Last night, at a meeting of the international committee of the Public Relations Society of America National Capital Chapter, we heard perspectives on "branding of human crisis." In other words, the speakers addressed the issue of how to get people to care about human suffering. Mike Carberry, president of CARMA International, a global media analysis company, put it simply when he said that self-interest drives coverage. The company recently completed analysis of global coverage of human disasters. The results of its study are published in Western media coverage of Humanitarian Disasters. Download the PDF. Major conclusion are:
Economics is a better guide to press interest than human suffering
Politics determines the timing, level of interest and story angle, not the humanitarian issues
Me, me, me - in other words, how it affects the individual/national interest determines coverage.
What's the take away? Look for the economic, political, and local impact in your story.
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