Last night on the news we saw Israeli Defense Forces footage of precision strikes on what they said were various locations from which missiles had been fired into Israel. It was familiar looking footage; in America we see the same type during coverage of our wars. You know, grainy aerial shots with an "X" where the target is on the ground, followed by an explosion upon impact, after which we the viewer are supposed to take the word of the presenters that what is said to have been hit is really what was hit. Then we are supposed to be awed by the precision.
But what are Jordanians--around 60 percent of whom are of Palestinian origin--seeing on their news right now? And how are they reacting to this new crisis in Gaza? Since we're outside the country currently we obviously don't know exactly what they're seeing and how they're reacting to it. However, although we don't have access to regional television here, one can glean something of what Jordanians are seeing on their news now by looking at the pictures of the conflict they see every day when they open their newspapers. The following pictures are from the front page of the last three days of the Jordan Times, the English language daily in Jordan, but they reflect what's shown in the Arabic dailies too. I feel a bit voyeuristic presenting them here, but I think it's important to see what Jordanians are seeing regarding this conflict.
Sunday
Monday
But what are Jordanians--around 60 percent of whom are of Palestinian origin--seeing on their news right now? And how are they reacting to this new crisis in Gaza? Since we're outside the country currently we obviously don't know exactly what they're seeing and how they're reacting to it. However, although we don't have access to regional television here, one can glean something of what Jordanians are seeing on their news now by looking at the pictures of the conflict they see every day when they open their newspapers. The following pictures are from the front page of the last three days of the Jordan Times, the English language daily in Jordan, but they reflect what's shown in the Arabic dailies too. I feel a bit voyeuristic presenting them here, but I think it's important to see what Jordanians are seeing regarding this conflict.
Sunday
Monday
TuesdayAccording to the Times, the last picture is actually the result of one of those videos we saw on the news. Thus, two different looks at the same action, and in general, two different perspectives. And this second perspective is what Jordanians are seeing.
4 comments:
Wow. they've been showing the same pictures on Al-Jaziira lately. It's gruesome, and they don't even give you a "be warned, this material is pretty graphic" before plastering pictures of dead children all over the screen.
It's heart-breaking, and the more I think about it, the more depressed I become. There just doesn't seem to be ANY kind of "solution" for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Our prayers continue for those who are suffering in Gaza.
A couple of rockets hit N Israel yesterday from Lebanon (although Hezbullah did not claim responsibility for the act).
These are painful pictures and have been spurring us to pray for peace--by which I mean the end of the current violence, not just the long term peace of the ME.
It is perhaps also worth noting, though, that the news coverage of these graphic pictures, especially with kids, and the frequent rebroadcasting of the same pictures is a feature of Arab culture. I cannot imagine quite the same coverage in American media even of tragedies against American children. I haven't been counting, I don't have examples from the American side (maybe western media will decide to catch up after counting the website hits to al-jazeera). But I do remember frequently seeing the same footage of violence against children broadcast on Arab t.v. stations.
If you agree that this kind of media coverage is a sort of cultural feature of the Arab world, what do think its significance is? How is it being used? Is it being used intentionally? Or is it just part of normal cultural cycles. These are interesting questions.
I think they raise again the tension between voyeurism and knowing the truth. Between inciting people to action and whipping people into a frenzied and violent mob mentality; between the idea of communal grief and the idea of breeding hatred for another race into a society itself.
--jason
In elaph.com 60% of Arabs agreed to show such images in a survey.
well your comparison Matt is -unfortunately- a lame one! you are not comparing victims-victims, miss/hit rate-miss/hit rate, you are simply tweaking and comparing two different actions or sorts of things. you compared the precision of targeting by Israelis with victims of the Palestinians and yet you dare to prattle about "two different perspectives", yes but for two different sorts of events. now put that in your pipe and smoke it to know who is right in this conflict, and BTW the discerning people already know the truth. I hope you publish this comment.
In regard to the previous post, I don't think an internet survey at elaph.com tells us much. The results will be skewed towards educated and wealthier Arabs and not a representative cross-section.
Matt didn't attempt to compare victims-victims or hit/miss rates. He compared the perspective on the US news with that on the Jordanian news. He didn't say anything about the relative precision of Israeli and Palistinian projectiles. He just showed that when a Jordanian hears about precision strikes in Palestine, these are the accompanying pictures.
Matt also didn't make any comment on the victims of palestinian violence in the post, so the following statement in the previous post is incorrect
" you compared the precision of targeting by Israelis with victims of the Palestinians ..."
i won't continue with the other points in the post that show the author didn't really read matt's post.
I will only comment that matt's commitment to even-handed journalism and the poster's demand to be heard ("I hope you publish this comment") must have convinced him to post this irrelevent comment, which fails to interact with the topic of the post. In the future, I can only hope such discerning posters will actually read the posts here before responding.
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