Media Bias Covering Conflict
(photo by Sandy Kumar on Unsplash)
As we all watch in horror the war unfolding in Gaza, we are once again mesmerized by another frightening international escalation. I couldn’t help thinking of how this drew our attention away from the plight of Ukraine. It made me ponder how our news agencies follow different crises with different levels of urgency. Obviously, this is a new conflict, which makes it more topical, but there seem to be other biases at play.
It seems to me that major news agencies jump to report on wars involving wealthy, developed nations and often ignore coverage of third world conflicts. This is especially true when the country at war is an ally of the USA, such as Israel. It is very rare that we see tv footage from Africa, South, or Central America, or Asia. There are currently major crises taking place in these parts of the world, such as ethnic cleansing in Sudan, military unrest in Venezuela, and civil war in Myanmar, but we do not see these covered on the news.
The fact that Ukraine is fighting to keep communist Russia at bay has generated billions of dollars in aid from American coffers and NATO allies. Ukraine seemed to be the only focus of all the first world countries’ military aid. I also suspect that more monetary donations have been generated for Ukraine than for previous wars, as images of blond-haired, blue-eyed children tugged on the heart strings of wealthy, North American residents. Could there also be some racial bias at play?
I feel like I grew up with zero exposure to South American, African, or Asian news stories. These whole continents were also largely ignored as topics of discussion in our school curriculum. Now, I make a point of watching the BBC news, which at least gives more international coverage than any Canadian stations. I avoid watching CNN because it seems to only cover American political news with a very strong American bias.
So, as we all sit glued to our screens, extremely interested in the plight of Israel, Gaza, and Ukraine, let’s not forget about the rest of the world. It is a scary time for sure and I count myself very lucky to be able to observe from afar. I realize this post may be somewhat controversial. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so please leave a comment below.
