What is humanitarian news? A multi-sited study of how journalists define, debate and reproduce the boundaries of humanitarianism

The rapid spread of new forms of digital media production and reception around the globe is often seen as bringing about a 'contemporary flourishing of humanitarianism' (Barnett and Weiss 2013:9). Yet no one has ever studied the world's largest humanitarian news agencies, whose output is regarded as highly influential for relief workers, policy makers and donors working in humanitarian response. In particular, we know almost nothing about such news agencies' approaches to humanitarianism, news-making, and the relationship between the two. Nor do we yet understand much about the distinctive characteristics of the texts humanitarian news agencies produce. The main objective of this research is to remedy this situation by conducting a 12 month comparative analysis of two major global sources of humanitarian news, Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) and the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF). This is made possible by the unprecedented level of access to these organisations we have been able to achieve. Indeed, we have already been conducting a small-scale pilot study with IRIN since January 2015 in which we have tested our methodology, refined our research questions and developed a suitable project management model. Our research will focus on three main areas. First, we are interested in what different people within these organisations think humanitarianism is. Does the concept of humanitarianism imply a certain threshold of suffering - either in terms of the number of people affected or the severity of the crisis? Is it more important to focus the immediate aftermath of a disaster or the slow-onset of chronic crises and efforts to prevent them? Secondly, we are concerned with the ways in which the routines and practices of news production affect journalists' ability to pursue the forms of humanitarian news that they value. How does physical location, online collaborative working and the use of different digital media shape humanitarian news content, for example? Thirdly, we aim to investigate what distinguishes the actual outputs of IRIN and TRF from each other and from that of other news organisations - especially the BBC World Service (BBCWS) and Reuters. Do humanitarian news organisations represent suffering in distinct ways? How do they attribute responsibility and frame the consequences of humanitarian crises? What, if anything, is unique about their sourcing practices, and use of multi-media material? In order to answer these three sets of research questions we will be conducting (1) extensive newsroom observations with IRIN, TRF, the BBCWS and Reuters, primarily in London, but also in Bangkok and Nairobi, (2) regular interviews with relevant journalists and editors and (3) a long-term content analysis and framing analysis of their outputs, over a 12 month period. Our model of project management involves fortnightly and quarterly team meetings, routine reporting to research partners and a reciprocal process of researcher skill-sharing, all overseen by a project mentor. The results of our study will be disseminated directly to IRIN and TRF and to academics in media studies, journalism studies and development studies as well as relevant news organisations, funders, regulators, public service broadcasters, the humanitarian sector and the general public. Results will be disseminated through social and mainstream media, academic articles, conference papers, an industry focussed final report and a 'fusion' dissemination event.