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Study Finds Reuters Middle East Coverage Tainted by Arab Propaganda

(PRWeb) A study published in the November-December issue of the Journal of Applied Business Research finds that Reuters coverage of the Middle East conflict is systematically tainted by propaganda and influences readers to side with the Palestinians and Arab states against the Israelis. Researcher Henry Silverman of Roosevelt University analyzed 50 news-oriented articles for the use of classic propaganda techniques, logical fallacies and violations of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism, a manual of guiding ethical principles for the company's journalists. Across the articles, over 1,100 occurrences of propaganda, fallacies and handbook violations in 41 categories were identified and classified. In the second part of the study, 33 university students were surveyed before and after reading the articles, to assess their attitudes and motivation to support the Palestinians/Arabs or the Israelis. The study found that on average, subject sentiment shifted significantly following the readings in favor of the Arabs and that this shift was associated with particular propaganda techniques and logical fallacies appearing in the stories.
2011-12-09 00:00:00
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