Keeping empathy alive: New media and storytelling on disasters looks at how the media can frame stories on disasters, and use new media to get information on them.

1. Keeping empathy alive: New
media and storytelling on
disasters
Sanjana Hattotuwa
Editor, Groundviews (www.groundviews.org)

2. disasters

3. reporting disasters
Protracted ethno-political conflict is difficult to report
Sudden onset disasters are easier to cover, but
attention difficult to sustain over time
Competing disasters, limited attention
Fatigue, hopelessness are enemies of charity and
humanitarian aid

4. what is empathy?
Noun, the ability to understand and share the feelings
of another.

5. why empathy?
Guilt-tripping people doesn’t work, nor does jumping
and down about millions of people dying or destitute.
Helps media consumers connect.
Highlights shared concerns over basic human needs -
food, security, shelter.
Focuses on individuals, not groups.
Positive stories of success and transformation
generates and sustains interest.

6. free mandela

7. social psychology
One experiment found that people are quite willing to pay
for a water-treatment facility to save 4,500 lives in a
refugee camp with 11,000 people in it, but they are much
less willing to pay for the same facility to save 4,500 lives
with 250,000 inhabitants.
Paul Slovic, a psychology professor at the University of
Oregon who has pioneered this field of research, notes
that saving a large proportion of a group is very satisfying,
while saving a small proportion seems like a failure—even
if it's a high number.

8. greater proportion = lesser proportion =
more attention limited attention
IDPs saved Total IDPs IDPs saved Total IDPs
4500
4500
11000
250000

9. feeling good or feeling guilty
Make people feel good for helping and intervening.
Show them how they can help.
Acknowledge both the desperate needs and also
tangible progress.
Flag the prospect of improvement in real people's lives
if the help goes forward.

10. impact on women
Carolyn McAskie, Acting Head of UN OCHA notes in 1999,
“While both men and women are affected by conflict, crisis
situations have a differentiated impact on them. Conflict and war are
not gender neutral. Thus, eighty percent of the internally displaced
persons and refugees around the world are women and children.
Women are in flight, adapting to life in camps, or are directly caught
up in the midst of conflict. In many cases, women and teenage girls
in conflict zones are the sole providers and protectors for their
families, since most men have either been killed or are away on
combat duty. This situation leads to a shift in gender roles with a
dramatic increase in the number of women heads of households.”

12. what works? shock?
Pablo
Bartholomew,
1984, Bhopal

13. what works? shock?
James Nachtwey, 1992, Somalia

14. what works? symbolism?
Arko Datta, 2004

15. what works? symbolism?
James Nachtwey, 1994, Rwanda

16. what works? symbolism?
Mike Wells, 1980, Uganda

17. new technology &
new media

18. new technologies
Blogs
Social networks (Twitter, Facebook)
Web 2.0
Mobiles | SMS | MMS | Mobile video
VoIP / Skype

19. what’s new
Ubiquity of two way communications
Addressable peoples, even those displaced
Victims no longer mere passive recipients of aid
Disaster early warning, preparation, response and
recovery tied to communications and technology
First stories from disasters come from victims and
witnesses

20. what’s new
Low resolution content broadcast on high definition
media
Content from ordinary peoples juxtaposed with
professional journalists
Technology now accessible and produced by women,
children and even those who are illiterate

21. enduring challenges
Impartial, accurate coverage still vital, increasingly hard
to ascertain
Torrent of information. Trickle of knowledge.
Post-disaster communications can be unreliable and
difficult
Early warning does not save lives without disaster
preparedness

22. power of sms
“My name is Mohammed Sokor, writing to you from
Dagahaley refugee camp in Dadaab. Dear Sir, there is
an alarming issue here. People are given too few
kilogrammes of food. You must help.”
What if mobile phones were also handed out with aid?
SMS text messages from IDPs / refugees could
become an effective SOS for millions

23. power of sms
The web is littered with examples on how SMS helped in the immediate
aftermath of the tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
“I'm standing on the Galle road in Aluthgama and looking at 5 ton
trawlers tossed onto the road. Scary shit.”
“Found 5 of my friends, 2 dead. Of the 5, 4 are back in Colombo.
The last one is stranded because of a broken bridge. Broken his leg.
But he's alive.”
“Made contact. He got swept away but swam ashore. Said he's
been burying people all day.”
“Just dragging them off the beach and digging holes with his hands.”

24. london bombings | CJ
7 July 2005
Within 24 hours, the
BBC had received
1,000 stills and videos,
3,000 texts and 20,000
e-mails.

25. flickr

26. visualisations | google earth

27. visualisations | google earth

28. pc broadcasting | ustream.tv

29. mobile broadcasting |
bambuser.com

30. twitter
First reports of Chinese earthquake in May 2008 were
from Twitter
Mexico City earthquake in 2007
Minneapolis Bridge collapse in 2007
Post-election violence in Iran in 2009

31. http://www.twitter.com/apelankawe

32. facebook

33. facebook for disasters
Australia to use Facebook, Twitter to issue disaster
warnings
Social networking sites are to be trialed for issuing urgent
messages about natural disasters in the Cairns region in
far north Queensland.
Many young people access their social networking
websites several times per day.
Using Facebook and Twitter as a way of communicating
with young people.

34. wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26_November_2008_Mumbai_attacks

35. wikipedia on mumbai
attacks
400+ edits / updates, including emergency evac
information
100+ authors including eye-witness testimonies
Less than 24 hours after first attack

36. reliefweb
http://www.reliefweb.int

37. irin
http://www.irinnews.org

38. prevention web
http://www.preventionweb.net/english

39. reuters alertnet
http://www.alertnet.org

40. google reader
http://reader.google.com

41. reporting toolkit
Both ways: YouTube, SMS + mobiles, Twitter,
Facebook, blogs etc
Pull: RSS, Web, Wikipedia, Publish: Vodcasts,
Podcasts, Vodcasts, Podcasts, Blog, Flickr,
Google News alerts, SMS, Mobile video/photos
Alertnet, IRIN, Reliefweb etc etc

42. recap
Highlight shared concerns and basic human needs -
food, security, shelter.
Focus on individuals, not groups.
Write positive stories of success and transformation to
generate and sustain interest.

43. recap
New technologies give voice to the illiterate and
voiceless
Be sceptical of information, but use new media
Develop media literacy to embrace new technologies

44. thank you