CULTURAL CONTEXTS IN GLODAL MEDIA
CHRISTINA VANDERMARK
ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE

My paper will show different global media throughout the world on the death of a Palestinian man, Arafat Shalish Shahin Jaradat, while detained in a Israeli prison. While doing my research I found many different types of global media reports on my topic. Depending in which culture the news was being reported, details and information were affected in different ways. I will also show the differences from these cultures when reporting news and how the story changes between news media reports within these cultures. During my research into Jaradat’s death, I found many discussions about how his death caused more rebellion from the Palestinians. More people were being killed from the outbursts over Jaradat’s death. There is a fear between these two cultures that more deaths will occur over these uprisings. The Guardian, a U.K. media web source, reported that since Jaradat’s death, two Palestinian teenage boys were shot by the Israeli army because of their protest against the Israeli government. The Guardian reported Jaradat’s death was over him throwing stones at Israeli. The New York Times states Jaradat was accused of stone throwing and also throwing bombs into a protest against the Israeli government in 2006. The U.K. and the U.S. reported differences on the charges brought against Jaradat. BBC News, Almanar News, National Post, Guardian, and the International Solidarity Movement all reported the same story that his arrest was due to stone throwing at the Israelis but no bombs were mentioned. Six different sources agreed what charges he was facing while one had another charge along with the first charge of stone throwing. CNN, ABC News, and New York Times, all based in the U.S., had more personal opinions of their own feelings when reporting their news on Jaradat’s death. The Middle East, Canada, and the U.K. were all about the facts when doing their news on the incident. With the U.S. having the right of the freedom of speech, it allowed the news to add a twist on their stories by adding personal opinions. In all of my sources, both sides, Israelis and Palestinians, explained what occurred to cause Jaradat’s death. The Palestinians believe that Jaradat was tortured, for hours, while in the custody of Israelis officers. According to the National Post, a Canadian based media source, reported that the Israelis need to do more tests to determine the exact cause of Jaradat’s death. In all of the Middle East’s media, Israelis determined that Jaradat’s death was caused by a heart attack. These different views of the cause of Jaradat’s death were the same throughout all of my sources. No matter where in the world they originate from When reading through all of my sources from the Middle East and the U.K., I realized they reported the facts and quotes they had available. The U.S. and Canada sources reported the facts and quotes but they also added some of their own assumptions into their news. In the nine different sources that I researched, different styles of writing were used in all of them. In all of the sources I found, every one of them stated that the death of Jaradat resulted from the Israeli stalks about the new uprisings between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The sources had all the basic information the same in reporting the story. They knew the background of the story and why the incident occurred. As the story was reported in different cultures of the world, different aspects of the story changed or more information was added. In the Middle East the story was local and pertained to them personally so the news was more straightforward and are reported in more depth. With the death being local in the Middle East, their news was far more detailed than any other news story reported on Jaradat’s death. A story written by the International Solidarity Movement, reported in great detail the