[LCM Articles] Harvard Report Examines Media Coverage of Lebanon War

[Marc Haddad]

http://honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Harvard_Report_Examines_Media_Coverage_of_Lebanon_War.asp

Harvard Report Examines Media Coverage of Lebanon War

An academic report concludes Hezbollah succeeded at using the media as a weapon
against Israel.

Back at the beginning of March 2007, HonestReporting's Backspin blog drew
attention to a research paper published by Harvard University, which examined
media coverage of the 2006 Lebanon War. The conclusion: Hezbollah succeeded at
using the media as a weapon against Israel. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the
mainstream media, having allowed themselves to be cynically manipulated by the
Hezbollah propaganda machine, failed to report the findings of the Harvard
study.

While the initial lack of publicity was disappointing, a number of blogs have
recently revisited the study, generating a surge in internet-led interest. This
prompted the Jerusalem Post to report:

"An open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness," Marvin Kalb and
Dr. Carol Saivetz of the Shorenstein Center of Harvard University concluded in
their research paper, "The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon
in Asymmetrical Conflict." "A closed sect, Hizbullah, can retain almost total
control of the daily message of journalism and propaganda," manipulating its
image to the world, the February 28 paper found.

"In strictly military terms, Israel did not lose to Hizbullah in this war, but
it clearly did not win. In the war of information, news and propaganda, the
battlefield central to Hizbullah's strategy, Israel lost this war," Kalb and
Saivetz concluded.

Hizbullah was able to exploit skillfully the technological innovations wrought
by the internet and the demands of the 24/7 news cycle, and constructed the
narrative story line for the "first really 'live' war in history" where "the
camera and the computer" were "weapons of war," they argued.

For Hizbullah, the Second Lebanon War was a "crucial battle in a broader,
ongoing war, linking religious fundamentalism to Arab nationalism." Its chosen
field of battle was the media and its strategic aim was to win the hearts and
minds of the Arab world.

Citing US and Australian military experts, Kalb and Saivetz stated Hizbullah
believed the "historic struggle between Western modernity and Islamic
fundamentalism will ultimately be resolved" on the "information battlefield."
Hizbullah's media strategy was crafted to achieve this end, they said.

In the Second Lebanon War, Hizbullah limited access to Western reporters,
"orchestrated" events and manipulated journalists with threats of expulsion if
they violated its reporting rules. And the press largely complied with the
restrictions that were "reminiscent of the Soviet era," Kalb and Saivetz found.

In one example cited by the paper, on a tour of a Shi'ite neighborhood of Beirut
damaged by IAF air strikes, Hizbullah warned reporters not to "wander off on
their own or speak to residents" and to photograph only approved sights. If the
press violated these rules, "cameras would be confiscated, film or tape
destroyed, and offending reporters would never be allowed access to Hizbullah
officials or Hizbullah-controlled areas."

"At one point, apparently on cue, a Hizbullah minder signaled for ambulances to
rev up their engines, set off their sirens and drive noisily down the street.
The scene was orchestrated, designed to provide a photo op, and reporters went
along for the ride."

"So far as we know" Kalb and Saivetz stated, all of the reporters on the tour
only CNN's Anderson Cooper reported on the "attempt to create and control a
story." The rest of the press "followed the Hizbullah script."

Read the full JPost article here. The full Harvard publication (in pdf format)
can be found on HonestReporting's Media Bias Research page.

HonestReporting addressed many of the mainstream media's failings during the
Lebanon War, including doctored photography, the reporting of staged incidents
as fact, and biased or inaccurate journalism. This comprehensive Harvard
publication should be read by all media organizations that value high
journalistic standards.

We hope that this report will finally get the attention that it deserves and ask
our subscribers to help multiply its reach. Please not only take the time to
read the Harvard report, but also forward it to your local or national news
outlets so that the media may learn the valuable lessons that it contains.
Contact details for many media outlets can be found here.