The media presented the idea that Hamas have beheaded Israeli children. However, killing children would have been counterproductive to their aims, as it would only serve to vilify Hamas, mobilise global support against them, and shift the focus away from the issues arising from Israeli occupation and Palestinian dispossession. If it was the case that Hamas had committed such odious, atrocious and abhorrent acts, the evidence would be everywhere in the news outlets, on social media, and the public would have no doubt seen some of it by now.
The discourse of language is often an ideological weapon used by politicians in the interests of power, to control the thoughts and actions of the masses. Truth often conflicts with political interests, and the priorities of politicians are not necessarily aligned with the values of the ordinary people, who they claim to represent. Britain and the U.S. have been instrumental in destroying Libyan and Iraqi, social, cultural, economic and political infrastructures, and in doing so, killing countless of innocent civilians in the process. Lives have been lost because of the lies told by political leaders in the Global North and amplified by the media. The media should tell the public the truth, i.e. war is big business. The enemy is not Islam, and innocent civilians, it is politicians who would rather spend our taxes supplying weapons, to wage war, than reducing the cost of living.
Provide at least one real-life example of how the media distorts the truth and amplify public fears.
SOCIAL ACTION SOCIETY C.I.C. 
Are you a supporter or Isreal or Palestine?
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Hi, thanks for commenting. To answer your question, I am an advocate for the truth and social justice.
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The media uses societal fears and uncertainties as a commodity. With this the media feed on the fears of this concept of there being a them vs us, where the media represent muslims as being territorials and grooming gangs. This is portrayed as individuals being culturally deviant others. As explained by Welch (2007) inferential racism is the act of naturalising representations events and situations to the extent where the correlation between race and criminality is taken as given’. Therefore we can identify that the media shifts this definition of terriorism as within the media territorials are viewed as the ‘face behind the news’.
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Woori Chae / Even at this moment, Palestinians in the Gaza are dying. The war continues. Many people are either condoning this or are helping. There are many countries that provide help to Israel. They ignore ethical values for their political interests. This is absolutely not right and cannot be justified. We must not support Israel and Hamas, we must oppose them. We must boycott and strongly oppose any country or institution that provides help to these people.
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Hyoin Jeong
While watching many global news, I used to empathize with the horrors and brutality of Hamas. However, reading this article made me realize that there are larger issues at play. I believe that political and social chaos, manipulated through the media, should no longer be tolerated. Isn’t protecting citizens fundamentally what a country should do? I wish to move towards a more peaceful approach rather than supplying weapons.
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The situation in Israel and Palestine is complex, and discussions about it often involve strong emotions and political biases. Claims about specific acts of violence should be evaluated based on credible, verifiable evidence from reliable sources. Misinformation and propaganda exist on all sides of conflicts, making it important to critically assess news reports, government statements, and independent investigations.
Regarding broader geopolitical concerns, history has shown that political leaders sometimes manipulate language and narratives to justify military actions. The role of Western countries in past conflicts, such as in Iraq and Libya, has been widely debated, particularly in relation to the consequences for civilian populations. Calls for diplomacy and peaceful conflict resolution are longstanding but often face obstacles due to deep-seated political, historical, and strategic interests
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one example is the media telling us immigrants are coming over in the hundreds by boats to take our houses and jobs as well as just coming over for the free healthcare then going back therefore being folk devils and creating a divide between the British people and immigrants when in reality this is a very small majority and people are coming over for safety or better lives for their children
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The covid-19 pandemic. The media used this and distorted it for their own gain. By doing so, they created a moral panic and escalated the already existing fears of the public
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covid-19 was very amplified in the media. Although it was a major event and global, the media kept coming out with these new strains of Covid which caused people to clear out shops and panic.
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One example of the media amplifying public fears through misrepresentation is the recent moral panics regarding transgender individuals. Famous politicians and celebrities, such as Donald Trump and JK Rowling, have pushed for legislation alienating trans individuals and gender affirming care in the fears of trans people being mentally ill and sexually deviant – this links to respectable fears of immigrants hurting white women
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One example of the media amplifying a situation, encouraging moral panics, is the Mods and Rockers in the 50s and 60s. 2 fairly harmless gangs were publicised as violent gangs and many people then became afraid due to this as people started to follow news stations hoping to be on TV, further amplifying the moral panic as their violence increased
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A well-known real-life example of how the media distorts the truth and amplifies public fears is the “Muslim grooming gangs” narrative in the UK.
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one example that portrays certain people in a different way to cause fear within society is. the case of eleanor williams. she created a fake narrative that caused disruption within the muslim community. she claimed that she had been beaten raped and groomed by a group of muslim men. this then caused disruption within society because this was plastered all over social media and it caused a zeno phobia within society (fear of immigrants) in case they would be put in the same predicament as eleanor. however it was later discovered that she had faked the whole cascade. and the people who had been arrested were set free. however they had threats on their life and threatened to take their own life due to their fear of society.
summer
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An example i can think of which is less serious then most however really played on moral panic would be the over exaggeration on immigration is the reason us british citizens are unable to find jobs and employment as these people are “stealing our jobs” they are “abusing our free healthcare” and “taking out houses” all of this has been exaggerated by right wing extremists to draw people over to there side in politics.
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the media always has a way of manipulating and distorting pictures and facts, usually by only showing what they want you to see and hear by cropping out parts of pictures/audio such as the shamima begum interview in which they twisted her words in order to make her show her disapproval to the british individual on the fight against terrorism.
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Not that it is justified or okay, but stabbings occur often in England and at most they’ll get a paragraph in the news, however if the victims are young/old, white or female, plus if the perpetrator/s aren’t white it then gets headlines. For example, the Southport stabbings which then sparked riots due to stereotypical and hateful Facebook posts which then spread.
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the media tend to distort the truth to be able to sell their stories better and quicker or they do it because they have people they need to appeal to. The most common example of this can be how 9 times out of 10 people of a minority background who commit an extreme crime are labelled as terrorists but if the same crime was committed by a white person the media would label them as mentally ill and unstable
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The media distort the truth of crime, news reporters like to make stories about crimes and how common they are and while it is common they make women afraid to go outside as they are afraid of something happening to them by a stranger, while it is more likely happen to them by someone who know then personally
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