From the Crisis to the Screen: Visual Images of Refugees

Since 2001 a number of campaigns have been launched, with the aim of heightening public awareness and drawing attention to media representations of refugees. Awareness campaigns have aimed to raise public consciousness of the reporting of forced migration. And, partly influenced by the World Trade Center attacks, a number of initiatives have aimed to help improve media coverage of the Developing World. The paper investigates the nature of the visual representation of refugees and the factors, such as ‘compassion fatigue' and ‘stereotypical' disaster imagery that may contribute to high levels of public response to humanitarian disasters. Apart from the demand for dramatic pictures, which can mean that disasters which do not generate sensational images do not reach a wide audience, public awareness of the crisis can often depend upon individual journalists championing a cause. On the other hand, European news media organizations have become subject to budget cuts in overseas reporting and an increasing dependence upon the ‘mobile phone images' produced by ‘citizen journalists' has put a new range of dramatic images into circulation with a new kind of immediacy. The paper reflects upon a ‘good practice' case study to trace the refugee story “From the Crisis to the Screen”. It makes a comparison between media image and the ‘real life' situation; NGO policy, editorial processes & publication; media take-up and the outcomes of fundraising campaigns to provide research-based practical guidelines for those working to relieve humanitarian crises.