Media coverage of UN membership request of Palestine: An analysis on New York Times

ABSTRACT: On 28 September 2011 the Palestine‘s Authority Administration applied to the UN to change its ―Entity‖ status to an ―Observer Membership‖ status. On 29 November 2012 the majority of UN general assembly members voted in favour of the application. It is to be noted that the USA voted against the Palestine‘s Authority Administration application to the UN. Media coverage on this application process is important to see in this study. New York Times was selected as the focus of this research study because it is one of the very well-known newspapers all-over the world and it has the highest international circulation. NYT is widely quoted by other newspapers all around the globe and it is considered a credible source by the public, congress and decision makers in the USA and abroad. Further, it is highly influential because it has international wire services, and has its own correspondents in different parts of the world. The main purpose of this study is to find out how NYT framed the issue of the Palestinian application and if there is a parallel between USA interest and the media coverage on this matter. The research study is important since there is no previous study on the media coverage of Palestine‘s Authority application for observer status membership for UN on NYT. UN decision on the Palestine application will be of critical importance not only to the Palestinian people but also to many other countries beside the Arab world. This study focused on three questions: What issues were emphasized by the NYT in its coverage of Palestine‘s application for the observer membership status in the UN? Is there a relation between NYT coverage and the USA‘s decision regarding the Palestine‘s application for UN membership? And How NYT presented Palestine‘s issues versus Israeli issues? The research study focused on the news published for 19 months between June, 2011 and December, 2012. The electronic archive of NYT was used to analyse the relevant news stories. Content analysis is used in this research study. The main results of this study show that NYT coverage was against Palestinian interests and against Palestinian application to get an observer status UN membership. In contrast, the general coverage of NYT was in favour of both Israel and U.S interests. Keywords: Palestine, Israel, UN, USA, NYT. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………