Mobilizing Our Community for Humanitarian Action

Rather than specific counsel on communicating, my thoughts are observations about the context within which we communicate as well as some of the questions we need to address in communicating about humanitarian issues in Iraq.

• We must think of context, which does present challenges for communications in response to the humanitarian needs in Iraq.
• First, let’s consider the environment in which one would put forward a message.
• TV is still the number one choice for news source and I’ll draw on this for a couple of minutes.
• Let me give an example of what has drawn people to TV. In the first week of the war, the audience for CBC TV’s National news at 10:00 pm increased by almost 50 %.
• In the US, there was wall-to-wall coverage in the early days of the war and, while that has tailed off, it still dominates CNN and Headline News.
• Some aspects of war coverage had the highest ratings in the first week of the war.
• After the war was about a week old, however, none of the war coverage ranked in near the top, as interest waned. In the U.S., it is interesting to note that the two most watched programs in the second week of the war were two episodes of American Idol.
• Not to dwell on this point, but people tend lose interest quickly when the action wanes.
• The media are talking about the issues of humanitarian response, but this is a minor part of the coverage.
• Given a choice, news media and especially TV will go to the drama of a situation, whether it is looting of the tearing down of a Saddam Hussein statue.
• We are drawn to events.
• That’s the context in which we communicate!

• This is a fundamental question and an important one in this situation.
• Let’s consider the way in which media, especially TV, is consumed.
• Most people view with the remote control handy and change channels very quickly is there is the slightest hint of being bored.
• In flipping through the daily media, it is difficult to differentiate where we want to place our attention, what we want to understand, what is credible.
• That certainly seems to be the case with something like the current war coverage.
• When trying to define out audience, what do we really know about the people who do respond in situations like this?
• People respond in a variety of ways to all kinds of media.
• Is being asked to respond to the need in Iraq considered as just another request for money this week?
• Canadians do respond – we see this repeatedly.
• Increasingly, people want to know how much of an overall response is needed? What are governments doing?

• Assuming we know our audience is, what is our message?
• What are the most important things we want to communicate?
• Do people know what we mean by humanitarian response?
• It seems to me that we need to help the audience sort through all the information in the media in order for them to know how to respond.
• From my experience, it doesn’t help when they are buried in messages and information. But, the challenge is to put forward information and messages that stick in people’s minds and move them to action.
• Having the right messages is essential.
• Knowing that it usually take 8 to 10 times before messages penetrate our consciousness, let alone move us to action, what messages will hold up with repeated use?
• How can we touch people to move them to respond?
• One of the major challenges in communicating in any complex situation is to have messages that not only stand out in same way, but that also are credible.
• Do the images of the human pain and suffering really work? I think we often assume they do and there is lots of evidence that these do evoke a response.
• However, do we really know if this is the best way to reach people.
• How do we expect people to respond to our message, if they have seen coverage of a supply truck being mobbed by a group of people desperate for food and drink.
• All of us want our contributions to make a difference and we need the credibility to assure people that this will occur.
• But, there is the issue of people feeling overwhelmed with what is required.
• We need to be specific on what kind of individual, personal responses are possible.

• Response is significant – needed right now.
• But, we’re also talking about a process of education, which takes time.
• As Martin Bunton said, "we need a clear, strategic vision" and that applies to communication.
• We need to define what needs to be accomplished right now, but we need to also clarify the longer-term response and communicate it.

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