Using qualitative and quantitative research tools, this article attempts to examine the media coverage of Palestinian children in relation to the current Palestinian uprising. The criteria for the selection of the news outlets and indicator categories were agreed upon by Birzeit University Media Institute and the UNICEF representative. The regional and international outlets selected were as follows: NBC TV (US), BBC World Service radio station (UK), The Guardian (UK), Aljazeera TV (Qatar), The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post. All the outlets are representative of regional and international categories and are leaders in terms of news-making or represent contrasting political views. The results of this particular study seem to confirm assumptions that Palestinian children have very little media access and issues relating to them rarely feature in the dominant news narrative despite the privileged position of the Middle East crisis in these international news agendas.

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The main concern of this research is the credibility of Palestinian media amongst opinion leaders. The study surveyed 860 opinion leaders, (442) in the West Bank and (418) in Gaza, using purposive sample techniques. To assess credibility, opinion leaders were asked to answer according to the credibility scale developed by Gaziano and McGrath. The findings show that 35.6% of the opinion leaders considered the 'Al-Jazeera' satellite TV station to be the most credible media source. Of the sample, 6.9% said the Internet is the most credible media. The majority of Hamas leaders (62.3%) trust their media and consider Hamas' media to be the most credible source. Only 8.1% of Fateh opinion leaders trust their media as a source of information. Among the local daily newspapers, Al-Quds seems to be the most credible source.