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Bad News
from Israel
by Greg
Philo and Mike Berry / Glasgow University
Media Group
Based on
rigorous research by the world-renowned
Glasgow University Media Group, this authoritative
book examines media coverage of the current
conflict in the Middle East and the impact
it has on public opinion.
For the first
time, the books brings together senior journalists
and ordinary viewers to examine how audiences
understand the news and how public belief
and opinion have been shaped by media reporting.
In the largest
study ever undertaken in this area, the
authors focus on television news. They illustrate
major differences in the way Israelis and
Palestinians are represented, including
how casualties are shown and the presentation
of the motives and rationales of both sides.
They combine this with an extensive audience
study involving hundreds of participants
from the USA, Britain and Germany. It shows
extraordinary differences in levels of knowledge
and understanding, especially amongst young
people from these countries.
The book
explores the processes that shape the news.
It looks at patterns of ownership and at
how public relations, information control
and the close political links between the
USA and Britain affect what we see and hear
in the media.
The authors
set the study in context by providing a
history of the present crisis from the period
of the British mandate in Palestine through
to the Oslo and Wye Accords and the intifadas.
About the
Author
Greg Philo is Professor at Glasgow University,
and has been the head of the Glasgow Media
Group for over 25 years. His current research
interests include ESRC and other externally-funded
research projects on political advertising,
images of health and illness, migration
and 'race', as well as risk and food scares.
He is the author of numerous publications.
Reviews
"In this admirable study, the authors,
who are pioneers in their field, demonstrate
the distortion of the UK television coverage
of occupied Palestine. Using a series of
focus groups drawn from across British society,
they reveal how viewers have fallen victim
to a dominant bias in favour of Israel.
They conclude that Israeli officials are
given twice as much airtime as Palestinians
get; that news and current affairs on BBC1
are in thrall to (or intimidated by) "Israeli
perspectives"; and that the views of
Israel-supporting American politicians appear
twice as often on the BBC as politicians
from any other country, including Britain.
TV news says almost nothing about the origins
of the conflict, so most viewers have no
idea that the Israelis forced Palestinians
from their homes in 1948 - or, indeed, who
is occupying the Occupied Territories...
Threaded through the "coverage"
is the phoney notion of "balance"
between occupier and occupied; Tim Llewellyn,
a former Middle East correspondent for the
BBC, calls this "the tyranny of spurious
equivalence". Every journalist should
read this book; every student of journalism
ought to be assigned it.A companion to Bad
News From Israel is a superb book called
Peace Under
Fire."
- John Pilger, journalist and filmmaker,
director of Palestine
is Still the Issue
"This
superb study ... is extensive in scope,
and scrupulously fair. It will be a landmark."
- Edward S. Herman, co-author with Noam
Chomsky of Manufacturing Consent
Related Links
Palestine
Media Watch
If
Americans Knew
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