Representation of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict in Western and Middle Eastern Media - Essay Example

Representation of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict in Western and Middle Eastern Media Representation of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict in Western and Middle Eastern Media Nowadays most people in the world have at least one way to access the media. Most people even in poorer countries have access to several information resources. It has become really easy to access a piece of news. There many ways to access information, for example, TV, internet and radio all provide access to news. There are also a huge number of channels in the world. These channels are divided into many categories ranging from entertainment to hot news channels. Every single channel has something on show 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thus media informs people, provides some selective information and also generates some political ideas to viewers. As a result our world is highly driven by the media. People tend to believe every word that comes from media outlets. The media play a very important role even in political matters. Since the media has become the primary way to deliver news, it has also become a very effective way to generate and influence the ideas that people receive about events. This paper will examine media culture in the US and the Middle East. It will analyze how each tells a different narrative about the same story in relation to Palestinian and Israeli conflict. It will discuss how Western media try to create negative perceptions about Arabs through other mediums. The emphasis of this research will be on the significance of what is said and left unsaid, the marked and the unmarked, and the impact that this information has on society and how civilians relate to one another. We will begin by briefly mentioning what is going with Palestine and Israel which is a very long and complex story. There is huge conflict between among these two parties. The main reason for the conflict is basically that both sides believe that the land belongs to them and not the other. Each party wants to call the same land different names. Israeli people want to call it Israel and Palestinian people want to call it Palestine. Moreover, this conflict is due to many diverse religious beliefs which have added to the ongoing conflict. This conflict is very well-known and most people are aware of it as this conflict has been the major topic on news channels including Western and Middle Eastern channels. In fact, this conflict has been viewed by the media differently depending on their perspective. They cover the same story of the conflict, however they tell us different narrative. Sturken & Cartwright state that “the stories told through the media are always incomplete and caught up in editorial decisions that cannot be separated from broader power structures" (2009, p. 255). Therefore, the way that a channel tells the narrative highly influences the viewers. In the next paragraph, I will examine and provide examples of two narratives of same story. In western media the conflict is often perceived from one side. It is narrated in a way that shows the Palestinian party as terrorists and the Israeli party as the rightful owners of the land. Kenazi (2006) points out that whenever there is news about this conflict, the title always says something like ‘a Palestinian terrorist strikes Israeli civilian killing a number of people’. The media always show the Israeli pain and neglects the Palestinian sufferings. Kenazi (2006) also refers to a study that highly supports his claim by saying: An American organization that exposes and examines the facts of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict…conducted a study and reported 808 Palestinian conflict deaths and 107 Israelis conflict deaths. The study, however, found that The Times covered Israeli deaths in the headline or the first paragraph in 159 articles…meaning in some cases they covered the same death numerous times. In contrast, The Times only covered about 40 percent of Palestinian deaths — 334 of 808 — in the headline or in the first paragraph of the articles. Form my own experience I have observed how the representation of the conflict is different in the west and the Middle East. I am from a country that is located in the Middle East and now I am living in the United States. When I was in my home country the representation of the conflict was totally opposing to what has been covered here in the US. It highly emphasizes the idea that the Palestinian party is the only party that is suffering and experiencing pain. All that the news seemed to show was Israeli soldiers attacking Palestinian civilians. For example, I remember a clip of an Israeli soldier killing a child in front of his deaf father. However, when I came to the US I have not seen what the Middle Eastern media covers. In the US I have never seen a scene of the Israeli army attacking Palestinian civilians. Im not saying they show Palestinian attacking Israeli people, but instead the media here seem to just neglect the scene that shows the Israeli army attacking Palestinians. Moreover, the way that channels present the news highly influences the viewers. Most western people believe what they hear and see about the conflict in the news and as a result they dont know about the massive amount of unreported facts about Palestine. In addition, the way that the media covers the conflict is not the only method that has been used to create a negative perception of Arabs. Which means covering the conflict was just a little part of an enormous amount of effort to distort the Arab reputation. Moreover, the fact that Palestinians are Muslim and Arab, has given the media the opportunity to use other methods. In fact not everybody watches news regularly. Therefore, the western media tend to extend representing Muslim Arabs negatively through other media mediums such as movies and TV shows. This gives the media the chance to deliver messages to more spectators of varying demographics. Muslim Arabs in TV shows and movies are always viewed negatively. Most of the time Arabs are portrayed as terrorists. Whenever there is a scene about Arabs there seems to be an explosion in the movie. In addition to the idea of the terrorist, Arabs are also viewed as very wealthy people. In some movies Arabs are represented as wealthy oilmen that only care about sex and women. Also in some movies, Arabic woman are portrayed as oppressed. She is always presented with her dark veil. These stereotypes also extended to cartoons. Which means the negative stereotypes about Arabs is repeated again and again. Here is a movie that highly emphasizes the points that I claim above. The movie is called "The Dictator". This movie is about a dictator who struggled all his life to make sure that democracy will never come to his country. The genre of this movie is a comedy and it was set in New York. Regardless of its story, I will focus on some scenes that question the representation of Arab people. The first message that could be interpreted in this movie is that Arabs are terrorists and they dont care about killing civilians. This idea was supported by many scenes in the movie. For example, when the dictator and his friend try to access a building by jumping using parachutes from a helicopter tour. In the helicopter the dictator and his friend were discussing the 9/11 attacks in really stupid way and that made the other passengers get scared, which results in the arrest of both the dictator and his friend. The other message that could be interpreted from the movie is, the Arab oppressing females and treating them badly. This idea was supported by the scene in which the dictator was working in a store and a pregnant lady went into labor. The dictator helped her to give the birth in a really funny way. Once he got the baby out, he discovered that the baby is a girl, so he says " unfortunately there are bad news, the baby is girl, so where is the trash". Which means the dictator wants to throw the baby in the trash because the baby is female. In addition, repeating this topic again and again has caused western communities to believe these stereotypes about Arabic people. As Shaheen (2001) claims, “by repetition even the donkeys learns” (p. 171). The reporting of these stereotypes has caused negative psychological impacts in both western and middle eastern societies. I am living in the US now, and I experience it occasionally. I remember once when I was hanging out with my American friends and the date was one day before the 9/11 anniversary, my friends asked me " are you celebrating tomorrow (9/11 attack)?" I know he was kidding but still it was offensive. Im sure that people from the Middle East face many similar racist situations. All because of the massive media effort to represent Arab people negatively. In summary, the significance of what is said and left unsaid by the media has a clear impact of how people see the Palestinian and Israeli conflict. Middle Eastern people say the land is Palestinian and Western people say it belongs to the Israeli people. Moreover, the negative representation of Arabs in the movies has resulted in Western people assuming that people from the Middle East are terrorists and wealthy oilmen who treat females as if they dont have equal status in the community. The main factor that has helped to deliver this idea about Arabs is repeating the stereotype again and again in movies and other media outlets. References Cohen, S. B. et al (Producers), & Charles, L. (Director). (2012). The Dictator [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures. Kenazi, R. (2006). US Media Bias: Covering Israeli/Palestine. In Worldpress.org. Retrieved from http://worldpress.org/Mideast/2303.cfm Shaheen, J. G. (2001). Please fill this out yourself – I do not know the source of this reference. Sturken XX & Cartwright XX (2009). Please fill this out. Name of video [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHpcbmUR5zI Read More