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Hughes MRP presentation
1. WHOSE LIVES ARE
IMPORTANT? Disasters
A Media Analysis of the 2010 Haiti & Pakistan
Sarah Hughes
Master of Professional Communication
Haiti, 2010 Pakistan, 2010
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
3. MOTIVATIONS
• Summer 2010
• Recognized a difference
in media attention
• Human rights issue
Haiti, 2010
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
4. FOCUS
• Media in the service of reporting on international crises
• Case between the 2010 Haiti earthquake and
Pakistan flood
• Textual analysis of a major Canadian newspaper (Globe & Mail)
• Ideological position
• Identify instances of ideological discourse to reveal how
these are part of a larger social structure
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
5. BACKGROUND
Haiti earthquake Pakistan flood
• January 12, 2010 • July 26, 2010
• Measuring 7.0 on richter scale • Flood following monsoon rain
• Affected: approx. 3 million • Affected: approx. 20 million
• Loss of life: approx. 230,000 • Loss of life: approx.1,400
• $3.3 billion • $1.6 billion
• $587 million (private • $1 million (private donations
donations after 19 days) after one month)
• Media: 3,000 print • Media: 730 print
3,000 broadcast 320 broadcast
(by day 10) (by day 10)
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
6. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Agenda-Setting
The media tells us not what to think, but what to think about
Media Framing
The visual and verbal material of a story can influence the
way an audience interprets an issue or event
Critical Cultural Theory
The media enables the upper class to influence and control
society by the messages they choose to convey
Critical Race Theory
Investigates the relationship between white supremacy and
racial power
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
7. RELEVANT RESEARCH
• Media portrayals of foreign nations tend to be stereotypical
and focus on a limited number of stories that support the
audiences' perceptions of certain countries (Besova & Colley, 2009).
• Scholars argue that larger social structures influenced the
communications response to victims of Hurricane Katrina
(Elliot & Pais, 2006).
• Researcher has found that there is no correlation between
the number of casualties of natural disasters and their media
attention. Rather, research demonstrates that there are other
contributing factors to how the media prioritizes its coverage
of international events, which include media and public
ideologies, the popularity of the country (tourist destination)
and proximity (Adams, 1986).
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
9. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• How did the media portray the Haiti and Pakistan crises?
• What judgments did the media make about the crises?
• Was agenda-setting a factor in the case of the Haiti and
Pakistan disasters?
• What underlying ideologies does the media reveal about
our larger social structures?
• How did these ideologies impact the public's response to
the 2010 Haiti and Pakistan disasters?
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
10. METHODOLOGY
Data Collection:
• Data source - The Globe and Mail
• 20 newspaper articles and editorials
• (10 Haiti & 10 Pakistan)
• Globe and Mail archive
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
11. METHODOLOGY Con’t
Data Analysis:
• Norman Fairclough’s principles for Critical Discourse Analysis
• Communication influences and is influenced by social institutions and
structures of power (Fairclough, 2001)
• Analyzed the expressive values in texts (judgments and evaluations made by
the media)
• Incorporated Hodge & Kress's Syntagmatic model, specifically relating to
relationals and attributives
• Seven themes provided a system of organization in my research. These
themes included, destruction, victims, relief/ aid, crisis, security, Canada, and
Haiti or Pakistan
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
12. FINDINGS
• Approx. 1 flood story for every 4 earthquake stories, supporting
the agenda-setting theory
• Two predominant themes:
• Paternal rational for assisting Haiti
• Lack of agency for Haitian victims
• Media portrayed the earthquake as far more severe than the flood
• The media focused on both the severe destruction as well as the
political and social challenges the country faced prior to the
earthquake
• The general framing of Pakistan was as war-torn and political
unstable nation
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
13. FINDINGS Con’t
• Canada was portrayed as a heroic nation during the Haiti
recovery mission
• The media appeared to portray helping Haiti as Canada's
patriotic responsibility
• Colonization was portrayed as an acceptable means for
recovery in Haiti
• The media often conveyed a west-knows-best ideology in
terms of its social, political and cultural ideals and behaviours
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
14. FINDINGS Con’t
Additional Factors:
• Celebrity endorsements
• Geographical proximity
• Media trends in natural disasters
• Donor fatigue
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
15. CONCLUSION
Larger socio-political ideologies, specifically Canada's paternalistic and
discriminatory ideologies, may have affected the media's response and the
public's understanding of the earthquake and flood. My investigation
revealed that agenda-setting did in fact play a critical role in influencing the
tremendous difference in humanitarian support between the Haiti and
Pakistan disasters. The awareness of the flood was limited while the well-
publicized crisis in Haiti enabled greater public awareness to motivated
donor behaviour.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
16. LIMITATIONS
• Scope
• Timeframe
• Personal ideologies
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
17. FUTURE RESEARCH
• Increase the scope of data
• Visual discourse analysis
• Primary data collection
• Interviews (evaluate audience impact and perceptions)
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
18. CONTACT INFORMATION
primary email: sarah.hughes19@gmail.com
secondary email: sarah.hughes@ryerson.ca
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Wednesday, September 7, 2011