BY: W. Shadid, 28-3-2008

Selectivity of the media and its subjective presentation of the daily news are commonly well known phenomena. Thousands, if not millions, events worth mentioning take place daily, so that selection becomes necessary and inescapable. However, in their selection of news, journalists make use of the principle of ‘man bites dog’, which automatically leads them mainly to select exotic and sensational items. Such a policy is to a certain degree understandable, and even acceptable.

However, the accusation that the media even create news and manipulate it in a way that it fits their points of view is not generally accepted. Media are considered to be the mouth peace of society and hold the behaviour of politicians and that of other celebrities against the cultural and juridical yardsticks. Violators of the norm are then publicly exposed and disgraced. As a consequence people have the impression that the media function as a watchdog of society and are therefore reliable and deal carefully with their news items. A team of 101TV (the digital canal of BNN and the public broadcasting company) recently provided the tangible evidence for the opposite, namely the unreliability of the media.
The team wanted apparently to produce a video in order to show that inhabitants of the city of Amsterdam will not be willing to help a lady in burqa who let her bag full of oranges fall on the street, whereas they were prepared to offer her the necessary assistance when she is not wearing a burqa. The 101TV film-team did indeed succeed in the production of that video. Besides, the video was broadcasted and possibly contributed to the spreading of prejudice against Muslims in the Netherlands. Fortunately, a tv-team of AT5 (an another TV sender) was at the same time accidently filming at the scene and succeeded to register what in fact has happened with the lady in burqa. Their picture material showed a completely different story than that of 101TV. Many pedestrians offered assistance to the lady in burqa, but those shots have been cut out the reportage of 101TV. Furthermore, the reportage of AT5 showed that people who stopped in order to help the lady in burqa were hindered by an employee of 101TV, telling them to keep going as they were filming a TV-reportage.
Such a way of constructing films and fabricating news is not merely a media incidence. National and international research shows regularly that due to their selective and subjective presentation of news, journalists make themselves guilty of stigmatizing ethnic minorities, and Muslims in particular. Journalistic principles such as ‘objectivity’, ‘presenting both sides of a story’, and searching for a ‘second opinion’, which are strongly emphasised in journalistic training programs, are overlooked in the professional practice.
It is therefore necessary to introduce a review- habit in the media sector by which it becomes possible to evaluate the work of the individual journalist. Such a review habit is in the case of scientific publications a well established, effective and accepted instrument. Journalists belong to the very few profession groups whose products are not evaluated by their colleagues. Since ‘mediacracy’ prevails nowadays, and the media strongly influence the functioning of governments and politicians in general in a direct way, the establishment of such a review habit is indispensable and priceless. As long as this is not realized, and as long as the selection of news is based on the principle of ‘man bites a dog’, news manipulation cannot be banned and a critical use of the media must be stressed.

Prof.dr. W. Shadid is professor of intercultural communication. For more info: see page “About”