> Coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict is, on the
> whole, better in the
> UK than the US. Yet, if Britons are as ignorant
> about the conflict as this
> study suggests, you know the level of ignorance
> among Americans is far
> worse. The relevance of this is of course obvious to
> those of us involved
> in the struggle for justice for Palestinians, here
> in the country that's
> Israel's paymaster.
>
> -- Sunil
Coverage of the conflict on British television (which is where most people get their information - if at all) ranges from poor (ITV's news from ITN) to good (BBC news) to excellent (Channel 4 news from ITN).
Orla Guerin's reporting for the BBC is particularly good and is frequently critical of Israeli policy (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1183300,00.html).
Though I don't have cable and don't get the chance to see it that often, Sky News strikes me as critical, too.
I just don't think a lot of people are willing to care about this issue. I don't think they're willing to read past the first paragraph of an article and I don't think they're prepared to look beyond images. It simply doesn't affect them.
Finally, once the facts have been ignored, I think there's an element of racism in attributing violence to the rapacious Muslim hordes rather than the Israelis (who, even if they're not entirely like 'us', at least have similar coloured skin).
Simon
> ______________________________________________
>
> Palestine issue confuses Britons
> BBC; June 21, 2004
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3827207.stm
> ______________________________________________
>
>
> A new survey has shown that many people in Britain
> think the Palestinians
> are occupying Israeli territory and not the other
> way round.
>
> Despite extensive media coverage of the
> Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some
> Britons think Palestinians are refugees from
> Afghanistan. The findings come
> in a study by the Media Group at Glasgow University.
>
> It concludes that television news audiences in
> Britain are confused about
> international issues.
>
> And the study says this means it is impossible to
> have a sensible public
> debate in the UK about how such issues could be
> resolved.
>
> Journalists 'nervous'
>
> The bitter conflict between the Israelis and
> Palestinians receives hundreds
> of hours of coverage on British television news
> programmes.
>
> But when the Glasgow media group asked a sample of
> 300 young people what
> they knew about it, the response was quite shocking.
>
> Although many of those surveyed had a clear
> impression of the violence and
> tragedy involved, most had little understanding of
> the reasons for the
> conflict or its historic origins.
>
> The author of the report, Greg Philo, believes there
> are two main reasons
> why viewers do not get the background explanation
> they need.
>
> "First thing is that there is a focus on violence
> and eye-catching images.
> And the second thing is that it's all so
> controversial."
>
> Mr Philo says there is tremendous argument as soon
> as one starts to raise
> these kinds of arguments.
>
> "Journalists say to us that they are nervous of
> raising these kinds of
> arguments, because they get so much abuse," he says.
>
> "They get hate mail, they get all kinds of people
> attacking them for being
> Nazis or anti-Semitic or whatever else."
>
> Need for context
>
> So are Britain's television new programmes letting
> down their audience by
> failing to put the daily images of Palestinian
> suicide bombings and Israeli
> air strikes in context?
>
> John Simpson - the BBC's world affairs editor and
> one of Britain's best
> known television news journalists - says a balance
> needs to be struck
> between focusing on new developments and constantly
> reprising history.
>
> "The fact is, if you're reporting on the news,
> you're reporting on what is
> new. And alas, there is nothing new in the basic
> situation between the
> Palestinians and the Israelis," Mr Simpson says.
>
> But the veteran journalist acknowledges that maybe
> "we should be going back
> over the causes more, and we should be presenting
> things".
>
> "I don't think that's in a daily news context - I
> think that's much more in
> a sort of background reporting, or background
> documentaries."
>
> However, longer-format documentaries are on the
> decline in British
> television, partly because the audiences they get
> are so small.
>
> Greg Philo says that 80% of the British population
> depend overwhelmingly on
> television news programmes for their understanding
> of the
> Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
>
> But until they are given more context, he believes,
> they will remain
> ignorant of the realities of the conflict.
>
>
>
=========================================================
>
>
> "To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather
> than despair
> inevitable."
> -- Raymond Williams
>
> Editor: Sunil K. Sharma
>
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