Herb Keinon had to wipe the sweat off his brow after his speech in the Barsema Hall Auditorium on Tuesday. Keinon, diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, discussed how Israel and Palestine are portrayed in the mass media and was met with considerable opposition to his pro-Israel views.

However, I learned a few lessons from Keinon’s observations that went to the very heart of media culture.

Media isn’t always independent

The fact that there is no independent media in many countries limits news gathering. The government controls who talks to the news, who writes for the news and who translates for the reporters. The state can influence how journalism works, and the result is biased and mediocre international coverage.

Keinon said “stringers” in the Middle East on both the left and the right lead journalists to bad sources and misinformation, leaving both societies with a single state-approved voice rather than a marketplace of ideas. This news portrays victims and aggressors instead of reality. In a nation with no First Amendment, the “news” is whatever the media can get.

Keinon’s point was to claim that Palestinian media images are a false perception, but the truth to be gleaned here is that a country needs a free press if it is to claim truth.

Big picture doesn’t cover it all

Because of the flaws in methodology, public protest demonstrations are often the only footage available for viewing from these nations. This footage is portrayed in mass media as the whole story, but as Keinon said, “in a two-minute sound bite, it’s difficult to do so.” The reality is that the issues are vastly more complex than the average American understands.

“You really have to be there to know all the facts,” said Shereen Sbeih, a Rochelle resident who was born in the West Bank and attended Keinon’s speech. Unfortunately, most Americans only see short clips from Israel, Iraq, China or South America, where present events are deeply rooted in historical and societal causes. Good luck finding evidence in the American mass media of Hugo Chavez’s diplomacy in developing the South American region’s economy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s attempts to diversify the Iranian economy or the Afghanistan government’s failure to maintain legitimacy outside of Kabul.

These issues are simply not covered, and our big-picture world-view then becomes based on sound bytes appealing to a sports-team mentality of “us” and “them,” rather than on real reporting. It is dramatic and exciting, but as Keinon said, “not all drama is right.”

Bias is unavoidable

Society is made of people, each with opinions, beliefs and norms. Profit motives in the mass media use people to direct the news as a product, marketed to people. In a mass market, bias is automatically a factor in production and presentation.

Sbeih’s cousin, Sabreen Sbeih, a Rochelle high school senior, attended the speech and spoke about her recent class project on propaganda. She said most people believe what they see and hear, even if reality and policy present a different truth.

“You need someone that is neutral, in order to show the truth,” she said.

Ironically, the biggest lesson about mass media was in the final minutes of Keinon’s speech, as he blatantly revealed how his own biases are fundamental to his perceptions on the issue. Some attendees responded with pro-Palestinian arguments, and some pro-Israel voices defended their position, but neither side demonstrated any understanding or objectivity.

However, Keinon’s bias was disturbing to me, because he, a diplomatic correspondent, spent a good portion of his argument highlighting how bias affects perception, and yet it took a high school senior from Rochelle to point out that his argument was full of bias.

All of this drove home an old maxim: Where you stand depends on where you sit.