Just Journalism
Please see below Just Journalism's analysis of the volume, scope
and positioning of Israel-related coverage in the media from April to June
2008.
Over the course of the second quarter of 2008, a broad range of
issues were covered in reporting of Israel. The main areas of focus were:
• Israel's 60th anniversary (see Just Journalism's report at
www.justjournalism.com/special-reports)
• the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, followed by
the current truce
• escalating tensions between Israel and Iran
• internal political problems faced by Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert
Press
a.. Just Journalism monitored a total of 822 editions from 21
publications from April to June 2008 – 9 daily and 8 Sunday national
newspapers, 1 regional and 3 weekly.
b.. Of these editions 52% contained coverage of Israel – so,
on average each publication featured Israel stories every other day.
c.. Within those editions containing coverage, we identified
849 articles substantially referring to Israel.
d.. The Independent had the highest frequency of coverage,
with 87% of all editions containing coverage of Israel, equivalent to
coverage almost every day, followed by the Financial Times (85%) , and The
Guardian and The Times (both 79%).
BBC News website
a.. Just Journalism monitored a total of 206 items about
Israel on the BBC News website
b.. Of the items published, 55 were authored pieces, 38% of
which cast Israel in a largely negative light. Sixty per cent were neutral
and only 2% were positive. In these articles, Israel was often depicted as
chiefly to blame for the continuation of the conflict with the Palestinians,
with an emphasis on the role of settlement activity not matched by
discussion of Palestinian terrorism.
BBC Radio
a.. We monitored 312 BBC Radio 4 broadcasts from 6 programmes
throughout the second quarter – The Today Programme, The World at One, PM,
The World Tonight, The World This Weekend and Sunday.
b.. 29% contained substantial coverage of Israel.
Comment and Editorial
a.. Just over one fifth of the comment pieces focused on
Israel's 60th anniversary. Other prominent themes in the editorial coverage
included American foreign policy in the region, policy towards Iran and the
situation in Gaza.
b.. The comment and editorial pieces are, by definition, more
of a publication's opinion and so these articles were assessed according to
their positive, negative or neutral attitude towards Israel.
c.. There were a total of 119 comment and editorial pieces
with substantial or minor mentions of Israel during Quarter 2 2008. The
items monitored appeared in the daily broadsheets, the Sunday broadsheets
and the weekly current affairs magazines. Overall, these were nearly twice
as negative as they were positive with 31% of articles taking a negative
position compared to 17% positive.
d.. Editorial coverage in The Guardian and The Independent
constituted 48% of all the editorial coverage monitored in the newspapers,
with 29 and 28 articles respectively.
e.. There were marked divergences in the nature of the
editorial coverage across media outlets. The New Statesman contained the
highest proportion of negative comment of all the print media outlets, with
70% of items negatively positioned and 10% positive. The Independent
contained the highest proportion of negative comment among the broadsheet
newspapers, with 50% of its items negatively positioned and 11% positive. In
The Guardian, 45% of its comment pieces adopted a negative stance while only
3% were positive.
f.. In marked contrast, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The
Economist contained no negative editorial coverage. The Times contained the
highest proportion of positive comment of all the print media outlets, with
50% of its items positively positioned and the remaining 50% neutral. In the
Daily Telegraph, 40% of comment pieces adopted a positive stance while 60%
were neutral. All the editorial coverage of The Economist was neutrally
positioned.
Journalistic breaches
Over the course of the second quarter of 2008 Just Journalism
identified 28 pieces of coverage which breached journalistic standards.
Breaches occurred in print, broadcast and online media. (For further details
on journalistic principles, please see:
http://www.justjournalism.com/journalistic-principles)
The table below illustrates the spread of coverage containing
breaches across the outlets.
Number of breaching articles by outlet:
The Independent
6
The Guardian
4
Financial Times
3
BBC News website
3
The Times
2
Daily Mirror
2
BBC Radio 4
2
The Daily Telegraph
1
Daily Mail
1
Evening Standard
1
The Observer
1
The Sunday Times
1
New Statesman
1
Total
28
As the table demonstrates, The Independent contained the highest
frequency of breaches, followed by The Guardian. As there were 68 editions
of The Independent containing coverage of Israel, this is the equivalent of
nearly one in ten editions containing a breach.
There were 43 breaches overall, which fell under the categories
of factual accuracy , contributors , balance and impartiality.
Number of breaches by type:
Factual accuracy
Lack of context by exclusion of relevant information and
facts
16
Factual error
9
Distortion of information
7
Misrepresentation of facts
4
Inaccurate weighing of facts and information
2
Contributors
Lack of rigorous testing of contributors
2
Balance
Imbalance of views
2
Impartiality
Presentation of opinion as fact
1
Total
43
The most common shortcomings were under the category of factual
accuracy , within which lack of context by exclusion of relevant information
and facts occurred most frequently. For example, two articles in The
Guardian and one in the Financial Times, published respectively on June 9
2008, June 21 2008, and June 7 2008, omitted to mention Iran's specific
threats against Israel, while discussing the prospect of an Israeli attack
on Iran. All the coverage containing journalistic breaches can be viewed on
the Just Journalism website (www.justjournalism.com) using the advanced
search facility.
Disclaimer: Just Journalism does not endorse the views and
opinions presented in the articles above.
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