Global humanitarianism and media culture

The mainstream discussion regarding climate change in politics, public opinion and the media has focused almost exclusively on preventing the harms humans suffer due to global warming. Yet climate change is already having an impact on free-living nonhumans, which raises unexplored ethical concerns from a nondiscriminatory point of view. This paper discusses the inherent ethical challenge of climate change impacts on nonhuman animals living in nature and argues that the media and communication ethics cannot avoid addressing the issue. The paper further argues that media ethics needs to mirror animal ethics by rejecting moral anthropocentrism.

This introductory chapter carves out a space for the histories of emotions and the senses within humanitarian visual culture, by examining the performativity of images in the construction of humanitarian crises. To this end, it analyses how illustrated pamphlets, cinema talks, photographs, documentary films, graphic novels and virtual reality environments have mobilised the affective responses of audiences, thus creating transnational networks of solidarity from the nineteenth century to present-day society. Furthermore, it questions presentist conceptions of pain, compassion, sympathy and empathy, as well as that these emotions have been the natural reaction of spectators regarding the pain of others. The chapter concludes by showing the potential of investigating related conceptions of indignation, shame, rage and horror in order to advocate for a history of humanitarian experiences.

This book is a study of compassion as a global project from Biafra to Live Aid. Kevin O'Sullivan explains how and why NGOs became the primary conduits of popular concern for the global poor between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s and shows how this shaped the West's relationship with the post-colonial world. Drawing on case studies from Britain, Canada and Ireland, as well as archival material from governments and international organisations, he sheds new light on how the legacies of empire were re-packaged and re-purposed for the post-colonial era, and how a liberal definition of benevolence, rooted in charity, justice, development and rights became the dominant expression of solidarity with the Third World. In doing so, the book provides a unique insight into the social, cultural and ideological foundations of global civil society. It reveals why this period provided such fertile ground for the emergence of NGOs and offers a fresh interpretation of how individuals in the West encountered the outside world.