Media Bias on Western Media Coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict - Report Example

Running Head: Media bias Media bias on western media coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict Customer’s Name: Customer’s Course Tutor’s Name October 10th, 2012. Introduction Media bias has become a controversial issue when it comes to coverage of news in the Middle East regions and all over the world. There are two factors which are said to have an influence on media bias which includes: mobilizing of citizens or public in favour of political opinion such as mobilizing voters. The second factor that influences media bias is the government activities that are not supposed to be known to the public such as corruption or extra judicial killings (Lorentzen, 2006). Media bias is described as that situation where there is favour in doing something for one side over another (Mc Quil, 1992). D’Alessio and Allen (2006) explains media bias as having a continuous yet unbalanced news in the media that specifically targets some individual’s opinion or a specific number of ideas when it comes to reporting. Media bias is also viewed as providing information to the public or individual decisions based on the demand for news by the public as identified in the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE, 1999) whereby seventy eight percent of the public believed that the news they received were biased. Types of Media bias Media bias takes various forms and in this case, there are eight classifications namely bias by spin, by story selection, by distortion, by content, by selection of sources, by placement, by decision making and finally by omission (Wall, 2001). Bias by spin means the report being given to the public is giving one side of an idea which might be in favour of a particular party or group leaving out the other side of the idea. Bias by story selection is a pattern that is adopted where reporters develop particular stories or headlines and in case there is an opposing side of the story, they try as much as possible to ignore it. Bias by selection of sources means particular sources are appreciated or frequently referenced due to support of particular ideas or opinions. Bias by placement means much emphasis and interest on a certain story that a journalist considers hence keeps repeating the story. Bias by omission means diverting away from a particular point of an idea which might support another idea hence the reporter or journalist concentrates on giving out information focusing on one side. Distortion bias is whereby the news is given in a manner that suites a particular situation. Content bias is relaying information basing on one side of the story hence not giving the other side which in most cases causes political conflict. Decision making bias is where journalists give information basing on their individual opinions. Reasons for media bias Media bias can happen due to a lot of reasons among them may be in occasions whereby journalists reporting on a certain event have their own opinion of the events taking place which result to changing the information and reporting it to favour their opinion. Political interest is also another reason and it usually occurs when the report given suits a particular political party. A reporter may also be biased towards a particular event happening where he/she takes the opportunity to give their personal opinion hence this kind of bias is based on a journalists prejudgments which can also be termed to be unethical. Racial bias is another reason why there can be media bias and in this case racism seems to be a major issue as news is given to favour a particular race. Various advertisements or corporate companies can cause media bias as the media can concentrate on giving adverts of a particular company as compared to others. History of Israeli –Palestine conflict The Arabs and the Jews had stayed together for a long period of time from 1880 without any emergence of conflict between them until the Arabs realized that their long time friends, the Jews had an agenda of displacing them in their land. Conflict between Palestine and Israel started way back during world war one which from ever since, this conflict has become the longest to have ever lived. This is because the Jews wanted to have a dominant home for its people in Palestine and this was made possible by the British as they helped them have a national home in this particular country and it was through this that they would have control over the Suez channel. Due to the much support, in the year 1917 the British government offered to help the Jewish nation to secure Palestine to be its national home. Much support was offered by the British even after the Palestine country under the governance of Ottoman lost in the world war that saw Britain encourage large a number of Jewish people to migrate to Palestine. This in turn made Arabs angry over this act leading to a rise in conflict between the Arabs and the Jews. This conflict grew to World War 2 where there was collaboration in the British government and the Jews to fight with Palestine. Several attacks followed that saw many Arabs including children being killed by the Israeli forces from the year 1949 to 1967. Western media coverage of Middle East The western countries have not had much coverage of the events happening in the Middle East countries and the only issues that are in the spotlight are the conflict and the many wars experienced in these regions. Another issue that makes the western media not concentrate much on other issues affecting the Middle East region hence have a biased media coverage is that they are limited to issues affecting this region and prefer talking on other issues affecting other parts of the world. Covering news in war torn countries is rather challenging and difficult to handle while reporting on the composition of Middle East, the reporters focus their talks and discussion on Muslims leaving behind the Christian composition in that region (Evans, 2010). The western media only spotlights the negative effects in this region such as everyday bombings, ever rising poverty levels and the crises going on in the countries surrounding this region. The western media concentrates much on attacks made to the Israel country and claims that it is the Muslim world responsible of all these attacks not mentioning that they are the large majority that is left to suffer after they are accused to be the ones who fully participate in the terrorist attacks. In all their stories the western media avoids incriminating Christians in their issues of terrorism hence have a biased opinion. In terms of favor biasing the western media is always seen to support Israel in the conflict between the country and Palestine. The Israeli lobby group- more reason for western media bias The western region especially the United States has a special attachment to the Israeli due to the special US Middle East policy that saw great support from the US in terms of provision for security in times of war. Due to the much support given to Israel, the country has been able to develop to a democratic country on its own not fearing the judgement from other Islamic countries. This lobby group has left many with questions about why the US wants to support them and have much interest in this particular country but all this can be explained as it might be due to the strong support that the western country provided when it wanted land that the Jews would occupy after they defeated Palestinians (Ashuri, 2010). This can be the major reason why the western media is for the Israeli country in its conflict with the other Arab countries. Much coverage is on the wars that have taken place hence with the help of the lobby, other interests that Israel as a country gets from the US is the massive support when it come to provision of more military in war and the funding that the American government give Israel. It is estimated that about one-fifth of the American budget is allocated to the Israel government for assistance of security in that country. Israel also benefits from other deals in the American country such as providing systems that develop weapons which makes it to be a country that has the best and current war machines. The US has made it free for Israel to access its war aircrafts and top class weaponry and any intelligence on nuclear creation not forgetting the diplomatic support that is always in their disposal (Pasquini, 2001). The US government has participated in any rescue efforts that Israel has needed during time of war and has acted as its negotiator as in 1993 Oslo Accords. Though the much support that the US government grants to it’s ally country-Israel in times of war, this country continues to remain a liability because it only provided support during the six day war that was held in 1967 where Israel helped in containing the expansion of the soviet and helped in protecting friends allied to the US government such as King Hussein. (Wolfsfeld, 1997).Though the Israeli portray themselves to be the weakest country in the Arab countries, the authors of THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S FOREIGN POLICY, Mearsheimer and Walt (2006) say that Israel has a strong military base as compared to other Arab countries in the Middle East and has signed peace treaties with countries such as Egypt and Jordan to fight against countries like Syria. Palestine is viewed to be stronger than Israel while they have a weak police force let alone the military. Israelis act as underdogs and yet it controls about 3.8 million of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West bank(Mearsheimer and Walt, 2006).Another reason that might lead to organization of this lobby group may be to compensate for past crimes where the Jews suffered in the Christian West due to persecutions. Bias in British news coverage If a person who is reporting a story from a culture that is different from his own culture does not take caution to be impartial they may apply cultural bias to the news (Davenport, 2010). In terms of ideological differences Palestine and the west are very different. The western society is built around Christian and secular ideals which contrast with Palestinian society which is Islamic. According to Gillespie (2009), Journalist in the Middle East have a larger responsibility in providing quality and accurate coverage of the Middle East crisis. In addition to cultural ideology, political ideology is also a contributory factor to a journalist’s bias. Journalists own ideological leaning to intentionally or unintentionally influence the objectivity of the news they present to audiences. Preconceived theories and beliefs among western journalist are a major cause of concern when reporting news about the conflict (Davenport, 2010). Irrational fear of Islam is among one of the factors that may lead to bias against the Palestinians while reporting news. Although, the fear is not expressed outward in the society, most researchers show that a large majority of people hold deeply rooted stereotypes against Muslims and therefore Palestinians . A journalist who is affected by this Phobia would find it profoundly difficult to accurately report the Israel-Palestine conflict. Some journalists hold the misconception that Muslims are violent. These negative attitudes among others make objective reporting on the conflict almost impossible at the personal level. The structure of ownership of media stations is also a contributory factor in biased coverage of the Israel-Palestine crisis. Many media houses are owned by Jewish owners or people who are politically connected to the Israel government (Gillespie, 2009). In Britain and the United states, Jewish lobby are very powerful, they influence all aspects of business including the media. The lobby groups exert pressure at the highest level of media organization making sure any news that is critical to Israel’s role in the war is not broadcast. In addition, some mainstream media houses are privately owned and their coverage reflects the ideological leaning of the owners. Media house proprietors also have an impact on the coverage given to the conflict. According to Gillespie (2009), Journalist working in Mr. Murdoch Media Empire are wary of broadcasting anything that is critical of Israel. A correspondent with the Times, Sam Kiley, alleges that Mr. Murdoch is strong ally of the Israeli government. At one point, it is said Mr. Murdoch ordered him to omit the mention of the death of a child in an interview with the Israeli army unit associated with the fatality. Mr. Kiley linked Mr. Murdoch to investments in Israel and personal relationships with the Israeli leading elite. Mr. Murdoch owns one of the largest press organizations in the world constituting of the influential Fox news network in the US (Gillespie, 2009). Similarly, the objectivity of journalist within US Hollinger group was also constrained by its former proprietor, Conrad Black. Mr. Black influenced the editorial policy of the Telegraph as he was a strong supporter or Israel. Conclusion To conclude on the above essay, there are various explanations on what media bias is, the types and reasons why media bias can have effect on areas such as political interests and the effects that media bias has in journalists reporting. The report has also talked about the Israeli –Palestinian conflict which brought about the formation of a lobby group that mainly consisted of Western Countries which offered massive assistance to the Israelis as they were seen as the weakest country in the Middle East. While some reporters challenge the above idea saying that Israel is said to have the strongest military defence force as compared to Palestine, the essay has also gives reasons why there is so much bias on the western media coverage on this conflict. Some of the reasons why there is massive support on the Israeli side on British news coverage are due to the fact that they see Israel as a country that has weak defence and that came in strongly to offer support in the six day war. In the essay, it has been seen that most bias is based on the journalists’ prejudgment which is decision making bias. This kind of bias has lead to more conflict because most of the news given to the public is based on the journalist opinion which in most cases takes a one sided idea hence favoritism. References Ashuri, T. (2010). The Arab-Israeli conflict in the media [electronic resource]: producing shared memory and national identity in the global television era / Tamar Ashuri. London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2010. Davenport, C. (2010). Media bias perspective and state repression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Debrauwere-Miller, N. (2010). Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Francophone world [electronic resource] / edited by Nathalie Debrauwere-Miller. New York: Routledge. Evans, M. (2010). Framing international conflicts: Media coverage of fighting in the Middle East. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 6(2), 209-233. Gillespie, M. (2009). Alison Weir Speaks in Des Moines. Washington Report On Middle East Affairs, 28(1), 51. Harvey, N. (2012). Why do some conflicts get more media coverage than others? New Internationalist, (455), 40. Pasquini, E. (2001). Teach-In at College of Marin Examines Media Bias in Reporting Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Washington Report On Middle East Affairs, 20(4), 59. Philo, G. & Berry, M. (2004).Bad news from Israel.Variant, 2(21), 21-22. Rhodin, S. (2007). Helena Cobban Analyzes Media Bias. Washington Report On Middle East Affairs, 26(7), 55. Wall, J. M. (2001). Media bias. Christian Century, 118(12), 29. Wolfsfeld, G. (1997). Media and political conflict: news from the Middle East / Gadi Wolfsfeld. Cambridge [England]; New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Zeitzoff, T. (2011). Using Social Media to Measure Conflict Dynamics: An Application to the 2008–2009 Gaza Conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 55(6), 938-969. Read More

Bias by omission means diverting away from a particular point of an idea which might support another idea hence the reporter or journalist concentrates on giving out information focusing on one side. Distortion bias is whereby the news is given in a manner that suites a particular situation. Content bias is relaying information basing on one side of the story hence not giving the other side which in most cases causes political conflict. Decision making bias is where journalists give information basing on their individual opinions.

Reasons for media bias Media bias can happen due to a lot of reasons among them may be in occasions whereby journalists reporting on a certain event have their own opinion of the events taking place which result to changing the information and reporting it to favour their opinion. Political interest is also another reason and it usually occurs when the report given suits a particular political party. A reporter may also be biased towards a particular event happening where he/she takes the opportunity to give their personal opinion hence this kind of bias is based on a journalists prejudgments which can also be termed to be unethical.

Racial bias is another reason why there can be media bias and in this case racism seems to be a major issue as news is given to favour a particular race. Various advertisements or corporate companies can cause media bias as the media can concentrate on giving adverts of a particular company as compared to others. History of Israeli –Palestine conflict The Arabs and the Jews had stayed together for a long period of time from 1880 without any emergence of conflict between them until the Arabs realized that their long time friends, the Jews had an agenda of displacing them in their land.

Conflict between Palestine and Israel started way back during world war one which from ever since, this conflict has become the longest to have ever lived. This is because the Jews wanted to have a dominant home for its people in Palestine and this was made possible by the British as they helped them have a national home in this particular country and it was through this that they would have control over the Suez channel. Due to the much support, in the year 1917 the British government offered to help the Jewish nation to secure Palestine to be its national home.

Much support was offered by the British even after the Palestine country under the governance of Ottoman lost in the world war that saw Britain encourage large a number of Jewish people to migrate to Palestine. This in turn made Arabs angry over this act leading to a rise in conflict between the Arabs and the Jews. This conflict grew to World War 2 where there was collaboration in the British government and the Jews to fight with Palestine. Several attacks followed that saw many Arabs including children being killed by the Israeli forces from the year 1949 to 1967.

Western media coverage of Middle East The western countries have not had much coverage of the events happening in the Middle East countries and the only issues that are in the spotlight are the conflict and the many wars experienced in these regions. Another issue that makes the western media not concentrate much on other issues affecting the Middle East region hence have a biased media coverage is that they are limited to issues affecting this region and prefer talking on other issues affecting other parts of the world.

Covering news in war torn countries is rather challenging and difficult to handle while reporting on the composition of Middle East, the reporters focus their talks and discussion on Muslims leaving behind the Christian composition in that region (Evans, 2010). The western media only spotlights the negative effects in this region such as everyday bombings, ever rising poverty levels and the crises going on in the countries surrounding this region. The western media concentrates much on attacks made to the Israel country and claims that it is the Muslim world responsible of all these attacks not mentioning that they are the large majority that is left to suffer after they are accused to be the ones who fully participate in the terrorist attacks.

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