Media, Mobilization and Human Rights: Mediating Suffering

Why do news stories of atrocities sometimes mobilize people, while at other times they are met with indifference? Do different forms of media have a greater or lesser impact on mobilization? Media, Mobilization, and Human Rights investigates the assumption that exposure to human rights violations in countries far away causes people to respond with activism.

Turning a critical eye on existing scholarship, the authors argue that there is nothing inherently positive or negative about exposure to the suffering of others. In doing so, they offer an array of case studies, from human rights reporting in Mexican newspapers to the impact of media images on humanitarian intervention in Somalia, from the influence of celebrity activism to the growing role of social media. Examining a variety of media and drawing upon a range of disciplines, this collection presents radical new ways of thinking about the intersection of portrayals of human suffering and activist responses to them.