Analysis of the 23rd march jerusalem bombing in media coverage Assignment

Analysis of the 23rd march jerusalem bombing in media coverage comparison between western and islamic media - Assignment Example Also, news reports from WorldNetDaily (US), another western media house with wide readership will be examined. Dawn (Pakistan), Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), and Palestine Post (run by a group of Palestinians) will represent media from the Islamic world during this discussion. One can expect Palestine Post to be least neutral while covering the incident because of its direct interest in the outcome of the conflict. As a result, in terms of neutral reporting, Palestine Post can be left out of scope or kept at the bottom of the pyramid. Despite being committed to peace and impartiality, there can still be differences in the approach of news by media houses because of a number of factors. Historical ties (in terms of same culture, religion, etc.) or interests (economical, political, etc.) with one party can develop biases, which often require an art of reading in between the lines while analyzing their contents. It is, then, only natural that media in western countries and Islamic world diff er significantly while reporting international events such as September 11, 2001 attacks on US, or as one can note under this discussion, 23rd March Jerusalem bombing. Such preferences are often the results of looking at things from a local perspective. For instance, while expressing anguish over the casualties in September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in US, international media also blamed US for not taking into considerations the interests of the Muslim world (‘September 11, 2001’, 2011). Such anguish may be more evident among news reports from Muslim-dominated countries like Pakistan, which is still a democratic country with liberal press. Under this discussion, it will be seen how there were subtle differences in the ways of reporting by western and Islamic media while covering 23 March 2011 Jerusalem bombing. One person (a 59-year-old British woman) was killed and 30 others were injured in the bus attack at a busy bus spot during day time that day following days of d eteriorating law and order situation in the city. Early headlines of a breaking news story say a lot about psyche of news editors. Initial headline by BBC â€Å"Deadly bombing targets Jerusalem bus stop† denotes serious indifference to the victims who were affected by this act of violence. Was it just inanimate bus stop that was the victim of deadly bombing and not Israelis or any other innocent residents in Jerusalem? (‘Deadly bombing targets Jerusalem bus stop’, 2011) BBC, as one could read from its â€Å"mission and values† statement claims to pursue impartial approach (BBC, 2011). However, a close look at many BBC reports reveals that many are either in favor of Palestine or in favor of Israel. It is quite natural to form biases as news reports, at the end of the day, are written by hundreds of correspondents who often come in close relationships with the local people. While reporting Israel-Palestine conflict, reporters often spend days with the local Muslim people which may bring some bias that earlier in this study