Aid organizations and the press.

• Author: Ross, Steven S.
• Position: Essay

"The natural tendency is that money should go for food. There used to be a natural culture of modesty, and we felt good about it, that there should be little advocacy for the group, that everyone just wanted to do their work. This changed during the nineties with the Balkan conflict. [We] became a huge player.... In those days we had no web site and only a five-page annual report", said one press officer for a large United States-based non-governmental organization (NGO) with small press operations.

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Aid groups do indeed put as much money as possible into aid itself, and donors expect it as well. But there is also a realization that money spent on press relations produces more aid dollars down the road. A good image also helps smooth relations with host Governments and improves staff morale. Can we do better?

Fritz Institute and Reuters AlertNet set out to study the relationship between humanitarian relief organizations and the press, with the hope that the findings could help NGOs benefit from the correlation between press coverage, operations and funding. Until now, no one had asked NGO journalists and press officers in any systematic way about the issues that bind and divide them. We surveyed NGO officials in the fall of 2003 and used their responses to help develop a questionnaire that was sent to journalists in mid-December.

This article focuses mainly on insights gained from that survey, which was conducted in person and by phone and e-mail with 54 NGO respondents, mostly from outside North America. The study shows that aid groups have been mistaken in their belief that journalists do not know about chronic problems. But they do know, and efforts spent to educate them further will be wasted--they just don't think these problems are worthy of immediate coverage. Few journalists cover humanitarian relief efforts full-time; thus, they bring to aid stories the news judgement of other "news beats". That news judgement is basically that "we know you have a problem, but give me an excuse to cover that problem today. Otherwise, it will have to wait."

The NGO press officials we contacted and their organizations have responded to the changing environment. Organizations and individuals have gotten sharper, improved budgeting, reviewed priorities and have adapted to and adopted the World Wide Web. But they have not moved fast or far enough.

Larger NGOs typically ask local press officers to "pass media up the line" to the...