The deserving victim: public responses to humanitarian communication in the UK

This paper discusses preliminary findings from the 3 year research project, ‘Mediated Humanitarian Knowledge; audiences’ responses and moral actions’. The project investigates what happens in the gap between knowledge and action: through what socially constructed scripts do audiences come to understand humanitarianism and make sense of their responsibility towards distant suffering? What roles are humanitarian agencies perceived to play in facilitating or preventing audiences’ moral responses to distant suffering? What role do biography and emotions play in audiences’ responses? While reporting on the project’s general findings, the presentation will concentrate on how ideologically laden notions of what constitutes a ‘deserving victim’ mediate audiences’ responses to humanitarian communication