Media Are Missing Something?

Article in The Guardian by Moustafa Bayoumi, 10/23/2410.19

Headline: ” ‘I don’t have much hope for a Harris presidency’: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Israeli apartheid and what the media gets wrong about Palestine”

““The Palestine I saw bore so little likeness to the stories I read, and so much resemblance to the systems I’ve known,” he writes. The intensity of his critique extends almost as much to American journalism as it does to Israel’s system of control.”

“. . . The thing that I’ve thought a lot more about is the fact that you have a class of low-information journalists, certainly when it comes to Palestine and Israel, and perhaps the world. And I say that as somebody who was among them. These people are not low-information because they’re bad people or even necessarily incurious people. But there is tremendous pressure not to have this conversation”

“. . .I think there’s appropriate sensitivity around the Holocaust. I think there is appropriate sensitivity around the lethal force and weight of antisemitism in western history. But that doesn’t give journalists a pass to not know [what is happening to the Palestinians].”

“. . .There are very few, if any, major media organizations where Palestinians, Palestinian Americans or maybe even Arab Americans have much power in terms of determining what the coverage looks like.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2024/oct/23/ta-nehisi-coates-interview-palestine-kamala-harris

 

No Media in Gaza?


Article in Common Dreams by Jessica Corbett, 10/21/24

Headline: “House Dems Push Biden to Fight for Global Media Access to Gaza”

Subhead: “It is imperative that the United States urge Israel to allow independent access for U.S. and international journalists, in the interest of transparency, accountability, and the fundamental principle of press freedom.”

“Over five dozen Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday urged the Biden administration to “take immediate action to advocate for unrestricted, independent media access” to the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have killed at least 42,603 people and injured another 99,795 since last October.

“It is imperative that the United States urge Israel to allow independent access for U.S. and international journalists, in the interest of transparency, accountability, and the fundamental principle of press freedom,” the lawmakers—led by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)— wrote to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-media

 

Media Feeding War?


Audio interview of Norman Solomon on Alternative Radio by David Barsamian, 10/11/24

Headline: “War & the Media”

“In times of war the corporate media play a salient role in shaping public opinion. There are worthy and unworthy victims. Muslims, Arabs, and Iranians generally fall into that latter category whereas Washington and its allies are worthy victims that we support and empathize with. The current phase of the Gaza war did not begin on October 7 as the media repeat ad nauseum. But to dig into the underlying causes and provide context and history rarely occurs because it would undermine the dominant propaganda. Thus the Norah O’Donnells, Wolf Blitzers, Lester Holts and other corporate news anchors don’t question the embedded assumptions and simply mimic, with few exceptions, the dominant official line.”

https://www.alternativeradio.org/products/soln009/

Media Cleansing

Article in Dawn by Muna Khan, 10/13/24

Headline: “Disgraced Media “

A view from Pakistan

“LAST week, I wrote a piece on Western media’s coverage of the war in Gaza for Prism on the Dawn website. I re-read part of Edward Said’s 1981 book Covering Islam on how the Western media distorts the portrayal of Islam and depictions of Muslims as “fanatical, violent, lustful and irrational”. I often return to this book as it remains relevant. It’s a sad indictment on the Western media whose reporting on Muslims and Palestinians has resulted in their dehumanisation over the decades.

“Despite knowing all this, I felt foolish when I read how The New York Times told its staff to restrict using words like ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘genocide’ and avoid ‘occupied territories’ in their reporting on Gaza. This was revealed by The Intercept in April which received a copy of the internal memo the paper sent to its staff. They also told staff not to use the word ‘Palestine’ “except in very rare cases”. It is mind-boggling.”

https://www.dawn.com/news/1864892/disgraced-media

 

Foreign Manipulators, Social Media and Elections

 

Article By Filippo Menczer, Indiana University in UPI 10/8/24

Headline: “Foreign operations manipulate social media to influence your views”

“. . . we found accounts that flood the network with tens or hundreds of thousands of posts in a single day. The same campaign can post a message with one account and then have other accounts that its organizers also control “like” and “unlike” it hundreds of times in a short time span. Once the campaign achieves its objective, all these messages can be deleted to evade detection. Using these tricks, foreign governments and their agents can manipulate social media algorithms that determine what is trending and what is engaging to decide what users see in their feeds.

“. . . The consequences of such operations are difficult to evaluate due to the challenges posed by collecting data and carrying out ethical experiments that would influence online communities. Therefore it is unclear, for example, whether online influence campaigns can sway election outcomes. Yet, it is vital to understand society’s vulnerability to different manipulation tactics.”

https://www.upi.com/Voices/2024/10/08/foreign-operations-manipulate-social-media-influence-views/7961728392145/

Media Hate Speech Stopped in Brazil

Article by Allen Cone on UPI, 9/21/24

Headline: “Elon Musk to comply with Brazilian court’s orders to restore X in nation”

“Billionaire Elon Musk has decided to comply with court orders in Brazil in an effort to end the ban on his his social platform X in the Latin American nation.

. . . “The company formerly known as Twitter also informed the court that it blocked accounts allegedly responsible for disseminating hate speech and fake news, two sources told Bloomberg.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/09/21/Brazil-X-Musk-comply-orders/5741726963376/

Article update from the Electronic Freedom Foundation  by  Corynned McSherry, 10/8/24

Headline:  “The X Corp. Shoutdown in Brazil:  What We Can Learn”

“Update (10/8/2024): Brazil lifted a ban on the X Corp. social media platform today after the country’s Supreme Court said the company had complied with all of its orders. Regulators have 24 hours to reinstate the platform, though it could take longer for it to come back online.”

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/10/x-corp-shutdown-brazil-what-we-can-learn

Google May Cut-Off New Zealand News Media

Article in TechXplore by Charlotte Grahamm-McLay-McLAY, 10/4/24

Headline: “Google says it will stop linking to New Zealand news if a law passes forcing it to pay for content”

“Google said Friday it will stop linking to New Zealand news content and will reverse its support of local media outlets if the government passes a law forcing tech companies to pay for articles displayed on their platforms.

The vow to sever Google traffic to New Zealand news sites—made in a blog post by the search giant on Friday—echoes strategies the firm deployed as Australia and Canada prepared to enact similar laws in recent years.

It followed a surprise announcement by New Zealand’s government in July that lawmakers would advance a bill forcing tech platforms to strike deals for sharing revenue generated from news content with the media outlets producing it”

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-10-google-linking-zealand-news-law.html

All the News That’s Fit to Control!

Article in AP By Justin Spike, 10/25’24

Headline: “Hungarians protest state media ‘propaganda factory’ and demand unbiased press”

“Thousands of protesters gathered outside the headquarters of Hungary’s public media corporation on Saturday to demonstrate against what they say is an entrenched propaganda network operated by the nationalist government at taxpayer expense.”

” . . . Both Hungarian and international observers have long warned that press freedom in the Central European country was under threat, and that Orbán’s party has used media buyouts by government-connected business tycoons to build a pro-government media empire.”

https://apnews.com/article/hungarians-protest-media-propaganda-ef0f419ea38ea8d2beb4f0dd56d82d57

Blowing up the Press in Mexico

Article in Reuters by Angerlica Medina, 10/4/24

Headline: “Chivas player firework joke backfires, outrages Mexican media”

“Chivas winger Roberto Alvarado’s firecracker prank at the club’s press conference backfired, with Mexican media deeming the action inappropriate and walking out in protest.

” . . . Alvarado threw [a firecracker] into the press room as part of an alleged prank ahead of Thursday’s conference in Verde Valle, Guadalajara, leading to claims of aggression from reporters.

“Unbelievable what happened at Chivas today … In almost 15 years of covering the team, this has NEVER happened. It was NOT a joke as they claim. They smashed an ‘explosive’ into the door of the press room with everyone inside,” journalist Karina Herrera wrote on social media platform X.”

https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/chivas-player-firework-joke-backfires-outrages-mexican-media-2024-10-04/

 

US Elections Have Impact on International Media

Article in Poynter by By: Cristi Hegranes, 10/2/24

Headline:  “International news is on the line in the upcoming presidential election”

“So much is on the line in the U.S. presidential election, including the future of international philanthropic giving — and the international news it funds.

“Politics aside, a second Donald Trump victory would undoubtedly ensure that more donated dollars from individuals and foundations will go to domestic causes, rather than abroad. Conventional wisdom suggests that elections heighten overall donor engagement, but that’s not true for international causes.”

” . . . there is always a downturn in international giving during election season, and the future of that giving will depend largely on who ends up in the White House.”

” . . . of course, the current investment trend in local news in the U.S. is necessary and deeply important. But this is also a critical moment for international news, which receives just a fraction of journalism philanthropy.

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2024/international-news-is-on-the-line-in-the-upcoming-presidential-election/