6.2.2021

Today's class updated us on the recent Israel-Palestine issue admist the ceasefire from May, where the US had sold stolen Iranian oil. Although this problem isn't directly connected to the issue, it still is similar in terms of the underlying biases that these imperial powers have. According to the Aljazeera, the reasons behind for US's "piracy" are to use the funds to help victims of terrorists, calling out certain Iranian groups as "terrorists". In addition to the heavy sanctions that are placed, these two countries are in a questionable stance but we can see how US's past history towards terrorists being those who come form the middle east, are playing a role in their international relations as well. This is the same for Israel-Palestine where obviously the huge amounts of financial benefit given every day to Israel for artineries reveal a great multitude of one-sidededness. However, looking at corporate media, we were able to see specifically how their biases are being assuaged to make it seem like they are neutral. One example that felt abusrd for me was hearing about the two different portrayals of America's support towards Israel with them being, the stories of US aiding the Gaza district, but on the other hand articles addressing US's billion dollar effort to strengthen Israel's military. Yet again, we became aware about the reality of famous news agencies, in which they lack in the coherency and reliability.

Speaking of news agencies, a majority of today's class was about experiencing the difference in context of local and prominent titles by having a thoughtful discussion with those who read local news about Israel-Palestine, and those like us who looked at the headlines of well-known news papers from 3 countries; the US, the UK, and Israel. For us, we found that the Harretz news demonstrated the most apparent bias, just from the topics that they were covering. However, it was hard to find apparent judgments in the New York Times, nor the Daily Telegraph, which shows how well these high-level news cover the Israel-Palestine issue while probably putting their bias in subtle ways. Upon further talks with the other team of local news analyses, it was appalling to find out the drastic differences in the topics covered. I had not known that the Israel police had shot a mentally disabaled Arab man, with misconceptions of him being a terrorist. It is even dreadful to know later that the man was only trying to throw away the trash when the incident occurred. I can't stand how such innocent lives are being taken away by the will power of those superior. Moreover, I feel ashamed to have not known such incident existing, if I had only read the New York Times and soforth. I wonder, if we can use social media and the power of virality as an advantage in spreading the word about these mournful events. We tend to veer towards incidents that are unordinary and shocking, so although the documenting of these realities in newspapers will not get as much attention as those in the big media, I honestly have started to believe the relevance of social media as a platform to reach out to local communities. Overall, I was able to grasp the extent in which large news companies report realities of controversial topics which in this case, was only to a limited perspective engulfed in subtle biases.