How to (Re)act? Moral Reflections of an Audience to Messages of Distant Suffering

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Paper Session: Global Communication and Social Change Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The current study interrogates reactions of an audience in a continuously globalizing society. Ideas of cosmopolitan citizenship and global moral responsibility have gained significance in the academic debate (cf. Chouliaraki, 2006; Linklater, 2007). In particular, it has been suggested that media representations that are embedded in a cosmopolitan discourse can encourage an increasingly global moral horizon in audiences and encourage solidarity towards distant suffering (Chouliaraki, 2006; Kyriakidou 2014; Linklater, 2007). It is this line of argumentation that is further explored in our study. The study is based on six focus groups (total of 27 participants) during which people were shown a news item of the Dutch national news broadcaster on the humanitarian situation during the 2011 Horn of Africa crisis. In the subsequent group discussions, particular attention was paid to people's reflection about their own moral responsibility towards the distant suffering.

Author

• Eline Huiberts, Ghent University