some guy in lebanon

I had my first “Ah-Ha” moment as a journalist today. It helped me in many ways define what it is that a “Journalist” is supposed to be.

First the moment itself – I was writing an article this afternoon on a seminar regarding the current Gaza conflict and the 2 year old Gaza seige. I was writing about the “Israeli-Palestinian” conflict, when it occurred to me that I have always hated it when “Israeli” is placed before “Palestinian” when describing the conflict – hence, “Israeli-Palestinian” conflict.

But then it occurred to me – hey! I’m writing this article. I have the ability to define the terms however I choose. So I re-wrote it the “Palestinian-Israeli” conflict. I know – perhaps that is a little melodramatic, but journalism is definitely melodramatic.

It occurred to me as well that this is what a journalist is, or at the very least, this what the journalist relishes – to be in a position to define the descriptive terms used discuss and present the objective reality of either the journalist him or herself, or the news organization he or she works for (in the Middle East, it tends to be the latter).

If you want to see what I mean, take a look at the following photographs:

This is a picture from FoxNews in their coverage of the war – FoxNews is a conservative American news outlet. The picture is of cluster bombs, which they call in their caption, a “weapons system” causing “massive devesation” Cluster bombs are devastating anti-personnel weapons that are illegal to use on civilians. FoxNews is essentially trumpeting the wicket cool Israeli weapons systems on the terrorist enemy Hamas. This is despite the fact that using cluster bombs on Gaza is essentially a de facto war crime, as Gaza is one of the most desnsely populated area in the world, and 99% of Gazans don’t at all qualify as Hamas military personnel..

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This is a similar picture from Al-Jazeera, which tends to be a liberal pro-Palestinian news source, although its objectivity often rivals that of other international news organizations. This too depicts what are likely cluster bombs – However, Al-Jazeera has chosen to provide the image without caption. In this case, it is probably assumed that the viewers of Al-Jazeera are more likely pro-Palestinian and will add their own caption: “Cluster bombs used on Palestinian civilians.” At the same time, it could be argued that the image’s caption-less status adds a certain apolitical, and perhaps more objective, reporting stance.

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This is a picture from BBC World news, which is generally referred to as one of the most neutral and objective international news sources in the world. The caption for this image on their website was “Airstrikes continue after ceasefire call.” Straight forward enough – although again, this is an enormous bomb and likely most of the structures in the image house civilians. It is not editorialization to make it clear that one country is actively bombing a civilian population with enormous missiles and little regard to collateral damage…

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Finally, this is from CNN. They provide three images in their article. I’ve provided the captions from CNN as well.

A Palestinian inspects rubble Friday after an overnight airstrike in Rafah in southern Gaza.

People run to a bomb shelter Friday in Sderot, Israel, where several of Hamas' rockets have landed.

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Relatives mourn a journalist and his wife who were killed in an airstrike on Gaza City.

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Notice that there is a certain balance here – three images, none of which focus upon active attacks, but instead on the physical and human devastation caused by the conflict. The captions are objective, and the images would be partisan were it not for the other images balancing them out. Good work, CNN!

This is what I mean when I say that the act of journalism is to fundamentally be in a position to define the terms of discussion, and that journalism reflects, by the terms and images utilized, both the reality of the journalist and the stance of the organization he or she works for.