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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Distance crossing and alignment in online humanitarian discourse

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Abstract This article analyzes multimodal genres of current online humanitarian discourse such as mission statements, annual reports and photo galleries to find how the construals of beneficiaries and humanitarian organizations align with the motives, values and emotional dispositions of prospective donors. The discursive reduction of distance between the donor and the beneficiary is likely to produce solicitation effects and enable self-legitimization. First, based on extant literature, the article develops a method to account for the pragmatic operations of textual ‘proximization’ and visually simulated ‘co-presence’ in humanitarian communication. Then it applies it to a sample of multimodal online messages issued by a prominent Polish humanitarian organization that distributes aid to communities in Africa or Asia. Analysis shows that Polish Humanitarian Action's mission statements and annual reports include strategic construals of space, quantity and transfer of aid that legitimize the organization's activities and their underlying axiological motivations. The texts also reproduce us/them differences to proximize the other that has been ‘Westernized.’ Meanwhile, the photo-galleries manufacture co-presence to enhance the axiological and affective investments in solidarity with the distant beneficiary. The case study offers a preliminary insight into alignment and distance-crossing maneuvers in online appeals that seek to project ‘proper distance’ between the donors and beneficiaries.