Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2016 | Page 41

Calculation of Goodwill
humanitarian actions, we observe the intensity of news coverage and the role of the
public and public perceptions in Operation Damayan in relation to the 2004 Indian
Ocean Tsunami and the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan.
Decisions to address human suffering are not only shaped by historical milieu
and seen as larger episodes of involvement; they are also shaped by media coverage
and the public (Mueller 2005; Page, Shapiro, and Dempsey 1987; Shirky 2011).
Livingston (1997) postulates that the media can enhance the role of the public in
inducing or impeding an intervention. Media can serve as a “force multiplier” and
induce an intervention by shortening the time in which decision makers form their
policy responses or act as an “emotional inhibitor” and impede an intervention by
covering events with a focus on casualties (Frizis 2013; Livingston 1997). Buzan
(2004, 17) argues that the potential for humanitarian action increases when nonstate
actors encourage media to raise awareness of a natural disaster, emergency, or armed
conflict. Media are likely to exercise more influence and persuasion within foreign
policy decision-making circles when there is significant uncertainty and disagreement
among policymakers (Bob 2005; Gowing 1994; Minear, Scott, and Weiss 1996, 73;
Strobel 1997).
Instances of human suffering are likely to become news events with both
traditional and social media outlets intensifying coverage and raising the level of
human interest. This ebb and flow contributes to a “media attention cycle,” in which
degrees of news reporting and public coverage shape and determine media coverage
of human suffering (McPhail, Schweingruber, and McCarthy 1998). These norms
influence governmental interests and policy action, especially since different forms
of media create perceptions and images of suffering and crisis at particular moments
(Finnemore 1996, 2–3; Ignatieff 1998). Research demonstrates public empathy tends
to rise and fall when human suffering and crises occur around the world, resulting
in so-called compassion fatigue (Belloni 2005; Dean 2003; Minear, Scott, and Weiss
1996). Digital media have the potential to tap into public sympathy by capturing and
sharing stories and images of human suffering (Shirky 2011).
Social media coverage has tested conventionally understood boundaries
between formal and informal modes of covering global crises while at the same time
enhancing citizen journalism (Palen and Liu 2007; Williams 2013). Although the
connection between the increase in the number of persons accessing the Internet and
social networking sites with political engagement is tenuous at best, one study finds
that individuals who seek out information on social networking mediums lead to
greater levels of civic and political participation and awareness (Gil de Zúñiga, Jung,
and Valenzuela 2012; Shirky 2011).
The public can play an influential role in shaping policy responses to human
suffering by limiting the range of options available to policymakers and making
decisions to use military resources politically risky (Feaver 1998). However, intensity
of public awareness is determined by the extent of news coverage of human suffering
and public opinion. Elites are likely to be influenced by public attitudes prior to or
in the wake of foreign policy actions, especially with regard to the use of military
force in response to armed conflicts and natural disasters (Baum 2002; Burstein 2003;
35