Media Coverage of the Paris Attacks

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Media Coverage of The Paris Attacks

Modern Days Agenda-Setting in Contrast

by Niklas Melcher 201585601

Final Term Paper

Class: Theories of Mass Communication Effects

Professor: Dr. Eun Gyeong Choi

Content

1. Introduction                                                                                2
2. The Media Coverage Problem                                                        2
3. Other Incidents Were Covered                                                        2
4. Implications and Extents                                                                3
5. The News Value                                                                        4
6. Conclusion                                                                                5

Introduction

On November 13th 2015, Paris and the World were shocked by the deadliest attacks on France since World War II. In this night a series of coordinated terrorist attacks hit Paris in which 130 people were killed and more than 350 injured. Whereas the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, IS or ISIS) claimed the responsibility for it, the rest of the world mourned in deep sorrow. This incident marks the most horrible terror attacks on the Western world since 9/11 and arose fear and uncertainty about the capability and power of the IS all over the world. Millions of people from throughout the world showed their compassion – and of course the media coverage was enormous.

The Media Coverage Problem

One day before the attacks in Paris, similar attacks occurred in the city of Beirut, costing about 40 people their lives. 13 days before, 224 people died when an Russian airline at the Sinai Peninsula was bombed. Both these attacks have also been taken responsibility for by the ISIL. Nonetheless, taking the public awareness, the global political reaction and the medial outcry into consideration, it appears that the Paris attacks have gotten a lot more attention than both the Russian airline and the Beirut attacks.

After covering the stories of Paris, a lot of media outlets and newspapers were verbally attacked and accused of unfair accusations, “using decisive terminology and xenophobic reactions.” (Battah, 2015) On many social media platforms users complained that the Paris attacks have gotten a lot higher coverage and that Beirut and Russia were not on the front pages and did not get enough attention. Some analysts of social media accuse Western media of racism and even say that it seems like Arab lives might matter less. (Fischer, 2015; Phillips, 2015) As a journalist of Slate puts it: “At times over the past few days, it’s seemed like the only people talking about Beirut are critics wondering why Westerners don’t care as much about Beirut as they do about Paris.” (Peters, 2015) The National even called the phenomenon “selective mourning”, whereby not all losses can be mourned about and the ones in the Western world matter more. (Kay, 2015) The accusation of reporting the Paris news biased goes so far that some social media users and even reporters of the Al Jazeera network ask the question of modern media imperialism within Western media outlets. (Battah, 2015)

In means of communication and media science, the Paris attacks in comparison with other terrorist attacks can be seen as a proper example of modern days Agenda-Setting.  Therefore it is vital to examine how the media set agenda in connection with their consumers and what the reasons are for the excessive news coverage about the incidents that occurred in Paris. Taking all emotion and desperation out of the discussion, within the next paragraphs this article tries to rationally explain how the media really covered the different events, why the coverage of the Paris attacks received greater attention and which contextual role the society plays in nowadays Agenda-Setting.

Beirut, Russia and other incidents were covered

First of all, it has to be taken record of something vital: Mainstream Western media covered the Beirut attacks, the Russian airline attacks and also other attacks extensively. (Fisher, 2015) Yet, it is mostly the readers that have ignored them, as a journalists explains in an article for Vox. (Fisher, 2015) According to this journalist, unless the victims are either children or Christian, sadly the Western world usually doesn't show much interest in these stories. (Fisher, 2015) The author goes on and explains why the media gets criticized so much in a case like Paris. The fact that traumas like Beirut get largely ignored by the Western society just gets realized when similar incidents happen in the Western world. “The media does cover Beirut, just as it has been covering Lebanon's refugee plight for years. That's an uncomfortable truth, because rather than giving us an easy villain, it forces us to ask what our own role might be in the world's disproportionate care and concern for one country over another.” (Fisher, 2015)

The problem here lays deeper and can be explained with the selective influence theory. Whereas most news consumers never really notice how selective they pick up news, it takes a major incident to make them understand. Whereas some people were aware of horrible incidents around the world, the Paris attacks were a wake-up call for some others. Only after attacks like Paris, some people realize how much we ignore incidents in other parts of the world. The evolving frustration that is caused by selective media consumption and thus media influence often leads to (wrong) accusation of the media. However the author from Vox still welcomes these accusation: “If that reflection leads people to express greater interest in what happens in Beirut or Abuja or Baghdad, then few will be happier than those of us in the media.” (Fisher, 2015)

The implications and extents of the Paris attacks differ

Secondly, it must be stated that “for any news organization to give full and appropriate coverage to acts so devastating is a challenge” (Elliot, 2015), and also the media might have behaved wrong in some means. Whereas ideally we should of course care about all deaths equally, “it’s human nature that we do not. Not because of disregard of other but because of limitations of what we can care about.” (Malik, 2015). Cultural and geographical proximity plays a big role in what grabs our attention. People are more likely to be concerned about “victims they can identify with”. (Phillips, 2015) Also, news is considered to be something unusual – as sad as it sounds. The Washington Post refers to the Man bites dog-example. Whereas a dog biting a man isn’t a story, a man biting a dog is – irrespective of any judgment on whether the man bites matter more. (Phillips, 2015)