ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an introduction to the fourth part of this book. The essays presented, offer a variety of perspectives on news coverage of humanitarian issues, dating from the early reporting of starvation and famine, to the global conflicts of contemporary times. As journalists struggled to document the depths of human suffering, humanitarian communication in these early stages raised compassion, concern, and actions of all sorts, but also helped to extend the conflicts and misled global publics by offering simple explanations for complex circumstances. In "News Frames and Global Terrorism Coverage in the UK and Norway: Context and Consequences for Humanitarian Issues", the authors compare the coverage of the July 5, 2005 terrorism attack in London to the July 22, 2011 Norwegian attacks. In both cases, local frames of reference and meaning addressed citizens' emotional and communal needs, such as solace, a sense of historical legacy, and identity concerns.
