I think media can influence people positively in such cases. At least here any disaster broadcasted by media includes also specific bank accounts established by government or trustworthy volunteer charitative organisations, Red Cross f.inst. Sometimes even with numbers and codes of SMS donor messages.
What Ahed wrote about seems to me more like crisis management, where media play also important role, but from point of organisation it is still secondary.
Donor fatigue can only be resolved by the Media. Investigating the true extent of the problems, identifying areas where greater support is required and most importantly keeping the issue alive in the minds of the masses is all upto the media. Nothing can replace the role of media in this case.
Media works on short term policies not long term,Media is himself victim/addicted of donor fatigue,you might be aware of educational campaign or public service messages of main stream media,it was not meant to educate people or bring some kind of change rather was based on donors planning.
but positivist is on main side of media in memorizing ,recalling and provoking government and people to do for mutual goods. Any one remembered the havoc of deadly earthquake in northern ballot of Pakistan,it is media who is more vigilant than state machinery and hence exerted pressure for self reliance.
Media is a very key element in mobilizing people especially donors at the time of crisis. Mobilizing people is a very critical function of media during disasters. But it can effect donors to a certain extent because other factors like political, economic and cultural setup of disaster hit area can contribute towards donor fatigue. In this case media can act effectively if its successful in identifying key problem areas. Media can create such frames and images which are more emotional and humanitarian oriented to overcome donor fatigue
I have personally covered the floods in 2010 in Punjab and the situation was devastating. People in such circumstances are fighting for survival, so they misbehave with the media and its a tough situation but still if media covers these instances with a coordinated effort, taking all channels on board rather than in competition, than an area chart can be defined for coverage and the true picture of the devastation can be brought forward. This will help donors and their fatigue to find the most needy will end.
I personally believe that social networks have become one of the mainstream media, intervening in the field of health and medicine. The society seeks health information for numerous reasons: concern about themselves, their family or their friends. Some searches are simply due to the general interest, perhaps instigated by some recent news or scientific publication. Recent studies indicate that between 75-80% of Internet users look for health information and find it useful.
Of all the social networks, Twitter contains useful, despite the high noise level information, it is a platform to inform in situ and in real time, also has an unlimited number of sources, allows you to include links in the messages, information is immediate, thanks to smartphones can be accessed anywhere and at any time, and is even considering cite scientific articles this way, all this is changing the traditional patterns of health communication.
Increasingly, hospitals and health institutions are adopting this social network for marketing and patient education. Similarly, more and more patients are having their health problems through Twitter professional for advice. They have done several studies analyzing this network in relation to health issues: snuff, nutritional habits, dental problems, antibiotics, influenza virus, etc.