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

Tue May 8 08:08:04 EDT 2007

Just a little background to "HonestReporting" the outfit that brought 
us the gem of an article quoted below... From their own website:

Our History

It was Yom Kippur, 2000. The Intifada had just broken out and a huge 
wave of terror had suddenly descended upon Israel. The media in 
Europe was twisting the story to brand Israel as a bad guy! Jews in 
the UK were in shock and felt under attack. A few idealists decided 
enough was enough....

Can't think of a statement from the article that isn't problematic or 
insulting to the intelligence of someone who hasn't had a full 
frontal lobotomy.

Regards

Amer Khayyat

At 02:59 03/05/2007, Marc Haddad wrote:
>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.
>_______________________________________________
>Lebanon-Articles mailing list
>Lebanon-Articles at mit.edu
>http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/lebanon-articles

'Amer M.A. Khayyat
UK Account Manager
Schlumberger Wireline
DYT, Aberdeen, Scotland
Tel:    +44 1224  728 218
Mob: +44 7717  346 852
Fax:   +44 1224 728 150

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