Comments on: How Do You Make the Front Page When You Die?

By: Sugar Cubes :: Media Covering of Arafat Vs. Sharon :: January :: 2006

Sugar Cubes :: Media Covering of Arafat Vs. Sharon :: January :: 2006 — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 20:32:53 +0000

[...] an rights e-newsletter), the exchange of comments on Naseem’s blog came to mind. Naseem compared MSM focus on Sharon’s recent stroke and his deterioratin [...]

By: Global Voices Online

Global Voices Online — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:12:12 +0000

Jordan: Who is dead?

I wonder how does one go about prioritizing who gets the #1 headliner spot? Is it based on the most amount of people dead? Or most important death? I know if I die today I wonâ??t be seeing my face on the BBC or CNN website. But if I were important en…

By: hatem abunimeh

hatem abunimeh — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 22:34:55 +0000

I think that what they see on the news wire makes the headline, the front page, or the “In your face story”. They look at
Wires

Associated Press
REUTERS
UPI

And few other main news wires, whatever they see is what drives them to make that final decision. So the editor is just an employee looking at a news wire. As far as the media is concerned, it is also driven by the newsire. You may assume that the newswire is their holy grail.

By: Nas

Nas — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 21:45:15 +0000

Hamzeh, that’s a good view and i do see your point…keep reading below…

Hatem, lol, well like i said for the third time this was me talking in general and not specifically just about sharon. but like you said (and i agree) the media will always look for the big story.

the point is, who says what the big story is? who makes the decision? is it an editor saying this is the one and is he doing it out of his own ideological preferences? point being…are we living in a world where the people decide which news is important to them or is the media deciding for us.

a question to both of you…

if the header had been cut in half…on one side “sharon is dying” on the other side “brad pitt and angelina jolie got married”…50-50…..and based on the number of views one column would grow larger and larger until it dominated the front page…which one would it be?

By: hatem abunimeh

hatem abunimeh — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 21:33:25 +0000

Good Job Hamzeh, the issue is always about the [story] and not about the [person]. So Nas if your expiration is big story on that day whenever that might be you will be in the front page, and if your death isn’t a big story it wont be in the front page. The print media will always be looking for the big story on any given day, for instance if the big story has to do with entertaining, then they will entertain, if the big story has to do with hyping, then they will hype, and if it has to do with sensationalizing then they will sensationalize, and so on and so forth. There were times when Osama Ben Laden was the big story and there times when Khomini was the big story, heck there was time when Arafat was the big story.

By: Hamzeh

Hamzeh — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:14:38 +0000

I tend to walk along the lines that Linda outlined in her comment. This is big news because the Israeli conflict in the Middle East has been one of the biggest news stories (if not the biggest one) for over half a century.

Sharon is also a very controversial figure. On one hand, the guy is probably considered by most Palestinians the way Hitler is considered by the jews. On the other hand, he took major steps for his country. The security barrier (we call it the seggregation wall, but we can’t deny it did improve Israel’s security), and the disengagement from Gaza, and recently he started his own sort of centrist party in Israel. All these three things, were and still are big stories, and now someone has to pick them up and do something with them, and this is what the world is waiting for.

Already the CNN web site has a different story on the main page (the bloody events of this day in Iraq), so I believe the story of Sharon’s sickness is only gonna come back to the main pages and covers of newspapers in big headlines and big pictures when developments occur.

Arafat’s sickness and death got the same attention.

By: Nas

Nas — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 19:15:36 +0000

SC, sorry, I have a tendency to generalise

Hisham, Hmm, I gotta get me some of that

Linda, I respect your opinion although like I said I am talking in general here, this is just a more current example to work with

p.s. then you’re in more trouble than you thought

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:38:02 +0000

you guys come on this is a big story. the man has had two strokes in the past few weeks, meaning he might die any time soon. no matter how you feel about the man, his death is going to play a role in the ongoing conflict of the israelis and palestinians. it is not always the actual event that is news worthy, such as the stroke, its the story behind the news that is bigger and makes us think more.

P.S. what if i dont know what 1+1 is man?

By: hisham

hisham — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:29:48 +0000

its called power…

By: SugarCubes

SugarCubes — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:54:04 +0000

BTW, Sheikh Maktoom is the ruler of Dubai only not the UAE.

By: SugarCubes

SugarCubes — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:42:55 +0000

The last couple of days were full of aweful news enough to make the most cheerful of us all gloomy and depressed.

I can not believe how can they put Sharon and peace in once sentence anyway, just how misleading the MSM can be for the average westerner.