Digital Humanitarian Communication


In an article Dr. Etem analyzes a contemporary UNICEF multimedia project that solicited donations and activism from online publics to support Syrian refugees. She examines how UNICEF encouraged online publics to engage with its projects by using hashtags and writing personal stories in its digital platforms. She pays particular attention to how whiteness shaped representations of refugees in strategic impact documentaries on social media. Since she identifies vulnerabilities in digital humanitarian communication, I urges UNICEF to mitigate cybersecurity risks and protect the privacy of internet publics in its digital projects.

Etem, Aysehan Jülide. 2020. “Representations of Syrian Refugees in UNICEF’s Media Projects: New Vulnerabilities in Digital Humanitarian Communication.” Global Perspectives 1 (1). https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2020.12787.

For more on this project, visit my digital archive Refugees in Media.