Peace Journalism Insights

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Are media providing context about Middle East conflict?
In a courtroom, a judge would never settle for half the story, or incomplete information. She must not only know the visible, evident facts, but must also have a complete understanding of the background and context in which the litigants operated.

Context matters.

As the latest conflict unfolds in the Middle East, it’s instructive to ask if news media are serving up a complete picture of the conflict, including the necessary context. Without that vital context, news consumers would be as misinformed as the judge who lacks the requisite facts.

To examine this, I did a mini-study wherein I looked at 16 news stories from two US media outlets. I examined eight stories each from CNN.com and FoxNews.com. I looked for terms that, if present, might indicate at minimum some discussion of the context of the current violence.

On both websites, there was little content in these articles that would provide a reader with the context necessary to understand the conflict, and especially the Palestinian grievances that help to fuel the violence. The results below list CNN first, then Fox. For settlement, for example, CNN stories used the word four times, while Fox stories used the word twice.

Settlement-4/2
Occupation-2/1
Forced (evictions/displacement)-2/0
Illegal-1/2
al Nakba (700,000 Palestinians displaced as Israel is created)-1/0
Blockade-0/0
Desperate/desperation-0/0
Humanitarian (law)-5/1

I was fascinated especially at the complete absence of the term “blockade,” since the Israeli blockade of Gaza is one of the most potent drivers of Palestinian discontent.

As one might anticipate, there was a right/left partisan split, as CNN had a total of 15 contextual mentions, while Fox had just 6. This means that Fox viewers and readers, as they are with so many other issues, are uninformed and/or misinformed. Overall, given the relatively small number of mentions in these 16 stories (about 1.3 contextual words per story), the conclusion is that the audiences of both networks and readers on their websites are poorly informed about the background of the conflict, and especially the reasons behind Palestinian outrage.

Reports about the conflict that ignore the context, one might reasonably conclude, are one factor that influence public opinion about Israel. In a recent Pew survey, 41% of Americans view the Israeli government positively, while only 19% say the same about the Palestinian government. How might views of the Netanyahu government change if the public were fully informed about the blockade or forced evictions? (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/24/a-new-perspective-on-americans-views-of-israelis-and-palestinians/)

As good journalists, as peace journalists, it’s our job to provide balance and context in all of our reporting. Given the lack of context indicated in this small study, U.S. media must redouble their efforts to educate the public about the very real grievances of the Palestinian people, so that informed Americans can judge for themselves the actions of actors on both sides of the conflict, as well as the wisdom (or lack thereof) of U.S. policy in the region.

Stories used in the study

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/12/middleeast/israel-palestinian-explainer-intl-cmd/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/11/middleeast/israel-gaza-airstrikes-rockets-intl/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/12/politics/biden-middle-east-israelis-palestinians/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/16/world/iyw-how-to-help-israeli-palestinian-victims/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/13/middleeast/israel-palestinian-violence-intl/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/16/middleeast/israel-palestinian-conflict-intl/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/20/middleeast/gaza-covid-conflict-intl/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/18/middleeast/israel-palestinian-conflict-tueday-intl/index.html

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/israel-palestinian-cease-fire-quiet-diplomacy

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/israel-blasts-bella-hadid-for-joining-pro-palestinian-march

https://www.foxnews.com/world/palestinians-israel-police-clash-at-al-aqsa-mosque-dozens-hurt