Friday 31 August 2018

Chosen Images (2)


The news tonight that the Trump administration is stopping funding for UNRWA, the UN agency which gives aid to alleged Palestinian refugees, is being covered by both the BBC and ITV news websites. 

Immediately below their respective headlines is a chosen stock image and a caption. 

They differ quite strikingly.

ITV's chosen image shows confrontational Palestinians accompanied by the caption "The Gaza Strip border with Israel during a protest":


The BBC's chosen image, in contrast, is a classroom of young children (mostly girls) with the loaded caption "Unrwa provides critical services, including education and health care":


How isn't that manipulative reporting from the BBC?

7 comments:

  1. Well the question is: why are UNRWA paying for the education of 4th generation descendants of people who, for whatever reason, fled a war zone, just like Germans, Serbs, Kosovans, Ukrainians, Russians, Chinese, Tibetans, Congolese, Syrians and millions of others have fled war zones around the world and don't or won't be treated in the same fashion? And why shouldn't Arab states with huge resources fund their compatriots as they are so committed to continuing the war against Israel...or are they? (Israel's PM seems to think maybe not). Well, anyway, this is another great policy from Trump. We need to stop everything that feeds this conflict and "refugee" aid definitely feeds it.

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  2. Good spot Craig. Striking images with simple slogans or messages have been used by governments and commercial businesses for well over a 100 years.

    It is perhaps the most persuasive form of propaganda. The BBC use it to great effect, they know exactly what they are doing. Here it is used to mislead and create a false impression.

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    1. Yes they do, but I have noticed that many of their presenters and their tame commentators criticise the "simple messages and slogans" of populism...But we can all remember how they loved Obama's "Yes we can" - surely the most vacuuous political slogan of all time. Prior to that they loved Clinton's nonsense about "A boy born in Hope" (he was born in Hope City somewhere I forget).

      I think we have to remember that many of the people who run the BBC are highly intelligent, highly rational, from some of the best educational institutions in the country. Of course they know exactly what they are doing...they aren't carried away by emotion or unable to analyse reality. They make conscious decisions - probably mostly on the basis of philosophical positions such as Marxism , utilitarianism or Platonism - to distort the facts and present false narratives to the public.

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  3. We know they do it with Politicians they don’t like all the time, the problem is it’s very subjective and difficult to prove.

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    1. Yes, that's why they love their pics! :) Another trick I've noticed is the "placard focus"...when covering a left wing demo they are only too happy to focus in on something "Tories Hate the NHS" or whatever...but if it's a right wing or populist demo, they do their best to avoid focussing on placards, unless it's one they think is an "own goal".

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  4. On the subject of pics, I have noticed on the BBC Website, they have favoured v. close up pics of the Chemnitz demos...and obviously in particular those focussing on social outcast types (tattoos and piercings and shaven heads please) or people clearly expressing FR sympathies...conversely, when they approve of a demo, they choose long distance wide angle or elevated shots to show the size of the crowd. And BTW, I hadn't realised that the BBC now thinks there is an official "European Migrant Crisis". There's a special page for it...seems to have started in mid July. Sometimes the BBC moves in very mysterious ways...One moment you've got Jenny Hill telling you there isn't a crisis and everything is going swimmingly, the next you're being told there's a full blown European-wide crisis.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cnx753je2q4t/europe-migrant-crisis

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  5. BBC has written another article on UNRWA. Look at the accompanying photo:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45377336

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