ABSTRACT
In the last fifty years, the United Nations and its specialized agencies along with NGOs have organized so-called international years dedicated to numerous causes including refugees, human rights, tourists, and literacy. Recent international years also commemorated Kirgiz statehood, the gorilla, and quinoa. This chapter investigates how these years became a key element in the UN communication policy in the 1970s. While these years were supposed to challenge stereotypes routinely perpetuated in the media, their success, paradoxically, depended to a great degree on the media: not only as a channel to convey their “message” to the public, but also as a means to appeal to “global consciousness” and attract donors to sponsor initiatives and projects. Focusing mainly but not exclusively on the International Year of The Child (1979), the chapter examines how events organized by the UN—including poster exhibitions, international congresses, mega-concerts—were communicated via newspaper and magazine articles, photography, radio and television programs. In particular, it explores how such these media campaigns shaped new discourses and visual languages specific to vulnerable groups.
