Media coverage of natural disasters and humanitarian crises

Natural disasters and crises stemming from conflict are by their very nature pivotal events. They cause tremendous disruption to the regions affected, but also often attract the world’s attention to those regions—regions that may not usually be in the regular global spotlight. And while disasters are devastating to those they affect, that very devastation can generate opportunities that did not previously exist. The disasters and crises attract media coverage, and that consequent attention—as well as the real need for help—may create leverage to budge not only the new disaster-related problems but preexisting issues, such as those that underlie efforts to achieve the multilateral Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

To find and capitalize on that potential leverage, international and bilateral development agencies—including the World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development, and U.K. Department for International Development— can help by evaluating how both traditional and new media function and by discovering who the new stakeholders are, both in short-term disaster relief and in the longer-term MDGs. Today’s world has seen an exponential growth in the number of parties who have a potential stake in alleviating the problems addressed by the MDGs, and many of those new stakeholders also see opportunities in the information and communication needs of what Paul Collier has called “the bottom billion.”