Media and the Arab – Israeli conflict,
 
The assigned material is an empirical study of media coverage bias in some American media outlet of the Palestine-Israeli conflict. Read this study in its full version, summarize it and share with me 2 insights/impressions that you come up with after reading it (and in light of our last class as well). 

Word limit: 250

Please write this in very very very simple language because English is not my first language please keep in mind that I am a Qatari muslim male living in the middle east and I am with the country’s political stance. Please make this paragraph very simple in language and very straightforward. Please write it in an Arab bias and make sure that you show that I am against Israeli occupation.

Examples of student’s work on this question:

Example 1:

The study examined the headlines of five mainstream American newspapers about the Israel-Palestine issue over a 50-year period (June 1967 to June 2017). The researchers found that there were four times more Israeli-centric news headlines than Palestinian-centric headlines, meaning that Israeli perspectives and narratives were more prominent in American mainstream media. Furthermore, the Israeli-centric headlines were framed more positively compared to Palestinian-centric headlines, which further illustrates the apparent pro-Israel bias in American media. Moreover, the “conflict” between Israel and Palestine is often portrayed as a dispute between “two equal warring sides,” where in reality, Israel is the occupier and Palestine is the “victim of military occupation.” Thus, there is a systemic problem in the coverage of Palestine and Israel in which the U.S. mainstream media often favors Israeli narratives and portrays Palestine, and Palestinians, in a negative and incomplete way.
Recently, Israeli authorities demolished several Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank. Coincidentally, this happened when several news organizations were focusing their coverage on the U.S. election, which some say Israel used as an opportunity. Our readings and discussions in class also support this point, because we have seen how Israel has this influence over American news networks, which enables them to control their portrayal in not only mainstream American media, but global media as well. Moreover, in the study, it stated that there is a systemic problem of Palestinian coverage. However, I think that this underrepresentation, as well as misrepresentation, of Palestine is intentional on the part of American mainstream media.

example 2:

The study examined the headlines of five major American newspapers between 1967 and 2017 to examine American coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The major finding of the study is that there has been a persistent pro-Israel bias in US headlines, which supports the conclusions of previous research. The researchers found that Israel-centric headlines were more than four times that of Palestine-centric headlines. Israeli perspectives were given more space than Palestinian ones. For example, Israeli sources are significantly much more likely to be quoted. Compared to Palestinian headlines, Israel-centric headlines were more positive. Moreover, there have been noteworthy decreases in the mentions of “occupation” and “Palestine refugee” related to the conflict.
My first insight from this study is that beyond complacency there is an obvious practice of legitimizing Israel’s illegal presence in Palestine. Israel’s negative actions are becoming less covered or even alluded to in headlines, which is apparent in the 85% decline in the mention of the term “occupation” in relation to Israel. My second insight is that American newspapers have failed at attempting to provide fair coverage of the conflict. Not only are Palestinian headlines more likely to be negative and have fewer positive headlines than Israel ones, but Palestinian narratives are not even given equal presence in US news. In comparison to attention give to the negative effects of war in headlines, there is not any significant coverage of the siege of Gaza or Israel’s military actions in the West Bank.