Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) recently launched a campaign to recruit volunteers for its programs in five countries – Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nigeria and Mongolia – which may not be able to continue if there is not increased volunteer interest. VSO attributed the decline in volunteer interest in these countries in part to inaccurate media portrayal of these countries as dangerous. Find out what one VSO volunteer in Eritrea had to say about his host country, and check out Why Are You Outstanding?, the tale of a VSO English teacher in Sri Lanka.

How far do you think media portrayal of a place influences your choice to travel or volunteer there?

I think it’s hard to deny that the media plays a huge role in shaping people’s ideas about safety and, well, about conditions in general, more so when the place in question is not one which sees frequent visitors (or a place which no one you know has visited). I think Croatia, for example, will continue to be, in the minds of many from the US, conjoined with “a war”- and possibly ER’s Goran Visnjic - while European tourists quickly buy up beautiful and relatively cheap island property.

To some extent, I think the media reports what people want to read or watch, and this in turn probably reflects at least somewhat what people already believe. The Internet, however, another form of media of course, is an excellent starting point to do your own research. You definitely can’t trust everything you read online, but you can see what others are saying and thinking, even if they are not part of an organization large enough to have “real” media coverage. And then you can seek out more authoritative information.
Some good starting points online are:

• Transitions Abroad
• Glimpse Abroad Magazine
• Bootsnall
• True Travellers Society
• Volunteer South America
• Independent Volunteer