Reuters: Principles Of Trust Or Propaganda? [Journal of Applied Business Research]
| By Silverman, Henry I | |
| Proquest LLC |
ABSTRACT
This paper examines a sample of fifty news-oriented articles related to the
Keywords: Reuters; Journalism; Propaganda; Bias; Ethics; Corporate Governance;
1. INTRODUCTION
Reuters employs over 2,700 journalists in 200 bureaus2 globally including approximately 70 journalists in
As a news agency (wire service), Reuters sells its content to hundreds of other media companies around the world including newspapers, magazines, radio, and television broadcasters. Reuters text newswires provide coverage of regional, national and international events in 20 languages, covering all areas of news and humaninterest stories.5 In
Reuters maintains a corporate governance charter known as the Trust Principles, discussed in detail in its annual report and on its website:
The Trust Principles are:
1 . That
2. That the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of
3. That
4. That
5. That no effort shall be spared to expand, develop and adapt the news and other services and products so as to maintain its leading position in the international news and information business.7
Journalists working for Reuters are also subject to an extensive editorial handbook, the Handbook of Journalism (HoJ), which sets out guiding ethical principles and requires all professional activities to be "independent, free from bias and executed with the utmost integrity". Under the lead section, Standards and Values, the HoJ lists 10 "absolutes of Reuters journalism" including the stipulation that reporters, "always strive for balance and freedom from bias" in their work.8
In recent years, there have been documented claims by various media watchdogs suggesting that Reuters' reporting of the Arab-Israeli conflict is systematically biased, regularly violates the Reuters Trust Principles as well as guidelines set out in the Reuters HoJ, and employs propaganda techniques to promote an Arab narrative and political interests in the conflict.9 On
There have also been reports of Reuters publishing doctored photographs on its website and supplying these to other media firms. During the war between
While Reuters has occasionally acknowledged factual errors of an unsystematic nature in its stories, the media firm has never publicly admitted to a policy of bias or advocacy on behalf of any of its story subjects. Indeed, such conscious bias or willful advocacy would be a clear contravention of me Reuters code of ethics and governing charter, me Trust Principles.
2. LITERATURE
At its essence, propaganda may be defined as the control of attitudes via the manipulation of symbols (Lasswell and Blumenstock, 1939). According to Smith (1989), propaganda is any conscious attempt "to influence the beliefs of an individual or group, guided by a predetermined end and characterized by the systematic use of irrational and often unethical techniques of persuasion". Synonyms for propaganda frequently include: lies, distortions, deceit, manipulation, mind control, psychological warfare, brainwashing, and spin (Jowett and O'Donnell, 1999). Ellul (1965) argues that nearly all biased messages in society are propagandistic.
Propaganda consists of a variety of approaches, techniques, and types. Fundamentally, the propagandist attempts to build a case for a particular conclusion by arraying only those materials which lend support to mat conclusion (Smith, 1989). This is deliberate and associated with a clear institutional ideology and objective (Jowett and O'Donnell, 1999). Pratkanis and Turner (1996) characterize the propaganda effort as an attempt to "move a recipient to a predetermined point of view by using simple images and slogans that truncate thought by playing on prejudices and emotions". Techniques are also more sophisticated and include withholding vital information, using meaningless association, invoking heuristic devices, and other strategies of questionable ethics (Pratkanis and Aronson, 1991). Jowett and O'Donnell (1999) add to this list, fabricating and distorting information and the release of information at predetermined times, i.e., in sequence or juxtaposed with other information as a way of distorting the facts and influencing public perception.
In 1937, the
Brown's "inventory" (1963), which incorporates several logical fallacies, became part of the propaganda lexicon in the mid-1960s. Amongst other devices identified here are stereotyping, selection, repetition, overt lies, assertion, and appeal to authority.
Smith (1989) establishes four primary categories of propaganda techniques: falsehoods, omissions, distortions (including logical fallacies), and suggestions. Within these constructs are devices like symbolic fiction, i.e., a false claim endorsed by some reputedly respectable and disinterested party; allusion, i.e., an assertion advanced without proof; multiple standards, i.e., the asymmetric judging of values or achievements between two individuals or groups; historical reconstruction, i.e., me systematic elimination or fabrication of elements of the historical record; and asymmetrical definition, i.e., the use of words which have a substantially different meaning for the audience than for the propagandist.
Jowett and O'Donnell (1999) note that propaganda relies on exaggeration and innuendo and uses language tìiat tends to deify a cause and demonize opponents. These authors cite Chomsky's (1992) references to the metaphorical language employed by Western governments to rationalize and encourage intervention against the
Types of propaganda include white, gray, and black. Whereas white propaganda comes from a source mat is correctly identified such that the information tends to be accurate (although one-sided), black propaganda is credited to a false source and engages in deceptions, fabrications, and overt lies. Gray propaganda lies somewhere in between the two (Jowett and O'Donnell 1999). Disinformation and the Big Lie, e.g., Hitler's mendacious attacks on world Jewry, are illustrations of black propaganda. There is also integration propaganda which seeks conformity and stable behavior amongst its audience (Ellul, 1965) and agitation propaganda (agitprop) which alternatively attempts to arouse people to participate in or support a cause often at odds with the status quo (Jowett and O'Donnell 1999).
For well over a century, philosophers, psychologists, and communications researchers have speculated on the dynamics associated with successfully manipulating audience attitudes. Qualter (1962) cites the English philosopher
Propaganda has figured prominently during times of war as a means to discredit and demonize an adversary; indeed, the term psychological warfare is often defined as the use of propaganda against an enemy (Linebarger, 1954). During the first world war, both the allied powers and
Over successive decades, the press and mass media have played an increasingly leading role in efforts to shape audience opinion via the control of information and dissemination of propaganda. Control of information is accomplished in large part via the process of gatekeeping, where certain items are selected to appear in media publications while others are "killed" by editors (Rogers, 1994). Shaw and McCombs (1974) argue that a media gatekeeper has the power to set the agenda for an audience by selecting, prioritizing, screening, interpreting, emphasizing, and distorting information. In a survey of undecided voters during the 1968 American presidential election, these researchers found significant correlation between issues highlighted in the news media and those issues regarded as key by voters - despite widely divergent concerns voiced by the candidates (McCombs and Shaw, 1972). The gatekeeper is particularly influential when it is a monopoly or quasi-monopoly and the message is consistent and repetitious. Under such circumstances, the audience is unlikely to challenge the message (Jowett and O'Donnell, 1999). Weschler (1983) for example, notes that government-run media in
Notable illustrations of media orchestration and dissemination of propaganda can be seen in reporting during the 1990 Gulf War and later, in the military conflagration in the Balkans. In the former case, those opposing war with
3. METHODOLOGY
To test for the presence of and analyze propaganda, Jowett and O'Donnell (1999) set out a list of "divisions" which include identifying the ideology and purpose of the propaganda campaign, special techniques employed to maximize effect, as well as effects (on the audience) and evaluation thereof. These authors recommend looking for a set of beliefs, values, attitudes, behaviors, as well as ways of thinking and perceiving that are agreed and have become a norm for the society or organization behind the propaganda. As the intent of the propagandist is often covert however (
While it may not always be possible to identify an explicit ideology or purpose associated with the propaganda campaign via direct examination of the society or organization orchestrating the campaign, qualitative and quantitative content analysis, particularly ethnographic content analysis, of documents produced as part of the campaign may be employed to infer ideology and purpose as well as to examine for and reveal the approach, types of propaganda, e.g., white, black, and special techniques discussed earlier, e.g., repetition, omissions, etc. enlisted by me propagandist.
Content analysis is "the investigation of communications messages by categorizing message content into classifications in order to measure certain variables" (Rogers, 1994). As a research methodology, content analysis is rooted in the subject-classification of library books and cryptology and has been in widespread use in media and sociological studies for decades. Rogers (1994) credits
Silverman (1993) notes that ethnography seeks to understand the organization of social action in particular settings and Hammersley and Atkinson (1983) argue that as written accounts are an important feature of many settings, ethnographers need to take account of documents as a reflection of the setting under investigation. These latter authors cite the extensive use of documents by Gamst (1980) in his study of locomotive engineers, and in research emanating from the early
The presence and significance of documentary products provides the ethnographer with a rich vein of analytic topics, as well as a valuable source of information. Such topics include: How are documents written? How are they read? Who writes them? Who reads them? For what purpose? On what occasions? With what outcomes? What is recorded? What is omitted? What is taken for granted? What does the writer seem to take for granted about the reader (s). What do readers need to know in order to make sense of them?
Altheide (1987) suggests that several aspects of an ethnographic research approach can be applied to document analysis to produce Ethnographic Content Analysis (ECA), defined generally as the reflexive analysis of documents (Plummer, 1983). Although Altheide (1987) acknowledges that ECA has been less widely recognized as a distinctive research method, he notes that various facets of the approach are apparent in document analyses by historians, literary scholars, and social scientists. More recently, Altheide (1996) defines ECA as "an integrated method, procedure, and technique for locating, identifying, retrieving, and analyzing documents for their relevance, significance, and meaning", where "the emphasis is on discovery and description, including search for contexts, underlying meanings, patterns, and processes. . .". Thematic categories using ECA are established both a priori and through a content analysis of text. Once the researcher has derived categories and a coding system from the ethnographic study data, quantitative content analysis design provides a set of procedures to systematically code the categories with reliability checks to analyze, validate, and report the results (Altheide, 1987; Smith, Sells, and Clevenger, 1994). Within ECA, concept development, sampling, data collection, data coding, data analysis, and interpretation are reflexive (Plummer, 1983; Altheide, 1987).
Articles prepared by staff writers and reviewed by editors in a news organization prior to publication are a product, ultimately, of the organization itself. As such, these articles are essentially cultural artifacts (Hodder, 2000) or "patterns of cultural construction" (Chambers, 2000) unique to a specific group of industry professionals, i.e., journalists. Notwithstanding the fact that stories produced by a news agency are generally written for an audience with a diverse set of opinions and are advertised to meet certain standards for objectivity or neutrality, these documents may in fact, violate these standards, reflect systematic bias, and/or incorporate propaganda techniques idiosyncratic to the agency or to the mass media generally. For the lay reader, these violations, biases and techniques will often be opaque or undetectable. Merton (1968) notes that "mere impressionism" of propaganda is not enough; adequate appraisal can only be achieved via systematic procedures. Stories produced by the agency are thus subject to rigorous discovery and interpretive research procedures supporting an ECA approach to analysis.
As indicated above, Jowett and O'Donnell (1999) also propose testing for the effects of propaganda on the audience. The focus here is on how successfully audience behavior is directed toward meeting the purpose of the campaign. Other researchers however, argue that it is not necessary to demonstrate specific behavioral effects in order to prove the presence of propaganda as effects may vary from one audience (sample) to another (Smith, 1989). One approach to reconciling these views is to bifurcate audience behavior into overt behavior, i.e., behavior that can be observed, and what Triandis (1977) refers to as affective behavior, that is, emotional reactions to people and events such as feelings of attraction or disgust, and to test for the latter even when the former (overt behavior) is unobservable or unchanged. This would be similar in some respects to early empirical research in persuasion that sought to measure audience attitudes or changes in attitude in response to propaganda. Utilizing attitude-measuring surveys for example, Rosenthal (1934) found mat Russian silent propaganda films modified the socioeconomic attitudes of students in the US. Such surveys were based on those employed by Likert (1932) who developed a fivepoint linear scale measuring attitude strength ranging from "strongly approve" to "strongly disapprove".
For Patton (1999), research credibility depends critically on "... rigorous techniques and methods for gathering high-quality data that are carefully analyzed, with attention to issues of validity, reliability, and triangulation" [italics, this writer]. Triangulation, a concept originally introduced by
3.1 Questions for study
The study seeks to answer the following questions:
1. With respect to articles on the
2. If present, what propaganda devices, logical fallacies, and/or violations occur?
3. How prevalent are occurrences of the reporting/ethical failures identified in nos. 1 and 2 above?
4. Do Reuters articles on the
5. Do Reuters articles on the
6. What are the associations between specific reporting/ethical failures and the tendency for readers to feel sympathetic or favorable towards one or the other belligerent parties?
7. What are the associations between specific reporting/ethical failures and the tendency for readers to feel motivated to take supportive action on behalf of one or the other belligerent parties?
8. What can be inferred about the ideology or purpose of Reuters Middle East reporting from the data?
Qualitative analysis of the data, i.e., Ethnographic Content Analysis, will be employed to address questions (1), (2), and (8). Quantitative analysis, i.e., frequency counts, descriptive statistics, linear-scale surveys, meanvariance and regression analysis, will be employed to address questions (3) - (7). Employed together, qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis will meet Denzin's requirement for suitable methodological triangulation discussed above and contribute to the validity of the inquiry and results as suggested by Banning, also above.
3.2 Data sources
The primary data set consists of fifty news, "analysis" "feature" and "factbox" stories published on the Reuters proprietary websites between
3.3 Procedures
The stories were examined using ECA as discussed above. The literature review and questions for study facilitated the identification of some general conceptual categories and descriptive themes in the materials, which were noted. Categories provide structure for grouping units of analysis into the same conceptual units that have similar meaning (USGAO, 1989), however as Altheide (1987) points out, "although [certain] categories and variables initially guide the [ECA] study, others are allowed and expected to emerge throughout the study". Thus, ECA is a process of constant discovery and constant comparison of meanings and nuances (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). It is important however, to ensure that caution is employed in relation to how one defines categories and assigns patterns of language use into each category to avoid a claim of "forcing" an outcome. In this study, this type of control is aided by, 1) the classification of propaganda approaches and techniques identified by researchers in previous studies, and 2) the public availability of, and detailed entries for, ethical guidelines found in the Reuters Handbook of Journalism.
Employing a reflexive process, I have worked across documents in the sample and have employed a process of iteration between the data and the emerging classification system. As Altheide (1987) suggests, once the categories and coding system have been derived using ECA, a quantitative content analysis design can provide a set of procedures to code the categories systematically with reliability checks embodied in the framework to analyze, validate and report results. As indicated earlier, ethnographic content analysis is used to document and understand the communication of meaning, as well as to verify theoretical relationships (Altheide, 1987). Informed by this approach, the individual data elements in each category were examined within the context of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism and various propaganda models discussed in the literature review, interpreted, and subsequently subsumed into broader, generalized categories for further analysis. The final categories and definitions can be viewed in Figure 1.
It was found in this study that many categories could be constructed which met the criteria of "internal homogeneity" and "external homogeneity" as set forth by Guba (1978); the former being demonstrated by the fact that the data within each category dovetailed in a meaningful way, and the latter because in most cases, there is a clear difference between categories, that is, a lack of overlap and duplication. ECA however, allows for data to be assigned to more than one category (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983; Altheide, 1987) and mere are some categories which bear a strong functional relationship to others, e.g., propaganda techniques which also represent a specific, named violation of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism. In such cases, occurrences of the data element have been allocated to both categories. Data generated by the coding system was analyzed using quantitative frequency counts as well as by qualitative narrative data from the text (Smith, Sells, and Clevenger, 1994). Thus, numeric and narrative data are presented concurrently (Altheide, 1985) to support a descriptive interpretation. Validation is supported by the use of examples from the text itself to demonstrate claims (Smith, Sells, and Clevenger, 1994) and through methodological triangulation (Denzin, 1978).
Reliability and validity of claims arising from ethnographic content analysis are supported through intercoder reliability (Smith, Sells, and Clevenger, 1994). This procedure is derived from quantitative content analysis such that categories are tested for reproducibility when coders, unaware of the study purpose, analyze the same text and produce comparable results (Weber, 1990). For this study, a graduate student in clinical psychology was trained in the coding schema listed above and asked to code text from a random sample of stories that had previously been coded. Interrater reliability was assessed using a Scott's phi (Scott, 1955) that varies from 0 to 1 and corrects for chance agreement. Krippendorff (1980) suggests that a phi reliability score above .80 indicates trustworthy coding for supporting category definitions and drawing inferences. The secondary coder's percentage of agreement with this researcher was .83. When high reliability is achieved, the coding rules can be applied to the entire text (Krippendorff, 1980).
A total of thirty-three university students, undergraduate and graduate, volunteered to participate in the study; all gave their informed written consent prior to inclusion. Subjects were told they were participating in a media study but were not provided details of the purpose of the study. All subjects were initially asked to complete a two-question five-point linear scale survey (neutral = 3) assessing 1) their sympathy/favorable feelings toward one or the other primary belligerent parties in the
Following data collection, descriptive statistics were generated and tests run comparing mean subject responses for each survey before reading the stories with mean responses following and across the reading of all individual stories. Multivariate regressions were run for each category or sub-category of reporting/ethical failures, i.e., propaganda techniques, logical fallacies, and violations of the Reuters Handbook, with individual reporting/ethical failures serving as independent variables (X) and mean survey results serving as the dependent variable (Y) for each regression.
4. (A) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
With respect to research questions 1-3: across the fifty articles in the data sample, ECA reveals 1,104 occurrences of reporting/ethical failures, i.e., propaganda devices, logical fallacies, and violations of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism, with a mean of 22.08 reporting/ethical failures per article. The propaganda device of asymmetrical definition occurs most frequently with a total of 129 instances followed by the propaganda device of card stacking with 94 occurrences. The logical fallacy occurring most frequently is appeal to pity and the Handbook violation occurring with the greatest frequency is that of a failure to uphold social responsibility.
An asymmetrical definition is a type of suggestion where the audience is misled via the propagandist's use of a word or phrase bearing a meaning different than that the audience would normally attribute to it (Smith, 1989). Reuters repetitive use of this technique can be seen in 16 of the sample articles published in June which focus on the story of a Turkish-led flotilla apprehended at sea while attempting to break the Israeli weapons blockade of the
In a story published on
But even with vital ally me
Perry and Macdonald's de facto editorial piece, which is identified in the headline as "Analysis" rather than with the more traditional and transparent term "Op-Ed" adopted by most media firms for stories where subjective content appears, is laden with propaganda devices and violations of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism.
First, by mischaracterizing the Mavi Marmara as an "aid ship", asymmetrical definition is being deployed to suggest a role for the ship distinctly different from the role it actually undertook and ultimately played in the incident. Although it is remotely possible Perry and Macdonald are utilizing the word "aid" to mean assistance in a socio-political sense, i.e., calling attention to the circumstances of Palestinians living in
The statement, "
"The harm the blockade is doing to the 1.5 million Palestinians in
Perry and Macdonald then cite President
What's important right now is that we break out of the current impasse, use this tragedy as an opportunity so that we figure out how can we meet
Note that Obama characterizes as a "tragedy" the incident generally, i.e., the violence and casualties on both sides, not the "[Israeli] killing of nine men, including an American" as Perry and Macdonald misstate. This reporting failure is, at a minimum, an uncorrected error and improper use/lack of quotes, bom violations of the Reuters Handbook.1 More likely, given the easily accessible record of the President's televised comments just a day earlier, the mischaracterization reflects a historical reconstruction, i.e., intentional fabrication, on the part of Perry and Macdonald.
In a particularly egregious example of card stacking and historical reconstruction reminiscent of the Lebanese doctored photo scandal discussed in the introduction to this paper, Reuters publishes a large captioned photo on
On
In the same story, Reuters cites 'Talestinian health experts" alleging that the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, including homes, as a result of the 2008-09
Although this paper is focused on Reuters' synopsis of the original study in the Lancet medical journal and that study has not been reviewed for validity by this writer, it should also be noted that the Lancet has, in the past, published studies that have been shown to be seriously flawed and in at least one case, fraudulent.26
In a de facto Op-Ed published as "Analysis" on
Over 500 Israeli civilians died in 140 Palestinian suicide bomb attacks from 2000 to 2007. More than 4,500 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the same period.
Even here however, serious reporting failures occur. In an instance of card stacking, Perry includes all Palestinians killed by any means but willfully excludes Israeli security personnel and those Israelis killed by means other than suicide bomb attacks. When these groups are included, the number of Israelis killed rises to more than double Perry's appraisal.29 And note how Perry describes the Israelis as having (passively) "died" while Palestinians were (actively) "killed". The use of the word "died" here reflects another euphemism, and the asymmetric distorting of the casualty figures represents the propaganda device of error of statistical inference as well as being a violation of the Reuters' Handbook admonition to its journalists to take no side, tell all sides?0
Another euphemism and asymmetrical definition employed by Perry in the same story can be found in the following paragraph:
The uprising erupted when [
Merriam-
...the
Clearly, Palestinian leaders and a sizeable portion of the Palestinian electorate have a distinctly different view of the notion of "liberation" than that suggested by Perry and understood by Western audiences.
As indicated above, the logical fallacy occurring most frequently across the data sample is appeal to pity. This fallacy consists of emotionally-charged images or language intended to evoke sympathy^3 and manipulate an audience into adopting a partisan view or supporting an interest group. A particularly rich example of this reporting failure can be seen in a Reuters story published on
Reuters then proceeds to quote five of the passengers contradicting
When we went up to the deck, they emerged from helicopters and military boats and attacked us. They approached our vessel with military ships after issuing a warning. We told them that we were unarmed. Our sole weapon was water.
In this instance of card stacking, Reuters fails to report that Tiryaki was not actually a passenger on the Mavi Marmara, the ship where passengers met and assaulted Israeli commandoes with knives and iron bars.36 Moreover, nowhere in the story does Reuters interview or provide alternative testimony from Israelis, several of whom were severely beaten, knifed and immobilized by passengers as documented by video footage and photographs taken by both Israeli military sources and the passengers themselves as noted earlier.37
On
Reuters Handbook of Journalism stipulates that its correspondents uphold a strict policy of social responsibility by providing complete facts, all sides of an argument and relevant context in neutral prose.38 As part of this responsibility, Reuters admonishes its journalists:
We must be on alert for language that could imply support for one side of a conflict, sympathy for a point of view, or an ethnocentric vantage point. We should, for example, provide the dual names of disputed territories. We must not parrot any loaded expressions used by our sources, except in quotes and official titles. Generic references to a specific country as "the homeland" for example, are unwelcome.
As demonstrated by 75 occurrences across the data sample, Reuters regularly violates this policy in its
Similarly, Sawafta and
In talks mediated by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice the Israelis acknowledged that occupied land means the
In violation of the Reuters Handbook, Sawafta and
Another historical reconstruction in the same story includes Sawafta and
Direct talks with the previous Israeli government of
In fact, peace talks between
Finally, employing a propaganda device known as symbolic fiction46 , Sawafta and
A report this week by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says more than 300,000 Israelis now live on 42 percent of the
The B'Tselem study does not say this. Rather, the report indicates that Jewish communities reside upon less than 1 percent of this disputed territory. There is an allegation that due to the classification of a portion of the territory as "state land" by
4. (B) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To address the questions of whether Reuters stories on the
For both survey questions, there is a large and extremely significant difference between the mean subject response prior to undertaking the readings and the mean response following the individual readings. With respect to research question 4, on average, subjects take a largely neutral view of the belligerents going into the study (untransformed mean 3.18) but substantially shift their view in favor of the Arabs/Palestinians over the course of the readings (untransformed mean 2.17). Similarly, with respect to research question 5, prior to the readings subjects are nearly dead neutral on whether they feel motivated to take supportive action on behalf of one or the other belligerent parties (untransformed mean 3.12) but over the course of the readings, subjects feel significantly more motivated to take supportive action on behalf of the Arabs/Palestinians (untransformed mean 2.35).
Consistent with the findings of Likert (1932), Rosenthal (1934), and other researchers employing linear scales to measure the effect of propaganda on audience attitudes and behavior, Reuters' stories are clearly influencing reader sentiment, in this case by shifting it favorably toward the Arabs/Palestinians and away from the Israelis. The magnitude of this shift is greater in the case of Survey Question 1 than for Survey Question 2, which might be expected given that the former reflects primarily affective behavior, i.e., emotional reactions, while the latter implicitly involves overt behavior, that which requires conscious action and is readily observable (Triandis, 1977). The findings suggest it is easier to influence audience emotion than action-oriented decisions, a reasonable expectation.
A critical question is whether these shifts in reader attitudes/support are due simply to a fair presentation of the facts, or whether Reuters correspondents' documented use of propaganda, logical fallacies, and violations of the Reuters Handbook is driving the observed shifts. This is addressed by triangulating, i.e., testing for associations between the specific reporting/ethical failures identified by ECA, and reader attitudes as reflected in the survey data (research questions 6 and 7, respectively).
To avoid overfitting the data, die reporting/ethical failures identified in Section 4. (A) are divided into five groups for multivariate regression analysis: 1) Propaganda: Falsehoods, Omissions, Distortions; 2) Propaganda: Suggestions; 3) Logical Fallacies; 4) Handbook Violations: Sourcing; 5) Handbook Violations: Miscellaneous. Mean survey responses for stories in the sample serve as the dependent variable and reporting/eüiical failures in each story serve as the independent variables. Separate regressions are run for each of the two survey questions. Regression results are shown in Table 2. R-squared values between X variables are low indicating they are independent of one another, i.e., multicollinearity is not an issue.
There is a highly significant and negative association between propaganda (Falsehoods, Omissions, Distortions) appearing in the sample stories and reader responses to each of the survey questions. Specifically, as the frequency of atrocity propaganda increases, subject responses shift toward the lower end of the scale, i.e., become increasingly favorable/sympathetic toward the Arabs/Palestinians. Similarly, an increase in atrocity propaganda motivates subjects to take supportive action on behalf of the Arabs/Palestinians. These results strongly suggest that when atrocity propaganda is employed by Reuters (32 occurrences across the sample), it is typically arrayed against the Israelis, i.e., the Israelis are portrayed as the offending party committing atrocities against the Arabs/Palestinians.
One can readily observe this skew in the
Although Reuters is not a recognized belligerent in the
The P value produced by the regression model testing for associations between propaganda (Suggestions) and subject survey responses is insignificant at the 5% level, precluding us from drawing inferences about the power of these reporting/ethical failures to influence readers.
For the regressions involving logical fallacies, P values are extremely significant and me coefficients for appeal to pity are significant and negative in both equations; that is, the more frequently the appeal to pity fallacy appears in the material (64 occurrences), the greater subjects are moved to view the Arabs/Palestinians favorably/sympathetically and the more subjects are motivated to take supportive action on behalf of this belligerent. The regression for Survey Question 2 also yields a significant and negative coefficient for appeal to poverty; as the use of this logical fallacy increases, subjects are motivated to take greater supportive action on behalf of the Arabs/Palestinians. As in the case of atrocity propaganda, the favorable audience shift towards the Arabs/Palestinians associated with the occurrences of appeal to pity and appeal to poverty strongly suggests that when these devices are employed by Reuters, it is the Arabs/Palestinians who are portrayed as victimized (by the Israelis) and impoverished and thus, worthy of reader sympathy and supportive action.
An illustration of this indicated bias can be seen in the
P values produced by the regression models testing for associations between violations of the Reuters Handbook and subject survey responses are insignificant at die 5% level, precluding us from drawing inferences about the power of these violations to influence readers.
The final question for study asks what can be inferred about the ideology and purpose of Reuters Middle East reporting from the data. With its much vaunted Trust Principles and Handbook of Journalism, Reuters would have us believe that its reporting on the Arab/Israeli conflict is consistent with the agency's commitment to "integrity, independence, and freedom from bias"54 and that its correspondents and editors in this area are making all efforts "to search for and report the trutìi, fairly, honestly, and unfailingly"55, i.e., to adhere to the highest ethical standards of professional journalism.
Yet, the findings reveal a radically different journalistic approach and product and suggest a very different set of objectives for the agency. The enormous number of reporting/ethical failures in the form of propaganda devices, logical fallacies, and violations of the Reuters Handbook seen in the story sample, the largely asymmetric nature of these failures, and the demonstrated ability to powerfully shape reader attitudes and motivate direct action via the deployment of atrocity propaganda, appeals to pity and appeals to poverty, provide strong evidence of an ideology which is heavily partisan, i.e., supportive of the Arabs/Palestinians, and an explicit purpose to systematically disseminate that ideology and manipulate audiences to adopt me same. This would be a clear violation of Reuters' ethical charter, the Trust Principles, as well as the ethical and professional guidelines set out in the Reuters Handbook.
This study provides only a window into the inner ideological and editorial workings of the largest international news agency in the world. As
5. CONCLUSION
This paper examines a sample of fifty news-oriented articles related to the
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
| Copyright: | (c) 2011 Clute Institute for Academic Research |
| Wordcount: | 13198 |
International Tourists’ Service Quality Perception And Behavioral Loyalty Toward Medical Tourism In Bangkok Metropolitan Area [Journal of Applied Business Research]
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