Comparative Framing of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in Newspapers: An Analysis of Affect
Abstract
In an era where media warfare parallels armed conflict with immense power to create or challenge narratives and shape public sentiment, this study dissects the journalistic tactics employed in reporting the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by two influential news giants: Al Jazeera English (AJE) and The Washington Post (WP). Based on the Faircloughian socio-dialectical perspective and Martin and White’s (2005) affect subsystem within the appraisal theory, this study investigates how language choices shape meanings, select voices, and perpetuate specific ideologies. The analysis of a corpus of 117 news articles from Al Jazeera English (AJE) and 115 from The Washington Post (WP) reveals that both outlets utilize interpersonal emotions to craft narratives that are more provocative than informative. Essentially, these two news organizations are found to be consciously or subconsciously steering public sentiment, fostering divisive worldviews, and cultivating polarized perspectives. AJE prioritizes narratives that amplify Arab and Muslim perspectives while railing against Israeli occupation and American prejudicial policies. WP, conversely, offers a lens colored by US geopolitical interests, sidelining Arab and Palestinian grievances in the process. Consequently, each outlet’s emotionally charged reporting serves as a tinderbox that inflames public opinion, escalates conflict, and deepens societal fissures. The study underscores the urgent need for journalistic integrity by media professionals and advocates for a shift in conflict reporting that recognizes the consequences of emotion-laden narratives, which negatively impact public discourse and hinder the path toward peaceful resolutions.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abdi, R. & Basarati, A, (2016). A critical analysis of the representation of Yemen Crisis in ideologically-loaded newspaper headlines. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 16(3). https://journalarticle.ukm.my/10160/1/11236-45002-1-PB.pdf
Albtoush, M.A. & Ang, P.S. (2024). Shaming to emancipate: Metaphoric bipolarisation in Jordanian online socio-political editorials. KEMANUSIAAN the Asian Journal of Humanities 31(1), p. 101–125. DOI:10.21315/kajh2024.31.1.6
Amer, Y. Y. M., & Katman, F. (2021). The impact of the religious phenomenon on the political crisis in yemen from 2011 to 2020: The houthi movement as a case. European Researcher. Series A(12), 19-25.
Asseburg, M. (2019). The “deal of the century” for Israel-Palestine: US proposals are likely to speed demise of two-state settlement. SWP Comments 20/2019, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), German Institute for International and Security Affairs. DOI:10.18449/2019C20.
Ayer, L., Venkatesh, B., Stewart, R., Mandel, D., Stein, B., & Schoenbaum, M. (2017). Psychological aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: A systematic review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 18(3), 322-338. DOI:10.1177/1524838015613774
Bakti, A. F., & Lecomte, I. (2015). The Integration of Dakwah in Journalism: Peace Journalism. Jurnal Komunikasi Islam (Journal of Islamic Comunication), 5(1), 185-203. DOI:10.15642/jki.2015.5.1.185-203.
Bessen, J. A., & Bessen, J. (2017). Narrative and Belonging: The Politics of ambiguity, the Jewish State, and the thought of Edward Said and Hannah Arendt. International Studies Honors Projects. 23. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/intlstudies_honors/23
Consterdine, E. (2018). State-of-the-art report on public attitudes, political discourses and media coverage on the arrival of refugees. CEASEVAL Research on the Common European Asylum System, 2.
Etaywe, A., & Zappavigna, M. (2022). Identity, ideology and threatening communication: An investigation of patterns of attitude in terrorist discourse. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 10(2), 315-350. DOI:10.1075/jlac.00058.eta
Fairclough, N. (2008). The language of critical discourse analysis: Reply to Michael Billig. Discourse & Society, 19(6), 811-819. DOI:10.1177/0957926508095896
Fairclough, N., Mulderrig, J., & Wodak, R. (2011). Critical discourse analysis. In T. A. Van Dijk, (Ed.), Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction(pp.357-378). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Fowler, R. (1991). Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press. Routledge.
Gönültaş, S., & Mulvey, K. L. (2019). Social-developmental perspective on intergroup attitudes towards immigrants and refugees in childhood and adolescence: A roadmap from theory to practice for an inclusive society. Human Development, 63(2), 90-111.
Huan, C. (2018). Journalistic stance in Chinese and Australian hard news. Springer.
Jing, S., & Lihuan, J. (2021). Attitude analysis of news discourse from the perspective of appraisal theory: A case study of China daily’s report on COVID-19. Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(6), 175-182. DOI:10.36348/sjhss.2021.v06i06.001
Kharbach, M. (2020). Understanding the ideological construction of the Gulf crisis in Arab media discourse: A critical discourse analytic study of the headlines of Al Arabiya English and Al Jazeera English. Discourse & Communication, 14(5), 447-465. DOI:10.1177/17504813209175
Loomis, D., Huang, W., & Chen, G. (2014). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evaluation of the carcinogenicity of outdoor air pollution: focus on China. Chinese Journal of Cancer, 33(4), 189. DOI: 10.5732/cjc.014.10028
Luporini, A. (2021). Metaphor, nominalization, appraisal: Analyzing coronavirus-related headlines and subheadings in China Daily and The Wall Street Journal. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 21(1). DOI:10.17576/gema-2021-2101-15
Malinova, O. (2018). The embarrassing centenary: Reinterpretation of the 1917 Revolution in the official historical narrative of post-Soviet Russia (1991–2017). Nationalities Papers, 46(2), 272-289. DOI:10.1080/00905992.2017.1386639
Martin, J. R., & White, P. R.R.(2005). Attitude: Ways of feeling. In J. R. Martin & P. R. R. White (Ed.), The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English (pp. 42-91). Palgrave Macmillan.
Meyer, C. O., Sangar, E., & Michaels, E. (2018). How do non-governmental organizations influence media coverage of conflict? The case of the Syrian conflict, 2011-2014. Media, War & Conflict, 11(1), 149-171. DOI:10.1177/17506352177273
Munda, G. (2004). Social multi-criteria evaluation: Methodological foundations and operational consequences. European Journal of Operational Research, 158(3), 662-677.
Nakhoul, S. (2019, June 2) Palestinians says U.S. 'Deal of the Century' will finish off their state. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1T307G/
Ononiwu, C. (2023). Ideology and cognitive stereotypes in media representation of the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Media, War & Conflict, 0(0). DOI:10.1177/17506352231201743
Puspita, D., & Pranoto, B. E. (2021). The attitude of Japanese newspapers in narrating disaster events: Appraisal in critical discourse study. Studies in English Language and Education, 8(2), 796-817. DOI:10.1016/S0377-2217(03)00369-2
Van Dijk, T. A. (1995). Discourse semantics and ideology. Discourse & Society, 6(2), 243-289. DOI:10.1177/0957926595006002006
Van Dijk, T. A. (1998). News analysis: Case studies of international and national news in the press. Routledge.
Van Dijk, T. A. (2005). Discourse analysis as ideology analysis. In T.A. Van Dijk, (Ed.,) Language & Peace (pp. 41-58). Routledge.
Wei, Y., Wherrity, M., & Zhang, Y. (2015). An analysis of current research on the appraisal theory. Linguistics and Literature Studies, 3(5), 235-239. DOI: 10.13189/lls.2015.030506
Wong, M. L.-Y. (2017). Analysing aggression of social actors in political protests: Combining corpus and cognitive approaches to discourse analysis. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 9(3), 178-194. DOI:10.1108/JACPR-09-2016-0250
Yu, H., Yue, J., & Yan, Y. (2023). Fighting terrorism, fighting the West: Them versus Us appraisal in Chinese media’s discursive war on terror. Text & Talk, 43(4), 543-568. DOI:10.1515/text-2021-0013
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/gema-2024-2403-07
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
eISSN : 2550-2131
ISSN : 1675-8021