Wednesday 9 August 2006

What's behind the news in 'Pallywood'?

In war, as they say, the first casualty is truth. In asymmetric war, in which the media itself plays such a large part, it's important that those like us who have to rely on media reports for our coverage of conflicts undertand how some of those reports are put together.

Here's an example, a link that Warwick sent me (thanks Warwick) to a news piece on the conflict in Palestine and an analysis of that piece -- an eighteen-minute look at 'Pallywood' and how raw footage in the 'combat zone' has been stitched together to make news out of ... well, you judge out of what. Pallywood: "staged news filmed in real time against the backdrop of a complex conflict we all think we know."

As they also say, don't belief half of what you see, and none of what you read. Why does this matter? As the purveyors of asymmetric warfare understand, "One picture can be worth a thousand weapons."

LINK: Pallywood - You Tube
First Casualty - Cox and Forkum

RELATED: War, Politics-World, Israel

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