Monday, March 14, 2011

The Importance of Placement

By now the Glenn Beck clip on his reporting the Itamar Massacre has gone viral, especially among the American Jews. I know other blogs have posted the link and commented on his accurate word of "butcher," one that may seem to shape the media, but I happen to believe it is extremely accurate since throats being slashed with a knife to me sounds very similar to what our butchers do with chickens.

But he brought up a good point, which I had been thinking about for a while. The Itamar Massacre hasn't really been soaking up news space and it is very possible that it's because Japan (with the tsunami and now the radiation issues) is hogging all the limelight. 

But even still, I checked a couple news websites, including DrudgeReport this past Saturday night and I was kind of shocked to see that the link to the Israeli newspaper article on the recent attack was all the way in the right column near almost the end of all the headlines! Definitely not a place that eyes would quickly notice. 

I think it's important that we remember that biases can be done not only with words or coverage, but with placement as well. News stories which don't make the front lines often don't get noticed and layout editors know this little trick and never hesitate to use it.
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4 comments:

  1. NomiMarch 15, 2011 at 10:13 PM

    I think that's a really good point. I also went on the New York Times website recently to see if there were any articles about this attack and I was surprised that I had to search for it and that it wasn't more in the forefront of the news. I think that it's something that the Jewish world is talking about a lot this week, but I think that outside of our bubble, people do not seem to care as much, and a large part of this is due to the placement of articles.

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  2. DL IsenbergMarch 16, 2011 at 11:18 AM

    I know a lot of people were really outraged about the lack of priority being given to the Itamar attack. While I do agree that placement is an issue, whether it is a print newspaper or a website, you have to understand that there are two enormously major global crises going on right now. Just a thought.

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  3. HelenMarch 16, 2011 at 11:50 AM

    @Devorah I'm sure that has A LOT to do with things

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  4. WildmanMarch 17, 2011 at 11:43 AM

    Yes, it is true there are two major global crises going on, but if it was the opposite - if Israeli's went and slaughtered innocent Arabs - you don't think it would have been made more public? It definitely would. I think that in addition to the other crises happening now, the placement of the article on the back burner has to do with bias and anti-israel agenda. The Times in specific has, for years, been less than supportive and empathetic towards Israel. I'm not surprised the article on the Itamar massacre was hidden in the corner.

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