Covering Death in Conflicts: Coverage of the Second Intifada on Israeli and Palestinian Television

Abstract

This exploratory study attempts to explain how journalistic routines for covering violent conflict lead to the construction of ethnocentric news. A distinction is made between two sets of routines. One set is permanent and ensures ethnocentric control over the flow of information, while a second set varies as journalists construct coherent narratives for particular events. This latter set of routines is further broken down into what are labeled the `Victims Mode' and `Defensive Mode' of reporting. The Victims Mode is used when one's own citizens have suffered an especially tragic loss of life, while the Defensive Mode is employed when one's forces have carried out an attack that has inflicted a similar loss on the enemy. It is argued that each of these modes of reporting parallels psychological reactions that have been found in individuals. The ideas raised in the theoretical discussion are investigated by comparing coverage of two events by Israeli and Palestinian television. Two events were chosen for analysis: a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 19 Israelis, and the killing of Hamas leader Sheik Salach Shehadeh in which 16 Palestinians were killed. An in-depth reading of the six news broadcasts provides important insights into how journalists' routines ensure a steady flow of culturally acceptable news stories that reinforce hatred between enemies.

Asymmetric struggle for the hearts and minds of viewers: Can the media actually trigger sympathy towards terrorists?

“…Third, the findings also show that the interview elicited much higher feelings of sympathy towards El-Kodsi in doves than in hawks, and finally, the findings indicate that the interview evoked higher ambivalence in doves (as compared to hawks) between their negative feelings towards the terrorist and between their feelings of sympathy towards her. From a broader perspective, the findings of this study throw a different light on the prevalent notion of ethnocentric media representations in conflict (Wolfsfeld, 2004;Wolfsfeld, Frosh & Awabdy, 2008). It seems that this open-ended, polysemic interview with the enemy, with its competing frames and representations of the intended suicide bomber, was indeed read differently by two groups of viewers.…”

“Law and Order” vs. “Injustice and Defiance”: Al Jazeera and CNN Framing of the 2017 Temple Mount/Al Aqsa Mosque Crisis

“…Moody-Hall (2002) contends that media frames are formulated by economic interests, prevailing ideologies, government's power and journalistic standards. Particularly, communication scholars have extensively studied media frames and framing in connection with the political conflicts (Iyengar and Simon, 1993;Wolfsfeld, 1997b;Kempf, 2003;Aiken, 2003;Wolfsfeld et al, 2008). In their article titled "News Coverage of the Gulf Crisis and Public Opinion," Iyengar and Simon (1993) conclude that in reporting conflicts, political crises and wars, two meta-frames are mostly predominant through the related media content: "episodic;" and "thematic" frames.…”

“…In the same context, Wolfsfeld et al (2008) argue that politicians exert remarkable efforts to consolidate media frames that suit the status quo. They indicate to another set of meta-frames dominates the media content of crises ' casulaties, namely: "victims" mode; and "defensive" mode (p. 402).…”

American Atrocity Revisited: National Identity, Cascading Frames, and the My Lai Massacre

“…In contrast, cascading activation suggests that even if there is considerable disagreement among officials, this debate may not be reflected in the press if the frames introduced by the White House and military officials are more culturally resonant than congressional challenges. Scholarship has shown, for example, that news reporting frequently reflects an ethnocentric bias, particularly in times of conflict (Gans, 1979;Rivenburgh, 2000), and that psychological tendencies often lead journalists to rationalize or minimize the severity of incidents that threaten the image of the nation (Fishman & Marvin, 2003;Slattery & Doremus, 2012;Wolfsfeld, Frosh, & Awadby, 2008; business imperatives are relevant too, see Hutcheson et al, 2004). With this in mind, we expect a decline in the contestation of White House and military frames in news coverage about My Lai as they cascade downward toward the press due to the cultural resonance of these messages and the diminishing returns of the cascade-that is, news media are lower down in the framing hierarchy and, thus, find it increasingly difficult to resist the initial frames offered by the administration.…”