Theoretical Framework
In their study, Wolfsfield, Frosh, and Awabdy employ a descriptive approach in which the problem under study is linked to the assumption that most contemporary wars are unevenly instigated. Here, the researchers note that in most modern wars such as the United Statesâ wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the conflicts between Israel and Palestine, leaderships attempt to take sides in justifying their actions. The stronger side attempts to justify the war by tagging it to a perceived external threat such as terrorism whose legitimate response is war. On the other hand, the weaker side justifies its actions by branding the war as a legitimate course of action against external inference, oppression, and imperialism (Wolfsfield, Frosh, and Awabdy 2).
Accordingly, for the public to support their leadership in the war, it must accept the justifications brought forth by the leaders. However, Wolfsfield and his colleagues note that the media plays a major role in attracting the publicâs attention to the war through different mechanisms. As a result, there are two different sets of mechanisms identified by the researchers in their study. In the first set, the researchers document that the news media ensures that the flow of information is managed ethnocentrically. Here, the news media ensures that the news is collected, synthesized, and distributed by reporters, photographers, and editors who are drawn from the local or allied communities. In the second set, the researchers note that journalistic narratives take various modes of reporting including the âvictimsâ modeâ and the âdefensive modeâ. These modes enable the leadership and the people involved in the war to justify and rationalize events, actions, and results in different situations in the war (Wolfsfield et al. 3-7). Thus far, the theoretical framework used by the researchers is the most appropriate in guiding the literature review, data collection, and data analysis in their current study.
Research Strategy
Wolfsfield and his peers analyzed various news reports relative to two major events regarding the Second Intifada, which includes the Palestinian suicide bomber (June 18, 2002) and the death of Sheik Saleh Shehadeh, the Hamas leader on July 23, 2002. These two stories were selected on the basis that they both offer a discordant event for the attackers on one hand, and a victims’ story for the attacked on the other hand. Furthermore, the stories demonstrate the idea of uneven instigation in different aspects. Besides, to drive their point home relative to the use of different mechanisms in delivering news, the researchers sought to compare the different ways in which Israel’s channel two, Al-Jazeera, and the Palestinian television channel reported the two incidents to their target audiences. Here, the approach used by the researchers involves looking at how two extreme groups of news media that is, the Israel-based and the Palestinian television stations, compared with an independent television station such as Al-Jazeera in delivering news from the same sources (Wolfsfield et al., 7-8).
Another important reason for choosing the three television stations is that despite the Israel public and the Palestinians differing in terms of tuning in to television networks affiliated to their respective countries, Al-Jazeera enjoys an independent viewer preference with both sides watching its news regularly, and therefore, the three media groups are bound to employ different modes of reporting (Wolfsfield et al. 10). Accordingly, the researchers employ in-depth reading, critiquing, and analysis of news broadcasts from the three television networks to review the various features of the broadcasts through straightforward and subjective approaches (Wolfsfield et al. 10-11). Overall, the research strategy employed by the researchers is appropriate and sufficient to address the research problem under study.
Work Cited
Wolfsfield, Gadi, Frosh Paul, and Awabdy, Maurice T. Journalistic mechanisms for covering death in violent conflicts: news about the Second Intifada on Israel, Palestinian, and Al-Jazeera television. Mount Scopus, Jerusalem Israel: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2005. Print.