The purpose of the media is supposed to report the facts of the news. How the viewer or reader judges the facts is based on the induvidual.
As the latest conflict between Israel and Palestine boils over into a second week, the headlines from the various media outlets around the world do not help the situation. They make it worse by inverting the truth in order to get readers attention.
A good example of this is an article that was published by Reuters yesterday. The headline is as follows:
“Israel air strikes kill 42 Palestinians, rockets fired from Gaza”
Let’s break down how the topic is presented. The first half accuses Israel of purposefully targeting civilians. The second clarifies that the airstrikes are in response to the rockets that have been from Gaza into Israel.
The writer relies on the reader’s emotion to catch their eye before letting logic to tell the whole story. As we all know, human beings are emotional creatures. Logic and thought come into play after we opened our mouths.
Reuters is not the first publication to use this model. Most news companies rely on the format. The problem is that it does not tell the whole story. If the purpose of the media is to report the details to the public, they are failing miserably.
On a final note, I would like to ask you a question. I want you to imagine that it is an ordinary day. The sun is shining above and the breeze is just enough to be comfortable without being overwhelming. Your out, enjoying a perfectly lovely afternoon. Then a siren goes off. You have 15 seconds to find shelter and have no idea if this day will be your last. Do you let your neighbor destroy you or do you fight back, knowing there will be innocent casualties on both sides?
Happy Sunday.
Writergurlny 