[Podcast] Reporting Gaza – Why the Media Bias?

In August 2014 following renewed conflict in Gaza led some to accuse the media of bias and they had reduce their coverage to sensationalism.

This podcast from the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, featuring Aidan White, the Ethical Journalism Network’s director, looks at why there has been such a lack of balance in the press, and what the media should be doing differently. He called for journalists to do a better job providing context and background to these extremely complex and volatile situations, to explore the depths of the story and to offer greater balance.

Aidan also argued that, while the explosion in the use of social media and blogs has allowed access to torrents of information that would never have been previously available, reporting on the conflict should not be left up to the online community, with its personal prejudices and special interests. Journalists have a crucial role in filtering and extracting what is useful and accurate and placing it into the wider context of what is going on and why.

Yet the financial concerns facing many organisations and the resulting cutbacks have meant that new ways also need to be found to fund journalism itself, and greater pressure needs to be placed on outlets to ensure their ethical standards aren’t sacrificed in the pursuit of profitability.

Aidan was joined in the discussion by Tim Llewellyn, former Middle East correspondent for the BBC, and Lindsey German from the Stop the War Coalition. The segment was hosted by Nicholas Jones. (via Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom)