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UN House PoC 3 Juba - Central Equatoria State: Wave 2 Assessment

Internews (2015), 9 pp.

"In August 2014 Internews launched Boda Boda Talk Talk (BBTT) in the Protection of Civilians site known as PoC 3 in Juba. PoC 3 is the newest site and is adjacent to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) UN House base that contains PoC 1 and PoC 2. BBTT is a professionally produced reco ... more

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Communication and Complex Emergencies: A Resource Guide

Andrew Skuse, Tait Brimacombe, Dianne Rodger

Adelaide: University of Adelaide, Applied Communication Collaborative Research Unit (ACCRU);Australian Civil-Military Centre (ACMC) (2015), 57 pp.

"This resource guide assesses the broad role of information and communication in disaster situations and complex emergencies. It highlights a number of distinct communication phases or cycles associated with emergency or crisis communication, as well as defining the broad range and diversity of init ... more

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State of the Use of Mobile Technologies for Disaster Preparedness in South East Asia

Chih-Hui Lai, Arul Chib, Rich Ling

Singapore: Nanyang Technological University (2015), 66 pp.

"This project is conducted in response to Global Disaster Preparedness Center’s (GDPC) initiative of developing flood hazard preparedness mobile apps in the four target countries (Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam)." (Executive summary)

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Mapping Information Ecosystems to Support Resilience

Internews (2015), 2 pp.

"This tool is designed to support decision makers in understanding how information contributes to a more connected and resilient community. Whether your community is defined by place, population, issue, or a mix of these, a good understanding of a community's information needs and use are essential ... more

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Communication for Humanitarian Action Toolkit (CHAT)
Key Guidance

Andrew Skuse et al.

Adelaide; New York: University of Adelaide, Applied Communication Collaborative Research Unit (ACCRU);UNICEF, working version (2015), 67 pp.

"Welcome to the Communication for Humanitarian Action Toolkit, CHAT. It has been designed with practitioners in mind and is a resource that you can work with and adapt as you strive towards your communication for humanitarian action goals. The toolkit provides guidance to humanitarian and developmen ... more

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WorldCat (9)

Not Up for Debate: U.S. News Coverage of Hunger in Africa

Lauren Kogen

International Communication Gazette, volume 77, issue 1 (2015), pp. 3-23

"This article explores how the U.S. news media construct the topic of hunger in Africa for U.S. audiences. Specifically, the article addresses how newspapers define and delimit the relationship between U.S. citizens and foreign sufferers. Through a framing analysis and critical discourse analysis of ... more

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Area of Origin: Communication Channels and Social Media Report Syria

REACH (2015), 8 pp.

"With 4 million refugees in neighbouring countries and six and a half million Internally Displaced Persons within Syria, communication tools have become critical for the Syrian population to maintain contact with their family and friends both inside and outside the country. The costs associated with ... more

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Guidance for Incorporating Big Data Into Humanitarian Operations

Katie Whipkey, Andrej Verity

Digital Humanitarian Network (DH);Decision Makers Needs (DM-N) (2015), 33 pp.

"This document has been created to provide a broad overview of big data usage in humanitarian organisations and general guidance on how organisations can incorporate it into operations. It describes big data and its role within the humanitarian sector, offers a categorisation of the large variety of ... more

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Coordination Around Communicating with Disaster-Affected Communities: Insights from Typhoon Haiyan

Caroline Austin, Nicki Bailey

Humanitarian Exchange, issue 65 (2015), pp. 19-23

"Sudden-onset emergencies are typically chaotic, making effective communication between communities, humanitarian responders and governments, whether local or international, challenging. Building on experience from the response to Typhoon Bopha in Mindanao in 2012, the United Nations Office for the ... more

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Disaster Response: Nepal Earthquake Response and Recovery. Overview

London: GSMA (2015), 24 pp.

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Humanitarian Technologies: Understanding the Role of Digital Media in Disaster Recovery

Mirca Madianou, Jonathan Corpus Ong, Jayeel Cornelio, Nicole Curato (eds.)

Humanitarian Technologies Project (2015), 5 pp.

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Making Secondary Trauma a Primary Issue: A Study of Eyewitness Media and Vicarious Trauma on the Digital Frontline

Sam Dubberley, Elizabeth Griffin, Haluk Mert Bal

Istanbul: Eyewitness Media Hub (2015), 69 pp.

"The rapid and incredible growth of eyewitness media (also known as user-generated content or UGC) has led to the emergence of a new cadre of journalists, humanitarian and human rights professionals whose job it is to seek out, verify and edit the most disturbing and traumatic raw images captured by ... non professionals and posted online. These professionals are tasked with viewing and sifting through massive volumes of eyewitness media - that is, raw, unedited, authentic footage now captured regularly on smartphones - to enhance their investigations, reporting, operations, prosecutions and advocacy. Professionals who work with eyewitness media watch disturbing footage from war zones, natural and manmade disasters and accidents over and over again to verify its veracity and to edit out images that are deemed too extreme for viewing by the general public. Viewing traumatic images of death, destruction, blood and unimaginable horrors all day every day - often for years on end - is now an integral part of the daily work of many desk-bound staff working for news, human rights and humanitarian organisations who are often located thousands of miles away from where the actual horrors occur. Whether it is a broadcaster, publisher, human rights or humanitarian professional, symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are now evident amongst staff working in offices on what we call the digital frontline. This study builds upon previous research that proved that viewing distressing eyewitness media can lead psychological injury, including, but not restricted to, such conditions as PTSD and major depression. The principle aim of this research is to explore the following questions: How much distressing eyewitness media are professionals, who work in the three professional sectors, watching? How frequently, and in what volumes are professionals viewing distressing eyewitness media? What kinds of eyewitness media do professionals find particularly distressing?" What coping mechanisms, if any, have been developed by staff to help mitigate the potentially negative effects of viewing distressing content? - What support, if any, do professionals receive from their organisations and senior managers? - Does organisational culture encourage or prevent professionals from requesting support from their organisation’s hierarchy? What training and preparation is provided to raise awareness of or mitigate the adverse impact of trauma exposure on university graduates, newcomers and those established in post? What resources do organisations provide to prevent, mitigate and treat the adverse impact of trauma exposure? Which of those resources have been used? Which are found to be the most useful? What do staff who experience vicarious trauma need and expect from their organisations in order to support them? Based on an online survey (to which we received 209 responses from people working with eyewitness media across all three professional sectors) and 38 in-depth, anonymous interviews we find that: the impact of eyewitness media on journalism, human rights and humanitarian work means that the frontline is no longer geographic. A new type of frontline has emerged that is digital. Staff at an organisation’s headquarters who work with eyewitness media do so daily and often see more horror on a daily basis compared to their counterparts deployed in the field. Consequently, organisations have a duty of care towards office based staff working on the digital frontline who are at serious risk of vicarious trauma and PTSD [...] " (Executive summary, page 3-5) more

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Humanitarian Broadcasting in Emergencies: A Synthesis of Evaluation Findings

Theodora Hannides

London: BBC Media Action (2015), 64 pp.

"This synthesis of evidence suggests that BBC Media Action interventions have an important role to play in assisting people affected by crisis, and is consistent with other literature that highlights the role of media in providing accurate and reliable information in crisis. It highlights that, as w ... more

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Finding a Voice Through Humanitarian Technologies? Communication Technologies and Participation in Disaster Recovery

Mirca Madianou, Liezel Longboan, Jonathan Corpus Ong

International Journal of Communication, volume 9 (2015), pp. 3020-3038

"Voice—understood as the ability to give an account of oneself and participate in social processes—is increasingly recognized as significant for humanitarian action and disaster recovery. Giving disaster-affected people the opportunity to make their voices heard has the potential to democratize ... more

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Digital Inequality and Second-Order Disasters: Social Media in the Typhoon Haiyan Recovery

Mirca Madianou

Social Media + Society, volume 1, issue 2 (2015), 11 pp.

"This article investigates the intersection of digital and social inequality in the context of disaster recovery. In doing so, the article responds to the optimism present in recent claims about “humanitarian technology” which refers to the empowering uses and applications of interactive technol ... more

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WorldCat (8)

Disasters and Information Source Repertoires: Information Seeking and Information Sufficiency in Postearthquake Haiti

Erich Sommerfeldt

Journal of Applied Communication Research, volume 43, issue 1 (2015), pp. 1-22

"This study examines how Haitians used “information source repertoires” to meet information insufficiencies following the 2010 earthquake. Using survey data gained in Haiti, the study explores which demographic and structural factors predicted the number of sources used and combinations of infor ... more

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Google Scholar (8)

WorldCat (7)

Audiences in the Face of Distant Suffering: New Challenges for Old Ideals?

International Communication Gazette, volume 77, issue 7 (2015), pp. 603-707

External Link (9)

Google Scholar (8)

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Media Witnessing: Exploring the Audience of Distant Suffering

Maria Kyriakidou

Media, Culture & Society, volume 37, issue 2 (2015), pp. 215-231

"This article aims at demonstrating the relevance of the concept of 'media witnessing' as an analytical lens for the study of audience engagement with media reports of distant suffering. Drawing upon existing theoretical work on the concept, the article approaches media witnessing as a distinct moda ... more

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Google Scholar (9)

WorldCat (7)

Digital Humanitarians: How Big Data is Changing the Face of Humanitarian Response

Patrick Meier

Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press (2015), xxv, 233 pp.

"The overflow of information generated during disasters can be as paralyzing to humanitarian response as the lack of information. This flash flood of information'social media, satellite imagery and more is often referred to as Big Data. Making sense of this data deluge during disasters is proving an ... more

Google Scholar (9)

WorldCat (8)

Humanitarianism, Communications and Change

Simon Cottle, Glenda Cooper (eds.)

New York et al.: Peter Lang (2015), xi, 279 pp.

Communication for Humanitarian Action Toolkit (CHAT) Key Guidance

Communication for Humanitarian Action Toolkit (CHAT)
Key Guidance