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ABSTRACT
This paper examines a sample of fifty news-oriented articles related to the Middle East conflict published on the Reuters proprietary websites across a three month study window. A combination of Ethnographic Content Analysis and primary survey data are employed to identify, code and validate reporting/ethical failures in the articles, i.e., propaganda, logical fallacies, and violations of the Reuters Handbook. Tests are run to measure for 1) shifts in audience attitudes and support for the primary belligerent parties in the Middle East conflict following readings of the sample and, 2) associations between the reporting/ethical failures and audience attitudes/support. Over 1,100 occurrences of reporting/ethical failures across forty-one subcategories are identified and a significant shift in audience attitudes and support following article readings is observed. Significant associations are found between 1) the use of atrocity propaganda and audience favorability/sympathy toward the Arabs/Palestinians; 2) the use of the appeal to pity fallacy and audience favorability/sympathy toward the Arabs/Palestinians; and 3) the use of atrocity propaganda, appeal to pity and appeal to poverty fallacies, and audience motivation to take supportive action on behalf of the Arabs/Palestinians. It is inferred from the evidence that Reuters engages in systematically biased storytelling in favor of the Arabs/Palestinians and is able to influence audience affective behavior and motivate direct action along the same trajectory. This reflects a fundamental failure to uphold the Reuters corporate governance charter and ethical guiding principles.
Keywords: Reuters; Journalism; Propaganda; Bias; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Israel; Palestinian Arabs; Ethnographic Content Analysis
1. INTRODUCTION
Thomson Reuters ("Reuters") was formed in 2008 when the Thomson Corporation and Reuters Group PLC combined to create the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing "... world news, business news, technology news, headline news... on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms".1
Reuters employs over 2,700 journalists in 200 bureaus2 globally including approximately 70 journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories.3 Elsewhere in the Middle East, there are Reuters news bureaus in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Turkey.4
As a news agency (wire service), Reuters sells its content to hundreds of other media companies around the world including newspapers, magazines, radio, and television broadcasters. Reuters text newswires provide coverage of regional, national and international events in 20...