Bureaucratic Responsiveness in Humanitarian Aid: Media Attention and Diversity as a Determinant of US Complex Emergency Aid

Media attention has widely been acknowledged as a key determinant of foreign aid. Existing research has linked high levels of coverage to increased aid, pointing to such trends as evidence of “bureaucratic responsiveness” to news media. While aid bureaucracies may respond to media pressure, the dynamics underpinning this responsiveness are likely more complex than current models suggest. Currently, most research has only explored how the volume of media attention shapes aid. The content of attention is rarely considered. This oversight is problematic given recent research suggesting the diversity of media framings—the level of “attention diversity”—influences policymaker interest. By analyzing USAID complex emergency aid between 2000 and 2019, this study finds attention diversity significantly shapes aid decisions. Moreover, its influence is conditioned upon the volume of media attention. When coverage of a crisis swells, and when that coverage diversifies in framing, bureaucracies award disproportionately higher levels of aid.