IASC Weekly meeting (Geneva) - Trends in New Media and Reporting in Humanitarian Action
Geneva
Meeting Documents
1. Trends in new media and reporting in humanitarian action
Ben Parker, Director of the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), will brief on trends in new media and reporting in humanitarian action, with special reference to the 2011 Horn of Africa crisis. The decline of old media and the rise of social networks, mobile phones and easy-to-use online mapping is revolutionising how news and information is gathered and disseminated. How is this playing out in the humanitarian sector, and what trends are shaping coverage of crises and the practice of humanitarian information and communications?
Background
Ben Parker is a specialist in humanitarian affairs and media. Since 1989 he has worked mainly for UN agencies in Africa, but also as a freelance writer and technology consultant. From the early 1990s, he became involved in setting up some of the first e-mail systems in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya. In 1995 he co-founded IRIN, a service covering humanitarian issues and parts of the world often under-reported, misunderstood or ignored. He set up the initial editorial and online systems for IRIN, and later moved into web publishing in the private sector with Africa Online. As a UN communications officer in Sudan from 2003-2006, he was closely involved in raising the alarm about Darfur internationally. After a brief stint at the European Commission, he returned to IRIN in 2006 as its global Editor-in-Chief and since 2009, its director. In 2011 he was also made interim head of OCHA's regional office in Nairobi.
2. AOB