes et vagues et causer des malentendus. Les personnes chargées de la communication en santé ont besoin de soutien pour traduire les termes liés à l’Ebola d’une manière harmonisée et acceptable pour la population locale. La teneur des informations communiquées pose, elle aussi, un problème. Les messages actuels sur l’Ebola ne communiquent que des informations et des consignes de base. Ils ne fournissent pas les éléments nécessaires qui pourraient aider les gens à comprendre pourquoi et comment la prévention et le traitement d’Ebola fonctionnent. Aussi, avec l’évolution de l'épidémie et de la stratégie d'intervention, les questions des gens ont changé. Les participants de cette étude ont demandé que des informations complexes et transparentes leur soient communiquées dans une langue et un style qui leur sont familiers. Ils veulent des explications approfondies sur les derniers développements. Or il manque aux communicateurs en santé les outils de communication et la formation adaptés à ces développements, d’où la difficulté qu’ils ont à fournir des réponses à la fois claires et cohérentes. Les malentendus et les contradictions qui en résultent sont source de confusion pour les populations, et le manque d’explications détaillées ne fait qu’exacerber les doutes et les frustrations." (Résumé, page 3-4) more

Marketplace of Ideas or Little Shop of Horrors? Comparing US News Coverage of Local and Distant Suffering

Lauren Kogen

In: Media and Mass Atrocity: The Rwanda Genocide and Beyond

Allan Thompson (ed.)

Waterloo, Ontario: Centre for International Governance Innovation (2019), pp. 393-412

"While we might blame news audiences for their short-lived engagement with foreign crises, their reactions are far less surprising when we look carefully at what news stories truly communicate to readers. As illustrated above, the subtle lessons the news media teach audiences about foreign crises wo ... more

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Humanitarian Journalism

Mel Bunce, Martin Scott, Kate Wright

In: Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Communication

Oxford: Oxford University Press (2019), 22 pp.

"Humanitarian journalism can be defined, very broadly, as the production of factual accounts about crises and issues that affect human welfare. This can be broken down into two broad approaches: “traditional” reporting about humanitarian crises and issues, and advocacy journalism that aims to im ... more

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Communicating During Humanitarian Medical Crises: The Consequences of Silence or "témoignage"

Marouf Arif Hasian

Lanham; Boulder; New York: Lexington Books (2019), ix, 294 pp.

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Introducing Information Communication Technologies Into Humanitarian Programming

Eldon. Laura, Anna Kondakhchyan

Oxford: Oxfam (2018), 13 pp.

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Reporting Humanitarian Disasters in a Social Media Age

Glenda Cooper

New York: Routledge (2018), 252 pp.

"Drawing on more than 100 in-depth interviews with journalists and aid agency press officers, participant observations at the Guardian, BBC and Save the Children UK, as well as the ordinary people who created the words and pictures that framed these disasters, this book reveals how humanitarian disa ... more

The Sphere Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response

Geneva: Sphere Association, 4th ed. (2018), x, 406 pp.

"The Sphere Handbook is marking its 20th anniversary with the publication of this fourth edition. It is the result of an intense year-long mobilisation of humanitarian actors around the globe and reflects two decades of experience using the standards in front-line operations, policy development and ... more

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The Routledge Companion to Media and Humanitarian Action

Robin Andersen, Robin Purnaka L. de Silva (eds.)

London: Routledge (2018), xxiv, 572 pp.

"In this moment of unprecedented humanitarian crises, the representations of global disasters are increasingly common media themes around the world. The Routledge Companion to Media and Humanitarian Action explores the interconnections between media, old and new, and the humanitarian challenges that ... more

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Digital Lifeline? ICTs for Refugees and Displaced Persons

Carleen F. Maitland (ed.)

Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press (2018), xxii, 281 pp.

"Today's global refugee crisis has mobilized humanitarian efforts to help those fleeing persecution and armed conflict at all stages of their journey. Aid organizations are increasingly employing new information technologies in their mission, taking advantage of proliferating mobile phones, remote s ... more

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The State of Humanitarian Journalism

Martin Scott, Kate Wright, Mel Bunce

Humanitarian-journalism.net;University of East Anglia (2018), 36 pp.

"Very few international news organisations routinely cover humanitarian affairs. Only 12 news outlets reported on all four of the humanitarian events we analysed in 2016. Because of the high costs of producing regular, original journalism on humanitarian issues, commercial news organisations do not ... more

How to write and talk about infant and young child feeding in emergencies

Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN);IFE Core Group;USAID (2018), 3 pp.

"The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for anyone involved in humanitarian assistance who produces communications on behalf of an organisation (e.g. press releases, social media, fund raising appeals) or engages with the media (e.g. interviews). It aims to support communications expert ... more

Tools for rapid ICT emergency responses and sustainable development

Smart Sustainable Development Model (SSDM);ITU (2018), xv, 112 pp.

"The SSDM Report 2018 provides a number of concrete steps to further and strengthen the implementation of the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Smart Sustainable Development Model (SSDM) Initiative. The ITU Development Telecommunication Bureau (BDT) developed the SSDM Initiative in 201 ... more

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From Radio Silence to Radyo Bakdaw ... …and Back to Normal? A Humanitarian Information Service from Internews in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, Philippines: Final Report

Internews;USAID (2018), 48 pp.

"Radyo Bakdaw was set up by Internews in Guiuan, Eastern Samar after the typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan hit the Philippines on November 8th 2013. The typhoon passed through 9 provinces, an estimated 14 million people were affected by it, 4 million people were displaced and killing at least 6268 people. In t ... more

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Risk Journalism Between Transnational Politics and Climate Change

Ingrid Volkmer, Kasim Sharif

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2018), xi, 292 pp.

"This book introduces a new methodology to assess the way in which journalists today operate within a new sphere of communicative 'public' interdependence across global digital communities by focusing on climate change debates. The authors propose a framework of 'cosmopolitan loops,' which addresses ... more

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The Spontaneous Discourse of Radio Presenters in States of Security Emergency

Ella Ben-Atar, Smadar Ben-Asher

Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, volume 16, issue 2 (2018), pp. 207-228

"Scholars from various research disciplines have focused on ways of helping a civilian population withstand mass natural or human-instigated disasters. The present study examines the theoretical principles suggested by Hobfoll et al. (safety, calming, efficacy, connectedness and hope) by an analysis ... more

Suffering in Silence: The 10 Most Under-Reported Humanitarian Crises of 2017

Care International (2018), 19 pp.

"The importance of media coverage and public awareness to help mobilise funds and increase pressure on decision-makers has been proven again and again. Still, the question on how to ensure better coverage of under-reported crises remains largely unaddressed. So what is needed? Seven equally importan ... more

Advocacy for Communications with Communities at National Level in Bangladesh: Final Evaluation

International Organization for Migration (IOM) (2018), 12 pp.

"Despite two-way communication being an important part of the “Core Humanitarian Standard”, awareness of Communications with Communities (CwC) is limited among disaster responders, government, donor and private sector stakeholders. This lack of awareness results in insufficient budget allocation ... more

Toolkit for Mainstreaming Communication with Communities in Emergency Response

Shongjog;Action Against Hunger (2018), 24 pp.

"In the context of humanitarian action, Communication with Communities (CwC) refers to activities where the exchange of information is used to save lives and mitigate risks of the disaster affected community. It also enables greater accountability in humanitarian organizations and facilitates the de ... more

Preparing the Ground for Better Dialogue, Better Information, Better Action: Lessons on Communicating with Communities in Emergencies
Top Insights

Chris Ford, Soraya Khajehpour

CDAC Network;World Vision International (2018), 31 pp.

"What we’ve learnt about communicating effectively with disaster affected communities: 1. To deliver actionable, life-saving information, emergency responders should strive to agree on common messages developed in partnership with communities and tackle the spread of rumours. 2. It is important to ... more