David Girling is an Associate Professor in the School of Global Development (DEV) at the University of East Anglia, UK.
David’s research focuses on three main areas: social media for development, humanitarian communication and ethical storytelling. He is particularly interested in how imagery is used in development communications and led on a research study of visual communication in six African countries. His research project, Who Owns the Story in collaboration with Jess Crombie, involves live financial testing of charity versus participant led storytelling in fundraising. He has recently co-authored a chapter with Sarah Horton “Wateraid: Representing Development through Art and Developing Artists through Representation” in the Routledge Handbook of Arts and Global Development.
David is a Chartered Marketer with over 25 years marketing and communications experience in the public and non-profit sector. David has been actively involved on a number of committees and judging panels including The Chartered Institute of Marketing Charity Group, The NGO International Film Festival, HEIST Awards for Marketing Excellence and the Rusty/Golden Radiator awards for online videos promoting best practice in development communication. His interests are multidisciplinary, but has particular expertise in strategic marketing, communications, PR, branding, digital and social media. David is co-director of the MA Media and Global Development course at the University of East Anglia and teaches on a variety of different modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Posts
Charity representations of distant ‘others’ in direct mailouts: time for a rethink?
Are the images we use truly fostering an informed and engaged donor public with a nuanced understanding of global inequalities? Analysis of hundreds of images from nine British INGOs’ direct mailouts suggests visual priorities in this area still need addressing.