Distortion in Media Coverage James Miller

Israeli Defense Forces Version  What did the IDF have to say?

Palestinian National Authority Version  What did the PNA have to say?

What Happened?  According to the CNN article, what do you think occurred when James Miller was shot?  What is your general impression of the events?

Israeli Defense Forces Version  "This was an operation taking place at night, in which the [Israeli] force was under fire and in which the force returned fire with light weapons,”  an investigation is under way to determine whether Miller died as a result of Israeli or Palestinian gunfire  it is "very possible" the fatal shot came from Israeli soldiers.  its troops were uncovering a tunnel  they came under antitank missile and light-weapons fire from Palestinian gunmen.  When Israeli troops returned fire, Miller was hit in the crossfire and killed  Israeli forces came under fire from Palestinians, who threw hand grenades and Molotov cocktails  as the clash was ending, Israeli troops heard screams and spotted a woman standing next to a man who was lying on the ground.

Palestinian National Authority Version  accused Israeli forces of committing "another brutal crime,”  "targeted and killed in cold blood, by the fire of the Israeli tanks.”  Miller was covering the demolition of a Palestinian family's home by Israeli tanks and bulldozers when "heavy shooting" erupted from the Israeli side.

Why the differences?  What does this tell you about the accuracy of the article?  What does this say about your media?  How do you explain it?

Five Filters of Propaganda Distortion in the Media

Today  Five Filters of Propaganda  Concentration of Ownership  Advertising  “Sourcing” the News  Flak  Anti-Communism

Students and Education  More than 50% of students at four-year schools and more than 75% at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks.  That means they could not … understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school. 

Recent Media Studies  “A new study based on a series of seven US polls conducted from January through September of this year reveals that before and after the Iraq war, a majority of Americans have had significant misperceptions and these are highly related to support for the war in Iraq.”  02.php?nid=&id=&pnt=102&lb=brus

Misperceptions Support War

Five Filters in the Propaganda Model  Concentration of Ownership  Advertising  “Sourcing” the News  Flak  Anti-Communism

Concentration of Ownership  20 years ago, 50 companies controlled the vast majority of media resources. Now, it is five.  “These five huge corporations —  Time Warner,  Disney, (owns ABC)  Murdoch's News Corporation,  Bertelsmann of Germany, and  Viacom (formerly CBS)  — own most of the newspapers, magazines, books, radio and TV stations, and movie studios of the United States.”

Advertising  Advertising supports the costs of production for media outlets.  Outlets not able to attract advertisers are less able to compete.  Advertisers seek a “buying mood.”

Sources  Media outlets attempt to save money and time by relying on readily available sources for news.  Corporations, politicians and others provide press releases, press conferences and prepared videos for the media.

Flak  People and groups dissatisfied with media coverage will attempt to change coverage through complaints.  Complaints by pundits and editorial writers  Complaints by organized groups  Complaints by politicians

Anti-Communism  While the authors wrote about the concept of anti- communism, we can see its application today.  Both the terms “liberal” and “terrorism” are used to dichotomize debate.  You are either with us, or against us.  The fear of terrorism is used to promote policies.

Five Filters in the Propaganda Model  Concentration of Ownership  Advertising  “Sourcing” the News  Flak  Anti-Communism  Through these filters, the information you receive is distorted and lacks accuracy.  In many cases it represents the interests of the wealthy and/or US policy.

Outfoxed  Concentration of Ownership  How does Murdoch and editors control news through memos?  Advertising  What is the “Fox Effect” on other networks?  Sources  Where does Fox get its information, commentators and guests?  Flak  Shut Up!  Jeremy Glick  Personal Attacks  Richard Clark  John Kerry  Anti-Terrorism  Use of terrorism to create fear to support its perspective

Coming up  Outfoxed  Applying the Filters of Propaganda