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Questioning visuals in humanitarian communications and fundraising in light of localisation and AI.

The use of images is crucial in the way we communicate especially in the humanitarian sector where an image is truly "worth a thousand words", many emotions, conversations and storage for historic information.

In this episode Deborah Adesina (Debby), Doctoral Scholar at the University of Liverpool and David Girling, Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia, UK both co-leads of the Charity Advertising Research Series hold a light-hearted yet thought-provoking conversation on the use of generative AI images as an option for humanitarian campaigns.

Nwabundo Okoh, Comms and Marketing Lead at the HLA approaches the conversation through the lens of David and Debby's in-depth research pieces and follow-up articles on the analysis of UK charity visual communications in direct mail campaigns and the analysis of charity advertising supporting international causes in UK national newspapers. Asking how/if generative AI images might be considered now or in the future.

Debbie quoting Susan Sontag says that “the problem isn’t that people remember through photographs but they remember only the photographs”

Listen now to hear David and Debbie's fresh perspectives on findings from their research; why knowing your 'why' is so important; how humanitarians can consider navigating the use of AI for images, what to be aware of and more

Keywords: Localisation, Ethical storytelling, International development, Poverty, Fundraising, Humanitarian communication, Photography, AI, Education, Co-creation, Authenticity

Speakers: David Girling, Associate Professor, School of Global Development - University of East Anglia, UK | Deborah Adesina, Doctoral Scholar, University of Liverpool | Read their full profiles and find more information here: To AI or not to AI: a humanitarian comms conversation - Humanitarian Leadership Academy

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The views and opinions expressed in our podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of their organisations.