What impact do mass media portrayals of atrocities have on activism? Media, Mobilization and Human Rights challenges the assumption that exposure to human rights violations in countries far away causes people to respond with activism to end atrocities. Turning a critical eye on existing scholarship, the authors argue that the reality is complex, and that there is nothing inherently positive or negative about exposure to the suffering of others. In exploring this, the book offers an array of case studies and examines a variety of media forms - from television and radio through to social networking – to present radical new ways of thinking about the intersection of media portrayals of human suffering and activist responses to them.