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The Media Coverage of the Israel and Palestine Conflict

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The Media Coverage of the Israel and Palestine Conflict THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE ISRAEL AND PALESTINE CONFLICT IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN FRANCE By JULIE SCHWEITZER Bachelor of Science in Business Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 2011 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE December, 2011 THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE ISRAEL AND PALESTINE CONFLICT IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN FRANCE Thesis Approved: Dr. Michael Bracy Thesis Adviser Dr. Joel Jenswold Dr. Dale Lightfoot Dr. Mark E. Payton Dean of the Graduate College ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE....................................................................................7 United States ............................................................................................................9 France .....................................................................................................................16 Balanced coverage .................................................................................................25 III. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................29 Statement of the problem .......................................................................................29 Statement of the hypothesis ...................................................................................31 Significance of the study ........................................................................................34 Participants .............................................................................................................35 Instruments .............................................................................................................37 Design ....................................................................................................................38 Procedures ..............................................................................................................39 iii Chapter Page IV. FINDINGS .............................................................................................................41 French Survey ........................................................................................................41 American Survey ...................................................................................................59 Findings..................................................................................................................70 V. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................74 Summary ................................................................................................................74 Images ....................................................................................................................75 The Al-Dura Case ..................................................................................................81 The Freedom Flotilla Case .....................................................................................88 Importation of the conflict in France .....................................................................95 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................102 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................104 APPENDICES ...........................................................................................................109 American survey questions ..................................................................................109 French survey questions .......................................................................................112 IRB letter ..............................................................................................................115 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table1. Gender ..........................................................................................................42 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page French survey Figure 1. Sources used most often by French students .............................................42 Figure 2. Frequency of reports about the conflict in France……………………….44 Figure 3. Commentary objectivity in the reports according to French students…...45 Figure 4. Quality of explanations in the French reports about the conflict ..............46 Figure 5. Evaluation of the information provided about the context of the events ..47 Figure 6. Development of the topics dedicated to the conflict .................................48 Figure 7. Bias in the coverage of the conflict according to French students ............50 Figure 8. Evolution of the conflict coverage in France through time .......................51 Figure 9. Importation of the conflict in France .................................................……53 Figure 10. Is the media coverage of the conflict in France different from the U.S.?54 Figure 11. Answers about the media coverage of the conflict in the United States .55 American survey Figure 12. Sources used most often by American students ......................................60 Figure 13. Frequency of reports about the conflict according to U.S. students ........61 Figure 14. Commentary objectivity in the American reports about the conflict ......62 Figure 15. Quality of explanations in the U.S. reports about the conflict ................63 Figure 16. Information provided about the context of the events in the U.S. ..........64 Figure 17. Development of the topics related to the conflict in the U.S. media .......65 Figure 18. Is the U.S. news coverage of the conflict balanced? ...............................66 Figure 19. Evolution of the conflict coverage through time in the United States ....67 Figure 20. Importation of the conflict in the United States ......................................68 Figure 21. Is the news coverage of the conflict in the U.S. different from France? .69 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Israel and Palestine conflict has a tremendous impact in the foreign politics of many countries. Not only it does mobilize the public opinion in the Arab countries but its influence also transcends the borders of the Middle East to reach areas such as the United States or Europe. Therefore the conflict between Israel and the Occupied Territories is largely covered by the Western media. For instance, on the New York Times website, the research including “Palestinians” as key word found almost 16,000 answers. The Gaza Strip counted more than 3,500 results. By the same token, a similar research in one of the main French newspapers, Le Monde, provided equivalent results. Therefore, when one used “Palestine” as a key word, one will find more than 3,500 results. The words “Bande de Gaza” produced similar findings. The New York Times and Le Monde are among the most important media of their countries, the United States and France respectively. But the conflict is also an important part of the news broadcast by less widespread media. Thus, the Israel and Palestine question is a significant topic on the French online newspaper Mediapart. For instance, in the United States, Palestine is mentioned more than one thousand times in the online version of the Daily Oklahoman. 1 These miscellaneous keyword searches are just random examples to illustrate how important the Israel and Palestine conflict is to Western societies. The main point of this thesis is to look at the Western students‟ viewpoint about the coverage of the struggle between Palestinians and Israelis. Nowadays, students are exposed to many different sources and it is interesting to see how they perceive the media coverage of the conflict, especially since they are from Western societies because the Western world always had a special and ambiguous relationship to the Middle East. The development of mass communication did not help reducing the misunderstanding between the two societies and the media coverage of the Israel and Palestine conflict tends to reflect that dichotomy between the East and the West. This paper is going to focus on the media coverage of the conflict in the United States and in France and its impact on college students. It is important to analyze how the events, which could be tragic or simply refer to the daily life in Israel or in the Occupied Territories, are broadcasted abroad. It is easy to understand how the manner of discussing an event has its importance, especially at a time when mass communication is reaching a great number of people very fast. Journalism is a complex task with many consequences as it could influence people. In fact, many believe that journalists should be fair and unbiased in order to provide the best possible coverage of the current events. However, scholars and experts have stated that it is very difficult for journalists to always speak in objective terms even though they are trying. Because they are human beings, or because they do not always have the possibility to stand back to explain what is happening, news may not be the detached and non- partisan facts they should be. The main issue is to know if such an unbiased coverage of the Israel and Palestine conflict is possible. This paper is going to focus on the media coverage of the Israel and Palestine conflict in the
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