Yemen – C4D Network

Communication and community engagement in humanitarian response (Humanitarian Exchange Special Feature, February, 2019)

April 14, 2019

This edition of Humanitarian Exchange, co-edited with Charles-Antoine Hofmann from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), focuses on communication and community engagement. In 2017, UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other partners came together under the auspices of the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) Network to establish the Communication and Community Engagement (CCE) initiative. The articles in this edition take stock of efforts to implement this initiative.

Click here for full edition.

State of Social Media: Middle East 2018 (University of Oregon, 2019)

February 11, 2019

This report is the seventh in an annual series of publications showcasing the latest developments, trends and research in social media usage across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Using a wide variety of academic, industry and media sources, this White Paper features key insights from social media’s development over the previous year. Notable trends from the past year include the continued popularity of Facebook and Facebook-owned products, especially with Arab Youth, as well as increasing challenges to online freedom of expression in many parts of the region. Saudi Arabia continues to be a social media powerhouse, being one of the biggest national markets for Snapchat and YouTube in the world.

Meanwhile, the rise of social media influencers has met with some pushback; from regulation in UAE, to more tragic and threatening responses in Iraq. This report explores these developments, as well as emerging questions about the rise of fake news on social media, and the role that social networks are playing in Yemen’s civil war.

Click here for full report via SlideShare.

The State of Humanitarian Journalism (UEA, 2018)

November 12, 2018

This report presents some of the findings from a four-year global research project into the state of humanitarian journalism around the world. The authors asked:

Which news organisations regularly report on humanitarian affairs? How are they funded, and what ethical problems or professional dilemmas does this create for journalists covering humanitarian affairs?
When natural disasters and violent conflicts are reported, what kinds of journalistic coverage do they receive? Do news outlets differ from one another, and if so, how?
How interested are news audiences in journalism about humanitarian affairs? How well does existing coverage serve their needs, and the needs of those involved in international aid? Which significant ‘gaps’ are there in news provision?
What effects does news coverage have on public attitudes towards international aid?

Their analysis of news coverage reveals that only a small handful of international news outlets regularly report on humanitarian affairs, and identified a number of important gaps in humanitarian news coverage. Almost no articles looked at the specific problems faced by women and girls in relation to the conflicts in Yemen and South Sudan in 2017, for example.

Click here for the full report.