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David BootePWR 2-- 02Dr. WrightRBA12/03/14Media Bias: A study on English JournalismIntroductionThis subject of racism is, and has been, a highly debated subject worldwide. Racism is, unfortunately, a part of European football and whether enough is being done to curtail this racism is certainly a topic of interest right now. There are many examples of how racism is being at football matches where men shout abuse at referees, players or opposing fans for example for being Black, Indian or Jewish.Racism has been defined as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial difference produces an inherent superiority of a particular race. Since I am writing this research paper primarily for an American audience, I want to stress that there are some key differences in the way that racism is used and treated between the United States and Europe. The main reason for this difference on this issue between the United States and Europe is that there has never been any sort of Black Civil Rights Movement in Europe, partly due to the low number Black Europeans. What is taboo in the US simply isn’t in Europe.So, why conduct my research on English journalism rather than just solely on this problem racism in European football, which I have indicated as an issue? Originally, I set out with the intention to see whether enough was being done to combat this problem of racism in European football, however whilst researching this topic I began to see some certain trends.One of these trends that I found was that media bias was being used by some English news reporters when reporting articles differently on cases of racism across Eastern European football compared to cases of racism in English football. In this academic research paper I have rhetorically analyzed whether my inclinations were correct and certain English journalists have been reporting on racist incidents in football in a prejudiced manner towards parts of Eastern Europe. METHODSI conducted my research over a two-month period in which I was able to find some useful sources that provide backing to my argument. Firstly, I examined the theory of “frame analysis.” This theory was first put forward by Erving Goffman in his 1974 book,?Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience, in which Goffman defines frame analysis as a research method used to analyze how people understand certain situations and activities that they find themselves in. Another scholar, by the name of Jim A. Kuypers, published work advancing Goffman’s frame analysis in that Kuypers considers it a rhetorical process and one that should be examined from a rhetorical perspective. According to Kuypers, "Framing is a process whereby communicators, consciously or unconsciously, act to construct a point of view that encourages the facts of a given situation to be interpreted by others in a particular manner. Frames operate in four key ways: they define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgments, and suggest remedies. Frames are often found within a narrative account of an issue or event, and are generally the central organizing idea" . This can be applied to my argument as I look into how English journalists are using their articles to make the audience feel like racism is much worse in certain European countries than in England.? I will also be analyzing the use of and power that imaging can have with framing throughout this paper. The rhetorical use of imaging was examined by Charles Hill in his book, Defining Visual Rhetoric’s. Here, he asks the question of how, exactly, do images persuade? In other words, how do representational images work to influence the beliefs, attitudes, and opinions of those who view them? He talks of how images can be used to trigger emotion through affect transfer. Affect transfer is a term coined by psychologists after research with advertisements whereby an emotional response from an unrelated object or event is transferred to the product being sold, simply by showing an image of the product, followed by an image of the emotional object or event, and repeating the procedure many times. It is a term to describe how images can be used to develop connections from the audience. This, again, ties in with my research since, as I mentioned, I looked into how images are used to influence the reader’s interpretation of the reports. The power that images have to persuade an audience of a particular agenda, especially in the case of journalism that I will show, is a great example of applying Goffman’s and Kuyper’s frame analysis to journalism.Analysis The first journalist I investigated was Chris Rogers, who is part of the BBC’s documentary series Panorama. He, and so Panorama created a documentary highlighting the issue of racism in Polish and Ukrainian football. The episode was released just weeks prior to the Euro 2012 championships, which were being held in the two countries and showed examples of racist violence and anti-Semitic abuse across Polish and Ukrainian Football stadiums. This episode from Panorama came across as a smear campaign to make racism seem much worse in these countries than in England by showing the violent nature of these two host nations because the reporter frames the situation for his viewers. Throughout the episode, nothing positive is shown of Poland or Ukraine and at one point actually tells English fans not to go to the Euro championships. On a side note, after conducting my research, I felt that it should be noted that England is not free of guilt when it comes to violence and hosting the European championships because when they last hosted the Euros in 1996 the championship was far from perfect. Firstly a terrorist attack took place in Manchester on one of the match days for which the Provisional Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility. A van bomb went off injuring 212 people and causing 700 million pounds worth of damage. In addition there were several cases of violent disorder from English fans, the worst case of which occurred after England’s loss to Germany in the semifinals. A large riot took place in?one of London’s most popular tourist areas, Trafalgar Square?and in the immediate surrounding area. Many other outbreaks occurred in the streets of other towns across England. Both police and German-made cars were targeted, along with various other properties . Additionally, a Russian student was reportedly stabbed in Brighton for sounding German. It is therefore, I feel, imperative for my readers to understand that England’s last hosting of this event was far from perfect in terms of fan violence.Now at the time of the Euro 2012s, both Poland and Ukraine were trying to build their stature in Europe and do have many positive aspects about them. For just a few to mention, Poland’s capital city Krakow is one of Europe’s top most popular attractions, and they have some great footballing stadiums. During the actual tournament there was minimal violence compared to usual which lead to the fining of four countries. These countries were Germany, Spain, Croatia and Russia, none of which being Poland or Ukraine!When moving onto my rhetorical analysis of the actual contents of the Panorama episode, the first case of framing that I saw was in the title, “Stadiums of Hate.” Immediately this evokes feelings of distaste towards these host countries from the audience due to the words use. The use of the word “hate” brings the audience’s attention immediately to the hostile nature of the stadiums. This is an example of how the reporter is setting up the episode as a report on the distasteful nature of these stadiums in Poland and Ukraine.-114300209931000The second issue I found with the use of framing from Panorama was with the imaging used in throughout episode. Here we can see examples of Hill’s affect transfer from the images used, which evoke feelings of distaste from the audience. These two images below highlight this point. The first, shown below, shows a group of fans that are clearly acting in an aggressive way and comes across as scary to the audience. -11430034290000The second image, shown below, is a map that Panorama used to depict Poland and Ukraine. Again we can see the framing used and affect transfer it has since this map makes the audience think that Poland and Ukraine are stuck in World War 2.As part of my research I also investigated whether Panorama mentioned any racist events in England. At one stage in the middle of the filming they give an example of a single case of racism in England involving John Terry. This brief clip mentioning John Terry’s trial and subsequent stripping of England captaincy lasts 10 seconds. This again is an example of Panorama framing the situation for the audience since they only give 10 seconds out of a 29-minute documentary to highlight this racism case in their own country. By doing this they are making viewers think that racial problems in England seem much less significant then those in these host nations.This case was well known in England because to have the England captain at the time using racial insults against another player was certainly not good for the nation to see! Surely Panorama should have been concentrating, or at least concentrated more on this issue of racism in England, which occurred in the few months previous, and be reporting more on whether appropriate action was taken against John Terry in terms of match bans or fines. During the Panorama episode Sol Campbell (England ex-captain etc check) in an interview mentions how glad he is that this racism no longer occurs in the UK. However, I question the validity of this claim since there have been many cases of racist violence in England over the past few years and in investigating these cases is what brings me onto my next case study of the differences in the way an English newspaper, “The Telegraph,” reported on two cases of racism: one by English fans and one by Russian fans. -11430199834500The first article, from February 2013, reports on a case where West Ham United fans used anti-Semitic chants against Tottenham Hotspur fans. The second article, from October 2013, reports on how the Russian government is going to crack down on the serious problem of racist violence in Russian football leagues. I will firstly look into the newspaper’s use of imaging in their cover photos for both articles. The cover photo for the article on Russian fans is a picture of a group of fans, seemingly charging towards the camera. One man is carrying a drum with “Ultras” written on it, people are carrying flash fires and the air is filled with smoke. This is a great example of Hill’s affect transfer since the image evokes feelings from the audience of being scared because it gives us the feel of being in danger if we were in fact taking this photo. The image used in the article regarding racist West Ham fans is much more mellow. It is a photo of the West Ham Football Stadium, -114300251460000empty. This clearly does not evoke the same response from the audience as the Russian example does and so the newspaper is not giving the case of racism in England the same seriousness level as the Russian case, another case of framing. If this newspaper wanted to do something to prevent the anti-Semitism from occurring again it should have got a picture of the crowd at the time and if this wasn’t available then at least use a picture portraying some sort of Anti-Semitic nature so that it accurately portrays the seriousness of the article. ConclusionAccording to the book, Ethical Issues in Journalism and the Media written by Andrew Belsey and Ruth Chadwick, ethics is inseparable from journalism because the practice of journalism is centered on a set of essentially ethical concepts: freedom, democracy, truth, objectivity, honesty and privacy. If the proper role of journalism is seen as providing information, then the ethical questions focus on one issue: maintaining the quality of the information. In this research paper, I have shown that certain English journalists are not taking these ethics and morals seriously enough when it comes reporting racism in football through bias and prejudice against several Eastern European countries. By pointing the finger of blame, with racism, at other countries, English journalists are failing to sufficiently report the issues that need to be tackled in their own country.England has an issue of hooliganism and racial violence but nothing major can be done until journalism stops turning a blind eye to the reality of “The Beautiful Game” in England. Sufficient questions need to be asked of the Footballing Association (FA), which is the governing body of football in England, by journalists as to whether enough is being done in terms of bans, fines and campaigns to prevent racism from occurring.Discussion2743200197866000-1028700209296000To promote some thoughts for further discussion on this issue of media bias in journalism it should be noted that the issue of unethical journalism practices and so media bias is not just an issue that occurs solely in England and not one that occurs solely within sport. In the United States we can see forms of media bias within journalism and politics. This is seen when certain news groups back certain political campaigns, as shown below. We also see media biases in today’s world when reporters report on global sporting events. For example the coverage of Sochi’s Winter Olympics received a lot of bad press regarding crime, corruption and poor construction. Could we also currently be seeing media biases when covering global affairs? What about from US journalists against Russia within these conflicts currently happening in Ukraine? This could have serious implications into the future if it leads to increased tensions between the US and Russia due to increased feeling of hatred from Americans towards Russians.-114300-140017500In order to fully analyze these cases of media bias in journalism one has to look at the reasons why this bias occurs. For the case of England, where journalists are busy pointing the finger at other countries’ racism rather than seriously reporting on incidents happening in their own country, my theory comes down to national pride. My theory is of national pride as well as the covering up of a problem of hooliganism that is well known to the outside world. With regards to the Panorama’s episode on the Euro 2012 championships it is also national pride in that England should of course be regarded as a better host for these championship for years to come. This national pride can be applied to all the examples given in fact. Outside of England, the reasons are very similar. With US reports on Sochi and Ukraine it is again national pride in the historic feelings of tension between Russia and the United States of America.In finally concluding, I hope I have convinced my readers that this media bias is occurring in England by journalists reporting on racism in football, but also that the implications of media bias is now a global phenomenon.Works Cited"John Terry Racism Row with Anton Ferdinand: Timeline."?The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.Ganeev, Timur. "Tackling Racism and Hooliganism in Russian Football."?The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 09 Aug.Rumsby, Ben. "West Ham Still Await Football Association Verdict into 'anti-Semitic' Chants by Fans against Tottenham."?The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 28 Oct. "Stadiums Of Hate."?BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.“Beautiful Game Turned Ugly : Racism in Europe’s Soccer Arenas.” Youtube. Youtube, 26 Mar. 2008. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.Lentin, Alana.?Racism and Anti-racism in Europe. London: Pluto, 2004. 6. Print.WEGNER, GREGORY PAUL, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2008, JEFFREY T. ZALAR, Dan Michman, The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed.. 2013, Elizabeth Knowles, The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009, World Encyclopedia. 2005, T., and Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. "Holocaust."?. HighBeam Research, 01 Jan. 2003. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.“Hooliganism.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2014"Seven Decades after Holocaust, Neo-Nazis Use Soccer to Preach Hitler's Hate."?NBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.Hill, Charles A., and Marguerite H. Helmers. "Chapter 1."?Defining Visual Rhetorics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004. N. pag. Print."Panorama Returns to Peak Time on BBC ONE."?BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.IRA's Message in Blood."?The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.“English fans riot after defeat”. The Times (London), 27 June 1996Lee, Adrian (28 June 1996). “Russian stabbed for stabbed for sounding like a German”. The Times (London)"Top 10 Polish Tourist Attractions – Tourist Destinations in Poland."?Top 10 Polish Tourist Attractions – Tourist Destinations in Poland. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.Kuypers, Jim A. Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2009. Print.Goffman, Erving. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. Print.Belsey, Andrew, and Ruth F. Chadwick. Ethical Issues in Journalism and the Media. London: Routledge, 1992. PrintReporter, Sportsmail. "Ukraine Football Chief Blasts Campbell for 'back in a Box' Claim." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 30 June 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2014."Racism." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. ................
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