This article examines how the Rana Plaza disaster, the deadliest garment factory accident in history, was covered in four newspapers in Bangladesh and Norway. It discusses the role of journalism in producing connectivity between audiences and victims within and across national borders and uses Roger Silverstone’s concept of ‘proper distance’ and Lily Chouliaraki’s hierarchy of proximity to examine mediated social relationships in newspaper coverage of the disaster. This study suggests that turning suffering into practical action requires the combination of local and global perspectives. Many of the journalistic stories analysed do not fall fully within the scopes of traditional labels such as ‘local’, ‘national’ or ‘foreign’ news stories. This article, therefore, argues that elements of ‘glocal journalism’ are required to fully capture transnational phenomena such as global trade.