Mike Thomson talks of the symbiotic relationship between the aid world and media
Shaheen Chughtai: "there is a symbiotic relationship between journalists and aid world - they can work together. the times when th erelationship brealks down a bit is in complicated situations"
Mike Thomson of BBC's Today programme has strugged in Niger to get facts from humanitarian agencies which doesn't help with accusations of simplicity
Mike Thomson: "You only have one chance as a broadcast journalist. You have to file a story, sometimes you can't wait that long"
@james - asbolutely - we'll let you know when the floor opens for questions
Shaheen Chughtai saying "sometimes in the field there isn't a full appreciation of what the media world is and how it works"
Tim Large, Editor of AlertNet talks about AlertNet's attempts to make humanitarian reporting more sophisticated
Tim Large is talking about DR Congo and the IRC's landmark morality survey several years ago which put the story on the front pages
Tim Large is talking about how underneath that figure was a really messy complex story about how that data was collected
Tim Large is mentioning the recent reports that WFP aid was going missing in Somalia and welcomes their openness in hosting a session such as this
Greg Barrow: "we are fortunate as humanitarian agencies to be dealing with reporters who want the full story"
Greg Barrow saying how he worries about new brand of citizen journalists who can bring unsubstantiated info to a lot of people
Greg Barrow -- social media presents aid agencies with a steep learning curve
Greg Barrow saying there are peole out there putting out information quickly, when many don't have journalistic training or know how to report responsibly
Greg Barrow - one of the fears that trained journalists may take leads from unsubstantiated reports on twitter and elsewhere
Greg Barrow is head of WFP's media team, the key figure in interaction with the media
Tim Large - new media can also bring new information to life, as well as presenting challenges such as those greg mentions
Tim Large is saying new media has brought to light interesting stories, Twitter and 140 characters approach, we're seeing that is actually a useful too to simplify and boil down news"
Tim Large - we must see social media as just one tool in the tool
Shaheen Chughtai saying potential of new media hasn't really sunk for many in aid world, also the risks.
Shaheen Chughtai is a humanitarian policy advisor at Oxfam as well as former journalist who helped launch Aljazeera International's English website in 2004
Lyse Doucet asks panelists how disaster stories can make people sit up and take notice when stories often have a similar feel
@james the 5 panelists are just wrapping up - do start sending any questions you have on the issues discussed
Greg Barrow saying it's sometimes it needs boldness of someone in th epublic eye to say out loud "this is the worst disaster in the world at this time"
Lyse Doucet is asking for a show of hands on the issue of whether the media is getting better or worse at covering hunger
The audience is about split!
Peter @ the British Medical Journal asks from the floor about the "f" word famine - there are a billion hungry people in the world today - how does one raise emergency levels of famine compared to ongoing levels - how are we supposed to prioritse as journalists?
Alex Renton former Oxfam and now freelance journalist raises the issue of how thin budgets are becoming and how hard it now is in the media climate to get the resources to cover complex crises
Alex Renton from the floor says journalists aren't very good at asking enormous questions about the systems aid organisations use to feed the hungry
Please send us your questions for our panel!
The panel are responding to questions - Greg Barrow of WFP responds to Peter @ British Medical Journal - we've learnt a lot about how to feed hungry people since 1984
Mike Thomson came across no other British journalists on a recent trip to Niger
Mike Thomson talks about the expectation from editors following a trip to a hunger zone that journalists will return with lots of pictures of starving people
Mike Thomson describes difficulties of covering hunger crises round the world. If you try to explain that a terrible situation is possible, there can be pressure to say it's a famine, or might be.
Tim Large says that there is a wonderful story to be told about efforts to combat hunger - but aid agencies can blow hot and cold on the "f" word when they need it
