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The Positioning of Web-Based Media Watchdogs in the Coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: a Bourdieusian Analysis

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The Positioning of Web-Based Media Watchdogs in the Coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: a Bourdieusian Analysis THE POSITIONING OF WEB-BASED MEDIA WATCHDOGS IN THE COVERAGE OF THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT: A BOURDIEUSIAN ANALYSIS A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017 Amani Lowey School of Arts, Languages and Cultures CONTENTS ABSTRACT p. 5 DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT STATEMENT p. 6 DEDICATION p. 7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS p. 8 INTRODUCTION p. 9-23 CHAPTER 1. METHODOLOGY p. 24-38 1.1 Rationale p. 24-27 1.2 Situating the Project p. 27-28 1.3 Data Profile and Criteria p. 28-38 CHAPTER 2. OLD AND NEW MEDIA PERSPECTIVES ON THE p. 39-73 MIDDLE-EASTERN CONFLICT 2.1 Published Reports and Research-based Publications on p. 40-66 Media Bias in Reporting the Middle East Conflict in Old Media 2.1.1 Professional Journalists’ Accounts p. 41-48 2.1.2 Scholarly Research on the BBC and the New York Times p. 48-57 2.1.3 Published reports by organisations or individuals: The Case of the BBC p. 57-66 2.2 New Media, an Overview p. 66-73 CHAPTER 3. A FRAMEWORK FOR APPLYING BOURDIEUSIAN CONCEPTS p.74-104 IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MIDDLE-EAST CONFLICT 3.1 Situating Bourdieu and Assessing his Theory of Practice p. 75-86 3.2 Bourdieu in Media Studies p. 86-91 3.3 Mapping the field p. 92-95 3.4 Bourdieusian concepts tested against Gramsci’s p. 96-104 Hegemony and Herman Chomsky’s ‘Propaganda Model’ 2 CHAPTER 4. SAMPLE DATA ANALYSIS p. 105-110 CHAPTER 5. THE HABITUS(ES) OF ALTERNATIVE MEDIA p. 111-135 5.1 Establishing the Professional Habitus of Alternative p. 111-118 Web-Based Media 5.2 Core Data - The Habitus(es) of the Web-based media outlets p. 119-131 in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict 5.3 Questioning the Habitus of Mainstream Media p. 131-135 CHAPTER 6. DATA ANALYSIS 1: ACQUIRING, MAINTAINING AND p. 136-184 EXCHANGING CAPITAL 6.1 Strategy 1: Challenging the Dominant Agent for Symbolic p. 142-175 Capital in the Journalistic Field 6.1.1 Presenting themselves as credible sources of news p. 143-153 6.1.2 Validation through recognition by endorsements p. 153-165 6.1.3 Gauging Success: A Look at the Outlets’ Financial Profiles p. 165-175 6.2 Strategy 2: Targeting the North American Readership p. 175-184 CHAPTER 7. DATA ANALYSIS 2: BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL ONLINE p. 185-215 7.1 Presence On Social Media: the four groups’ activities p. 188-196 on Twitter and Facebook 7.2 Interactions with Followers and Fans on Social Media p. 197-215 CHAPTER 8. DATA ANALYSIS 3: DOXA, HETERODOXY AND THE p. 216-236 CHALLENGING AGENTS 8.1 Exogenous Factors Allowing The Dominated Agents to p. 219-224 Claim Orthodoxy in the Journalistic Field 8.2 Doxa and Positions and the Journalistic Field and the Field p. 224-236 of International Legal-Political Decision-Making SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION p. 237-245 COMBINED REFERENCES LIST AND WEBSITES p. 246-258 [60 564 words] 3 LIST OF DIAGRAMS Diagram 1 Gephy graph – Connections between Twitter Followers of p. 207 all four outlets. Diagram 2 Gephy graph – Connections between Twitter accounts the p. 208 four outlets follow. Diagram 3 Capital acquisition and exchanges in the context of the p. 215 Middle Eastern conflict. LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Annual Income and Revenue. p. 168 Table 2 Staff numbers and salaries of executive teams. p. 169 Table 3 Website popularity and visitors’ geographical location. p. 176 Table 4 Twitter and Facebook posts. p. 189 Table 5 Interaction Rate on Facebook p. 198 Table 6 Interaction Rate on Twitter (over the last 3200 tweets) p. 198 Table 7 Items of News Published by the Dominant Agents between p. 226 December 11th 2016 and January 10th 2017. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: CAMERA, ‘About Us’ page p. 122 Figure 2: HonestReporting, ‘About Us’ page p. 124 Figure 3: Electronic Intifada, ‘About Us’ page p. 126 Figure 4: If Americans Knew, ‘About Us’ page p. 127 Figure 5: ‘Bias By Numbers’ p. 134 Figure 6: 3 most visitors by country HonestReporting p. 178 Figure 7: 3 most visitors by country CAMERA p. 178 Figure 8: 3 most visitors by country Electronic Intifada p. 179 Figure 9: 3 most visitors by country If Americans Know p. 179 Figure 10: Tweets by days of the week a) CAMERA, b) HR, c) EI d) IAK p. 190 Figure 11: Tweets by hour of the day: a) CAMERA b) HR c) EI d) IAK p. 190 Figure 12: Posts by days of the week a) CAMERA b) HR c) EI d) IAK p. 191 Figure 13: Posts by times of day a) CAMERA, b) HR c) EI d) IAK p. 191 4 ABSTRACT A consistent focus of attention in a media-saturated world, thirsty for instant analyses of even the most complex of issues and avid of quick ready-made answers, the Palestinian- Israeli conflict is being extensively documented world-wide on a daily basis and has been the subject of many research projects. The constant claims from both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups of unbalance and unfairness in the coverage of the conflict reflect the extent to which the agents involved in the conflict are emotionally invested in the relevant issues. As the emergence of new media has helped the rise of advocacy journalism, little or no sustained research has been undertaken so far to examine the practices and positioning of web-based media groups engaged in reporting on the Middle East conflict, from either or both perspectives. This comparative study will take as its data four web- based media watchdogs (or groups that describe themselves as such) whose main focus is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, two explicitly pro-Palestinian and two explicitly pro- Israeli. Bourdieu's field theory and his concept of symbolic violence will be used as the main theoretical framework in order to study the positioning of these groups in the 'journalistic field': these alternative media outlets present themselves as challengers to the dominating agents in the journalistic field (the mainstream media) yet they depend on capital acquisition (be it political, economic or symbolic) for their survival. It is a delicate balancing act for the dominated agents to appear as credible, influential agents of change without jeopardizing their position as outsiders to the dominating field; this constant dilemma will be at the heart of the present thesis. 5 DECLARATION No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=487), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses 6 à Maxime et Juliette 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to give special thanks to my supervisory team, especially to Professor Matthew Philpotts for his consistent, patient and kind guidance since the start of this journey. Only with his expertise and his grounded, relevant and knowledgeable input have I felt safe crossing the finish line. Thanks also to Professor Mona Baker, who took a chance on the project at its inception. I would also like to thank my parents and my two sisters for their unwavering support and generosity throughout – there simply would have been no project without them. Thanks to Dr Patrick Druggan for his time, his technical expertise and above all, his friendship. Thanks also to my friends Jen, Marie, Nelly, Elisabeth and Catherine and to my work colleagues Elizabeth, Nathalie, Aurélie and Laëtitia for their constant words of encouragement and for helping me keep things in perspective. Most importantly, my biggest thanks, apologies and gratitude are for my son Maxime and my daughter Juliette for their resilience, their understanding, their patience, their incredible support, their uplifting happiness and unconditional love through the best and the worst of times. 8 INTRODUCTION Possibly more than most conflicts which have dominated international news in the past three decades, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has sparked unprecedented levels of controversy and heated passions the world over, with lobby groups and official go0vernment bodies located both inside and outside of the borders where the conflict is taking place weighing on the conflict - most notably in the US, Europe, Australia and Canada - accusing the media of bias towards one or the other party in the conflict.
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