Organisations: A Battle for Life, in the Name of Globalisation

Abstract: The aim of this study is to look at how organisations’ discourse is tailored to reach and persuade the donors, how it is constructed in terms of representation and power, and if there has been a change on representation of aid over the last decade. The study is conducted from texts and visuals from the Anglo-Saxon Save the Children Organization and the French Apprentis d’Auteuil Catholic Foundation to evaluate cultural points in relation to discourse constructions; most of the selected Material has been extracted from respective website at the same period of time (2003, 2013, and 2014) to make the comparison fair. The theoretical framework includes communication for development, post-colonialism, social theology, representation, discourse and power; the methodology is related to discourse analysis and visual analysis. The deconstruction of the texts has revealed that the traditional way of representing the disadvantaged as the voiceless ‘Others’ and the hegemonic approach, in the name of globalisation, are still strongly present as it seems to be a trigger for the act of donation. Nevertheless, according to studies, a new wind of social responsibility instead of Christian duty is emerging. A gap between the traditional representation of aid and actual modern actions implemented by organisations has been noticed mostly on the French national level. The recommendation to the organisations would be to compose a new discourse in their communication, placing the helper and the helped on a balanced representation, giving a common ‘human’ voice, promoting participation and insuring sustainable social change, towards a real changing of mentalities of the audience. This communication should also be homogenised between ‘old’ and ‘new’ media as well as speeches held by the organisations’ staff.