Hot bullets, cool media: The Middle East’s high stakes media war

Modern conflicts are increasingly battles over images and ideas, as protagonists seek to shape audiences’ views by managing the information available through the media. The stake are high: influencing public opinion in a desired direction can have tangible pay‐offs in economic and military terms and even – in the case of the Israel‐Palestine war – in territory. Against this background, the media war can be even more important than the shooting war. While each side in the Israel‐Palestine conflict alleges media bias in favour of the other, a theoretical perspective, the hostile media effect, illuminates seeming contradictions highlighted by these competing claims. While the Israelis are better resourced for public relations purposes than the Palestinians, a vigorous domestic critique of Israeli PR efforts illustrates the limits of PR and emphasises the fluid, “wicked” nature of problems that often face communication managers.