“In-Class Exercise 2: Detecting Bias in the News.”

Source (Use APA formatting: Author, A. A. (2018, March, 31). Gaza-Israel violence: Israel warns of action inside Gaza. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43603199):

 

1. Bias through placement:

 The article starts by justifying Israeli action: “the militant group that controls Gaza – was using Palestinian protests as a cover for launching attacks on Israel” (BBc news, 2018)

Then, the author mentions the praise for the soldiers who guarded the borders and let the Israelis celebrate in peace: “On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised soldiers for “guarding the country’s borders, allowing Israelis to celebrate the holiday [of Passover] in peace”.” (BBc news, 2018)

Finally, it ends by how many were killed and why the tension even happened.

 

 

2. Bias by headline:

 “Gaza-Israel violence: Israel warns of action inside Gaza”, portrays Israel as completely innocent, and forced to react after being attacked or offended.

 

3. Bias by photos, captions and camera angles:

Pictures and angles used show the Palestinians attacking the “innocent” Israelis.

 

 

4. Bias through use of names and titles:

The title “Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas” was used to quote the Palestinian president.

While to refer to the Israeli leader, “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu” was employed.

 

 

5. Bias through statistics and crowd counts:

No specific numbers were given related to the Palestinian death toll, only general and blurry terms were used: “Most of the other dead” , “men under 40”

 

 

6. Bias by source control:

To refer to sources, terms like “A spokesman”, “The Palestinian side”, “Israeli officials” were used.

 

 

 

 

Bias in the news – WORKSHEET 2

 

Source (Use APA formatting: Author, A. A. (2018, April, 2“massacre in Gaza: Israeli forces open fire on Palestinians, killing 18, wounding as many as 1,700”. Democracy now. Retrieved from https://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/2/massacre_in_gaza_israeli_forces_open

 

 

1. Bias through placement:

The article starts by listing how many Palestinians were killed and how many Palestinians were wounded. The deaths and injuries were placed at the beginning to show the reader that this is the most important part of the story. “At least 18 Palestinians have died in Gaza after Israeli forces opened fire Friday on a protest near the Gaza Strip’s eastern border with Israel. As many as 1,700 Palestinians were wounded” (democracy now, 2018)

 

 

 

2. Bias by headline:

“massacre in Gaza: Israeli forces open fire on Palestinians, killing 18, wounding as many as 1,700” the title shows that Palestinians are innocent and Israelis are the ones that killed and attacked them.

 

 

 

3. Bias by photos, captions and camera angles:

The video posted shows the Palestinian ambassador in the UN talking about the “nonviolent protest” and then they show an interview with the director of the Palestinians center for human rights who insisted that the Israelis are talking the basic rights of the Palestinians.

 

 

 

4. Bias through use of names and titles:

“nonviolent protest”, “unarmed Palestinians”, these words were used to show that Palestinians are innocent and that they didn’t start the attack.

 

 

 

5. Bias through statistics and crowd counts:

To make it sound like a total disaster and to show that a lot of Palestinians were     killed, the author used words like “at least 18”, “as many as 1700” and “another 49”.