The Communication Space of Humanitarian Organizations as a Space of Negotiating Legitimacy Issues
Communication campaigns by humanitarian organizations are, beyond the instruments for convening a committed reaction, spaces for legitimizing an existence that must constantly be justified because it cannot be taken for granted. This discussion explores some issues of legitimacy in the humanitarian field and the mechanisms of affirmation and reactivation of legitimacy at stake in the communication devices of humanitarian ngos. The aim is to highlight the place of the image in these processes, by showing how, through the humanitarian representations of the victim, humanitarian organizations legitimize their existence.