Due to the ongoing occupation in Palestine, news platforms and social media inform the public about current events. Because of this, many in the SCHS community have taken a closer look at each platform’s bias and motives.
With the influx of media coverage on Israel and Palestine, junior Ilona Dawod questions what has been covered by mainstream media outlets as she finds much of the coverage to be biased.
“In my opinion, I don’t think the media is covering enough of what’s going on because all the articles and reports that I’m seeing being posted by journalists is really unbelievable, and it’s something that should be shown on TV,” Dawod said.
According to the U.S. for International Development, in 2022, the U.S. committed over $3.3 billion in foreign assistance to Israel, and 99.7% of this money went to the Israeli military. America’s ties to Israel are through more than just economics. There are also educational and cultural ties through certain programs, such as The Fulbright Program, The International Visitor Leadership Program, UGRAD and Education USA, English Access and American Space the U.S. has provided to Israel.
Sophomore Suhayla Rayann explained that because of these ties, the U.S. and its media may be pressured to share only Israel’s perspective instead of an equal standpoint.
“I think it’s kind of sensitive, and I feel that it is geared towards more Israel side, especially because I live in America, (which is) pro-Israel. So everything I see on the media, especially on the news, is from Israel’s viewpoint,” Rayann said.
Before Nakba 1948, Muslims, Christians and Jewish people made up the population in Palestine. Dawod explained that the media is portraying the Palestine conflict as a solely religious war. As a result, many are unaware of the impact the conflict is causing.
“I honestly think people think that this is just like a religious war, but it’s not. It’s literally ethnic cleansing,” Dawod said.
Social science teacher David Ledesma explained that the reason news sites and mainstream media change the narrative of stories is not only for political reasons. Many times they are looking to gain more wealth.
“When you talk about social media, when you talk about news, when you talk about anything, it all comes down to money,” Ledesma said. “If no one wants to read the article, and they (people) don’t click on it, and then they (news sites) don’t get advertising money because of all the ads, then people don’t read it.”
Ledesma added that the only way sites can make money is by getting people to read their articles, so sometimes they will exaggerate things with clickbait to make more money.
“Most of these media companies are there to make a profit, and you do that by sensationalizing things and making sure that people read it and click on it and whatever you want, your stories to go viral, etc. So that does influence the way that a story is portrayed and the language that’s used inside of an article,” said Ledesma.
In addition, senior Noga Katzir explained that the media can change the narrative or certain perspectives by the language they use and what they choose to include in a story or post
“I think that a lot of the times, it’s very dependent on the words they use, like how they (the media) phrase things, or like I said, a lot of times things are taken out of context. They don’t give the full story behind things,” Katzir said.
Rayann noticed that with this generation, everyone has access to the media, and this results in a lot of misinformation being spread because many do not bother to fact-check what they see online, which can lead to violence in real life.
“If there’s propaganda online and people consume it and they don’t go out of their way to find their own right information, they’re gonna be influenced by the media, and they’re gonna feel some type of aggression towards the target race,” Rayann said. “Those microaggressions can lead to physical aggression in real life.”
Katzir added that at this point in the conflict, the most critical thing to understand and learn is the ability to coexist and make peace.
“A big part of this issue is people are trying to decide who came to the land first, Palestinians or Israelis, but I think at this point, it matters less who came first and more just learning to coexist,” Katzir said.
In order to have an equal understanding of the conflict in Palestine and future events, Rayann urges people to take more time to fact-check their information and be fully aware of where they are getting their information from.
“You shouldn’t take a stand unless you’re educated on it. You should definitely look into the history of it, and don’t consume everything on the media because not everything on the media is true,” Rayann said.