International Framing of Gaza Conflict (Oct–Nov 2023) A Critical Discourse Analysis of The New York Times and Al Arabiya Headlines

Abstract

They choose which events to tell.Where they focus their attention is a highly selective and arbitrary judgment.Most pointedly in media coverage of the war in Gaza is how different Western accounts are from those coming out of the Middle East. An example might be headlines on this very site: New York Times and Al Arabiya. The language used on each one month into fighting against itself shows clearly what direction reporting swings. The 210 headlines consist of a head count: in this period 210 of those found on each source. This examination applies Fairclough's three-dimensional model of CDA, Van Dijk's ideological square and narrative framing theory to the reporting of the war by mainstream media outlets. Repeated narrative structures, portrayal of characters, and word structure were coded both inductively deductively. Results In counting the number of key words, we treated them both quantitatively and qualitatively while looking at their social or politico-social context for further explication. NYT headlines tended to represent Israeli actions in the recent conflict as highly significant of violence and Security above all; terms like "terrorist" (or worse) were used against Hamas, a key cog found oppressive along with PLO, to which Israel reacted for good reason as state-based actions necessary. Al Arabiya highlighted the Palestinian situation far more: Massacres were up by 35 percent in Gaza before the recent outbreak of hostilities began for instance, but - no term like barrier emissions here. Grammatical selections also differed: NYT often employed the passive voice often in terms of its headlines which covered up Israeli killing people; Al Arabiya favored more active verbs phrasing things this stake was killed. These narratives reflect wide ideological divides—that of the Western Liberal and Capitalist story, on one hand; the Arabist story, which maintains elements of humanism and internationalism as a resultIn conclusion, in headlines we find the site for conflicting interpretations. One last reminder: the discursive power relationships in news story are as much about context as they are events themselves.