Framing international conflicts:Media coverage of fighting in the Middle East

Abstract

Media framing of foreign conflicts determines the way in which the public and policymakers perceive the causes, consequences and importance of those conflicts and where diplomatic and material resources are committed. Framing is manifested in, among other things, the amount of media coverage of a particular conflict and the language used to describe the actors and events in that conflict. The type of framing employed determines whether the public will empathize with one of the sides involved or feel detached from events taking place far from them. This article builds on earlier research on media framing through a study of two foreign conflicts that had a number of key similarities but were framed very differently. Framing is analysed through a comparison of New York Times coverage of army sieges of two Palestinian refugee camps: the first in the town of Jenin in the West Bank in 2002 and the second in Nahr al-Bared in Lebanon in 2007. The research examines the depth of coverage and the language used to portray the context of events, the two armies, combatants within the camps, civilian casualties, damage to property and the effectiveness of the military operations. Analysis of differences in the reporting of these two conflicts expands on existing literature on media framing, discusses causes of inconsistent framing and elucidates the effect of framing on perceptions of reality in foreign conflict and the subsequent effect on policy-making.

Thinking about engaging North Korea: A study on the framing of the U.S. human rights public discourse in the Washington Post and New York Times between 2001 and 2017

“…Framing refers to the process for constructing an interpretation or set of interpretations from a set of events, which entails interpreting and evaluating a central organizing idea, issue, problem, or phenomenon under investigation (Carlyle, Slater, & Chakroff, ; Evans, ; Mello & Tan, ; Sheehan, ). Reframing refers to the process of reorganizing the frame within a specific discursive framework.…”

Construcción del discurso bélico desde las agencias internacionales de noticias: Estudio de Caso Atentados del 13 de noviembre de 2015

“…En la actualidad se vislumbra que la cobertura de los conflictos posee nuevos formatos de transmisión, nuevos géneros periodísticos, nuevas narrativas y nuevas audiencias (Sacco, 2016). Sin embargo, esta ampliación no ha hecho más que potenciar la influencia de los medios tradicionales en la opinión pública, instaurando una percepción de la realidad que impacta indirectamente en la gestión y legislación de las relaciones internacionales (Evans, 2010).…”

The Contextualization of the Watchdog and Civic Journalistic Roles: Reevaluating Journalistic Role Performance in U.S. Newspapers

“…Evans (2010) explains that after the end of the Cold War, political analysts and perhaps journalists themselves were looking for a new scapegoat for the causes of international conflicts. It can be argued that the "axis of evil" and "war on terror" was an attempt to fill this void and therefore contributed to how post 9/11 events were covered.…”