The media coverage of the official line in Gaza

"The messages, which governing bodies want the media to convey, are necessarily those that will reach the public," wrote Blondheim and Shifman (2009, p. 207).

The researchers identify three main arenas of war news: homefront media, opponent's media, and media of the rest of the world.  Three types of scripts exist: power, vulnerability, and disaster.  Leadership has greater influence over its domestic media, dependinng on the nature of the regime and the relationship with the media.


Four fundamental political attributes of parties to a conflict are important: the nature of the entity, whether sovereign or nonstate; cohesiveness determining the extent of consensus or political variety; the degree of openness regarding information flow; and the extent of authority exercised whether authoritarian or limited/democratic governments.

In the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas in December 2008 and January 2009, Blondheim and Shifman (2009) determined that a high degree of collusion existed between the the government goals and the homefront media's coverage.  "Local media followed the government line."  Hamas control in Gaza is authoritarian.  They don't allow dissent.  The local media in Gaza portrayed Hamas as powerful.

Most reporters in Israel personally support the government position.  They adopted the power and vulnerability scripts put forth by the government in describing Israel.  Israeli reporters depicted Gaza as vulnerable in terms of weakness. Gaza reporters presented Israel as vulnerable, rejecting the Israel's power script.  Israel wanted the outside world to see its vulnerability, but the international media depicted Israel as powerful and the Palestinians as underdogs in a "David and Goliath" struggle.

Hamas promoted a disaster and power script, showing injured babies and destroyed houses on one hand and bragged about victories on the other hand.  The international press adopted the disaster script to describe the Palestinian situation.

Their coverage was related less to reality and more to the need of the international press to compete in the news market. Disasters make "good" news stories.  First, disaster coverage is unambiguous. the disaster message is clear in contrasts to the vulnerability script.  Second, humanitarian disaster coverage is meaningful and relevant. Third, disaster coverage is about real people.  Finally, disaster news is negative; news can't get much worse.

Blondhem, Menahem and Limor Shifman. (2009). What officials say, what media show, and what publics get: Gaza, January 2009.  The Communication Review, 12:205-214.  DOI: 10.1080/10714420903124036.

BP limited media coverage?

Did BP limit media access in covering the Gulf Coast oil spill?

Some bloggers claim BP did. 

The media's coverage was important in bringing government pressure on  BP.  Images of leaking oil and dead wildlife created public interest and outrage.  The result, writes the bloggers, was BP limited media access to the oil spill. BP also developed a strong public relations campaign using YouTube and other social media to directly reach the public.

CBS reported that one of its reporters was threatened with arrest at the site of the spill and was prevented from fully photographing and covering the story. CNN reported that the Coast Guard was enforcing a 65-foot "safety zone" restricting observers from getting near cleanup efforts.  Charter pilots carrying the media were told to not fly below 3000 feet over the spill.  Oil spill cleanup workers were threatened with termination for talking to reporters. The New York Daily News reported that one of their reporters was told BP did not want images of dead animals circulating. The same 10 - 15 images of oiled animals were used again and again because photographers apparently were restricted from taking pictures.

So what was the result of media coverage?

A national commission, formed by President Obama, is recommending the need  for safety and environmental regulation of the US offshore oil industry to further develop resources in deep water and the Arctic.  Media coverage most certainly put pressure on government to form the commission.  However, media coverage has waned and it is unlikely that any public policy will result. 

Sources: Zawn Villines. (2010, July 12). Reports of BP limiting media coverage of Gulf Coast oil spill. Associated Content by Yahoo. Retrieved from
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5545242/reports_of_bp_limiting_media_coverage.html?cat=57

(2010, Aug. 25). BP Oil Spill Media Coverage Restricted - 65-foot "Safety Zone." Articlesbase. Retrieved from http://www.articlesbase.com/national-state-local-articles/bp-oil-spill-media-coverage-restricted-65-foot-safety-zone-3129140.html#ixzz1BXif8Kwe

Poverty, the media and Katrina

Media accounts of hurricane Katrina "riveted, angered, and depressed" Americans. However, the media images of devastated individuals and communities from Katrina did not result in public policy to fight poverty and economic inequality. Deborah Belle (2006) points to research that suggests that social policy decisions in the U.S. favor the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class. The wealthy control the policy making process. Those most likely to downplay the problems of economic and racial inequality are most likely to have political power. While the media may impact middle America they seem to have little influence on the decision makers.

Belle, D. (2006). Contested Interpretations of Economic Inequality Following Hurricane Katrina. Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy, 6(1), 143-158. doi:10.1111/j.1530-2415.2006.00111.x

News coverage of Katrina may have in fact lessened people's support for public policy. In his comparison of "episodic" versus "thematic" news stories, Iyengar (1990) found that people viewing "thematic" news stories about poverty were likely to blame the condition on societal factors. On the other hand, when viewers "episodic" news stories showing images of people in poverty, they tend to hold the poor responsible for their own poverty. In a six year period, television showed twice as many "episodic" as "thematic" stories. This tendency to blame the poor for their poverty may have lessened the impact of news coverage of Katrina.

Iyengar, S. (1990). Framing responsibility for political issues: The case of poverty. Political Behavior, 12, 19-40.

Photo source: http://freerangetalk.com/?p=19522

Media strengthened by Katrina

Following 9/11 the media seemed to have lost their direction. They seemed weak and impotent. And as Rem Rieder wrote, "much of the media seemed cowed, afraid to press too hard, as if questioning the Bush administration's pronouncements about terrorism was somehow unpatriotic."

Then Hurricane Katrina brought disaster to the Gulf Coast. Suddenly, the media were rejuvenated and even virile in their condemnation of incompetent government bureaucrats. In Katrina, "the chasm between the platitudes of the clueless government spokesmen and the ugly reality of New Orleans--the devastation, the misery, the Third World-style chaos--was overwhelming."

"Television's powerful images brought home the unfathomable horrors of New Orleans. Newspapers provided incisive and comprehensive coverage. Local radio served as a lifeline for a devastated region."

Rieder, R. (2005). Playing Big. American Journalism Review, 27(5), 6. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Katrina: Incompetence or Racism

In Hurricane Katrina a natural disaster led to a human catastrophe.  Most of the victims were black.  Media coverage that the poor government response was because of incompetence.  On the other hand, some media reports held that there was an element of racism.  In a study (Kaiser, Eccleston and Hagiwara, 2008) following Katrina, white and black students were shown videos supporting both points of view.  When confronted with claims of racism, white students used "system justification" as a way of rationalizing the mistakes rather than blaming "ingroup" racism. 

Kaiser, C., Eccleston, C., & Hagiwara, N. (2008). Post-Hurricane Katrina Racialized Explanations as a System Threat: Implications for Whites’ and Blacks’ Racial Attitudes. Social Justice Research, 21(2), 192-203. doi:10.1007/s11211-008-0065-0.

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Reports of atrocities false

In the early days following Katrina the media reports of atrocities in New Orleans shocked the nation and the world.  Audiences heard and read about a city in anarchy and subhuman conditions in the Dome and Convention Center.  However, the reports of violence were false and could not be verified.   Reports were based on rumors several times removed from the source. 

For example, on September 5 the Financial Times of London attributed the following report to unnamed refugees: "Girls and boys were raped in the dark and had their throats cut and bodies were stuffed in the kitchens while looters and madmen exchanged fire with weapons they had looted." The report claimed that "several hundred corpses are reported to have been gathered by locals in one school alone" in St. Bernard Parish, the badly flooded community just east of the city. A similar report indicated that up to 300 bodies were piled in Marion Abramson High School in Eastem New Orleans. Reporters from the Times-Picayune canoed to the school, went inside, and found no bodies.

"Stone-age storytelling got amplified by space-age technology," according to Thevenot (2005). Rumors of bodies in the Dome were retold several times and finally reached the media.  When "the media arrived, with satellite phones and modems, BlackBerrys, television trucks with the ability to broadcast worldwide and the technology to post on the Internet in an instant," most of them did not realize that "normal rules of sourcing no longer ensured accuracy." The stories went global as officials, hurricane victims, and rescue and security personnel confirmed nightmarish scenarios, sincerely believing what they were saying and wanting desperately to get the word out so that help would come. The media also believed the stories they were telling, repeating without verification the stories being told by the officials. When it was discovered that the stories were false, the media were criticized.  However, it was the media who revealed the falsehood of the stories. The only reason for knowing about the bad reporting was that the journalists told us.

Source: Thevenot, B. (2005). Myth-Making in New Orleans. American Journalism Review, 27(6), 30-37. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.