Media and the Digital Age

Location

University of Dayton

Start Date

10-2-2015 4:00 PM

End Date

10-2-2015 5:30 PM

Abstract

One important strategy that HROs, and other actors, employ to call attention to human rights abuses around the world is “naming and shaming.” By calling attention to governments for their human rights violations, HROs hope to galvanize world public opinion and increase pressure on these states to halt abuses. While some HROs, like Amnesty International, communicate directly with their large membership bases, the vast majority of HROs rely on the international media to communicate their message to the international community.

Issuing reports and press releases is a major part of their strategy the international community aware of abuses The more media coverage an HRO's reports and press releases receive, the more their message is “amplified.”

This paper discusses the development of the first measure of amplification of HRO messages in the international media. Using this new data, this paper develops a theory and then tests hypotheses about how certain characteristics of HROs (their budget, their network connections to each other and to intergovernmental organizations, their membership bases, and their usual targets) matter for amplification.

Comments

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Oct 2nd, 4:00 PM Oct 2nd, 5:30 PM

Turn Up the Volume: The Amplification of Shame (abstract)

University of Dayton

One important strategy that HROs, and other actors, employ to call attention to human rights abuses around the world is “naming and shaming.” By calling attention to governments for their human rights violations, HROs hope to galvanize world public opinion and increase pressure on these states to halt abuses. While some HROs, like Amnesty International, communicate directly with their large membership bases, the vast majority of HROs rely on the international media to communicate their message to the international community.

Issuing reports and press releases is a major part of their strategy the international community aware of abuses The more media coverage an HRO's reports and press releases receive, the more their message is “amplified.”

This paper discusses the development of the first measure of amplification of HRO messages in the international media. Using this new data, this paper develops a theory and then tests hypotheses about how certain characteristics of HROs (their budget, their network connections to each other and to intergovernmental organizations, their membership bases, and their usual targets) matter for amplification.