Media Representation of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict

Media Coverage of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Media's Coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:

Is it an Objective Representation?

Bias in the General Media

Rules of Unbiased Coverage (According to the BBC)

How Rules are Broken by Domestic Media (why is the NY Times pro-Israel?)

How Rules are Broken by the International Media

-example of biased coverage by the BBC (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/may/03/israel.broadcasting)

Bias in the Media Covering the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Brief Background of the Conflict

Is Media Biased?

-example of biased coverage

End Introduction with Thesis Statement to Prove Biased Coverage

The way that the United States media, and sometimes the international media, portray the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is biased, depending on whom the specific newspaper is addressing.

(Here you may also want to address the fact that the conflict is so complex, that it is really hard to be objective without having proof or a specific issue which can be researched on the ground. Main Idea: Due to the complexity of the conflict, it is really hard to appear objective)

II. Media Coverage of the Israeli Side

i. Newspapers covering the Israeli side of the conflict and ways in which this is handled

ii. Types of bias found in media outlets and description for each type of bias:

a. Use of emotion

b. Omission of information

c. Selective reporting

d. Key placement of biased facts and/or errors

III. Media Coverage of the Palestinian Side

i. Does the media handle the Palestinian side of the coverage the same way? (not in the United States; for example, Al-Jazeera TV was blocked on many cable providers; U.S. tends to be pro-Israeli which may be due to the DC lobbies or the NY predominance of pro-Israeli ideas, two cities which often lead the country)

ii. Is there more or less information about Palestine in the media domestically and internationally when compared to Israel-related coverage? (No, often there is less Palestine-based coverage in the U.S.)

a. Can any of the biases mentioned above be found in Palestinian coverage? (Yes, obviously both sides are biased, but the U.S., again is biased towards Israel)

IV. Why There is Bias in the Media

i. Journalists do not follow principles (situations on the ground may lead some to compromise their integrity)

a. Journalists can be bribed (against principles)

ii. Journalists can select which stories to publish and the publications for which they work (who may be biased)

iii. Example of NY Times selective coverage [1: Anonymous. "Analysis of Coverage of Israel/Palestine in Media." If Americans Knew. 2011. . ]

V. Cinematic Representations of the Conflict (this may be extra, so you may just want to take it out, but I think it is important because there are so many films made about this issue; it is also important that we do not see many of these films here in the U.S. (for example, the documentary To Die In Jerusalem))