Page 167 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

CHAPTER 6

Aksa TV. The program features Uncle Hazim (Hazim Sharawi) romping
with a cast of friendly bears, rabbits, and chickens—men dressed in ani-
mal costumes. At the same time, the program subtly imparts information
about the disputed status of Jerusalem, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
jails, and the Palestinian refugees’ demand for a right to return to the
lands they lost to Israel in the 1948 war. The political polemic is carefully
incorporated into the format of the children’s show. For instance, the show
features egg-and-spoon races and eating apples on a string or tug of war,
which Sharawi notes, show children that “the more you cooperate with
others, the more you win.”

“Our television show will have a message, but without getting into the
tanks, the guns, the killing and the blood,” said Mr. Sharawi, sitting in
the broadcast studio where he will produce his show. “I will show them
our rights through the history, show them, ‘This is Nablus, this is Gaza,
this is Al Aksa mosque, which is with the Israelis and should be in our
hands.’” 46

(For further discussion of latent persuasive functions, see Chapters 2
and 8.)
The United States government has also used popular genres as a pro-
paganda tool. In January 2004, it was discovered that the Bush adminis-
tration had violated federal law by producing and distributing television
news segments promoting its Medicare program, disguised as broadcast
journalism segments. The Bush administration sent video news releases
(VNRs) to local news stations throughout the United States. The video
stories contained all of the formulaic elements of broadcast news stories,
including a voiceover by a person who signed off, “In Washington, I’m
Karen Ryan reporting.” Investigation revealed that Karen Ryan is not a
journalist but, instead, an employee of the public relations firm that the
government hired to produce the VNRs. The Government Accountabil-
ity Office, an investigative arm of Congress, has determined that these
videos “constitute covert propaganda” because the government was not
identified as the source of the materials and violated the prohibition on
47
using taxpayer money for propaganda. Thus, although the audience was
expecting to receive an informative report about the Medicare program,
they were instead presented with the Bush administration’s “spin” about
the program.
The cases cited above involve intent on the part of the media com-

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