2021.5.12

     Today, Mr.Paterson taught us about ethnic cleansing that is taking place in Israel and Palestine. I knew that there is a harsh fight going on between these two different groups but I was really ignorant of the details. Through social media, I could see what going on in videos and pictures, which made it easier to imagine Palestinian people's feelings and take the incident more seriously. There were mainly two big learnings through today's class.

     First, most US media are obviously on the Israel side and they skipped explanation on why Palestine shot missiles. In fact, they shot missiles because Israelis were stealing their houses and forcing eviction with violence and inconsistent claims. People that saw the new report might think that Palestine attacked Israel for no major reason, and Israel shot back with high quality weapon as a self defense. This is techniques that media often use and we always need to be aware of the bigger picture.

     Secondly, Japanese media are quite equal on their reports. Japan is not religious country, and there are only few Jews or Muslims, which prevents strong-biased sentences. Still, they were using words such as “clash” that can make readers misunderstand two countries relationship. I also searched what is Japanese Foreign Ministry’s standpoint. In fact, they were on Palestine side and expressed regret toward Israel. I honestly thought Japan would sontaku US so it was surprising.

     Conclusively, today’s class once again made me rethink about media and learn techniques they use. It was interesting to know the difference between Japan and US’s standpoint.