Shedding light on a global disaster

“If you are planning a famine, don’t hold it in summer – we’re on vacation then. Also, avoid U.S. election years.”

That old and sad “joke” is one relief workers used to tell years ago to explain the lack of media attention for some disasters in the developing world. It came back to me as I thought about how little coverage the terrible hunger crisis in parts of Africa and Yemen is getting today.

And it is terrible; an estimated 20 million people face starvation in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and parts of Kenya and Nigeria. It’s the largest humanitarian food crisis in 70 years, according to the UN.

And yet, there has been very little news about it in the Canadian media.

Sure, there’s been a bit of coverage here and there. In late May, the government of Canada announced its Famine Relief Fund to galvanize Canadians into helping people facing starvation.

The announcement generated a bit of attention – a brief mention in the TV and radio news, a short piece in the back pages of newspapers.

After that, there’s been silence.

Why is this the case? Why so mostly little media attention for such a terrible disaster? I can think of a few reasons.

First, it’s a hard story to tell. Journalists can’t get into the most-devastated areas – even relief groups have trouble getting to places of the greatest need due to fighting.

Second, media outlets have fewer resources and staff to cover stories like this. Even if they wanted to do more, it’s hard for them to find the funds, space or time to do it. The rise of social media, and the huge drop in advertising and circulation, has hit the media hard.

Third, it’s hard to tell the story of a famine. Famines take months to develop. Until the food runs out, and people are dying, there are few dramatic images of need to show or stories to tell. By the time it does hit the news, it is often too late.

Fourth there’s the Trump effect; the U.S. President has sucked up much of the media oxygen. Throw in terrorist attacks in Manchester and London, plus all the other news competing for attention, and it can be hard to find time and space for the famine.

Unfortunately, this lack of media coverage for disasters like famines isn’t new. That was the finding of a 2007 study of major U.S. TV network news by Thomas Eisensee and David Stromberg.

Titled “News, Droughts, Floods, and U.S. Disaster Relief,” it looked at how 5,000 natural disasters between 1968 and 2002 that affected 125 million people were covered by the major U.S. TV networks.

The study found that coverage was affected by whether the disaster occurs at the same time as other newsworthy events, such as the Olympic Games, along with where it happened and how many people died.

It showed that while the media covered around 30 per cent of the earthquakes and volcanic disasters, less than five per cent of droughts and food shortages were covered – despite many more people dying due to droughts and food shortages.

The authors even came up with a numerical comparison: For every one or two people who dies in an earthquake or volcano overseas, 32,920 people must die of food shortage to receive the same media coverage.

The study also revealed geographical bias, showing that 45 times more Africans have to die in a disaster than Europeans to get the same kind of media coverage.

But when the media did pay attention to a disaster in the developing world, the study showed that people responded. It found that media attention spurred governments and people to action.

And that’s what we need today. The media is facing challenges at many levels, but it is still one of the best ways to reach large numbers of people. Aid groups like Canadian Foodgrains Bank depend on media attention to get the word out about this need, and about the government’s special time-limited match. We can’t do it alone – we need the media’s help.

Canadians are generous. But they can’t respond if they don’t know about the needs facing millions in the world today. Will the Canadian media step up and encourage them to help? Will it show it is still plays an important role in shaping and galvanizing public opinion? I hope so. The lives of millions depend on it.