Framing a Global Crisis: An Analysis of the Coverage of the Latest Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Al-Jazeera and CNN

This paper analyses the media coverage of the latest conflict between Israel and Palestine which took place between the 27th of December 2008 until the 18th of January 2009[1]. It was chosen as it is a war generally widely reported by the media around the world and therefore it can be quite useful in the discussion of global crisis reporting which is what this paper intend to engage. The main question this study proposes to answer is regarding the global aspect of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Which elements seen in media reports and in historical and economical relations make Palestine a global crisis? In addition to that, this paper also does a framing analysis on the discourse used by two (considered) opposite channels, the CNN and the English version of Al-Jazeera, during the coverage of the conflict in order to complement and support the points of view expressed.

Firstly, the paper focus on to the discussion about the role of the media in a globalised world, drawing from literature on the determinants of international news coverage in an attempt to examine the myths surrounding media globalisation [2] as well as its main characteristics. The work of Kai Hafez (2007), who analysed the myths, Thomas J. Johnson and Shahira Fahmy’s (2008) study on Al-Jazeera, as well as Divya C. McMillan’s (2007) and Jean K. Chalaby’s (2006) discussions about hybridization are the main points examined in this part and are directly related to the case of the media coverage of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Once understood the discussions surrounding media globalisation, the second part of this paper tries thus to answer the main question by examining what makes a crisis global and hence what is global about the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Simon Cottle’s global crisis reporting (2009) analysis is the main source used along with Guy J. Golan’s (2008) examination of newsworthiness and examples taken from the framing analyses to complement and reinforce the arguments proposed.

Lastly, the paper exposes the findings of the framing analyses carried out during the 23 days of the conflict. It thoroughly compared the discourse and elements (image edition, interviews selection, issues framed, etc) utilised as well as the extent of the coverage by the American channel CNN and the English-language version of the Arab network Al-Jazeera. Other networks such as BBC, Euronews and Deutsche Welle were also analysed though in a more quantitative way so that it could be better understood the extent of the attention paid for this particular conflict.

[1]On the last days of 2008, Israel started a series of military attacks in the Gaza Strip that only had an ended 23 days later with both sides declaring unilateral cease-fires and Israel removing its troops. During the conflict, more than one thousand Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed and thousands of Gazans had to flee their homes and were left with no running water and buildings were badly damaged. According to Israelis authorities, the offensive began to stop Hamas throwing rockets into their territory and the smuggling of weapons through the tunnels between Palestine and Egypt. Palestinian authorities as well as the international community condemned such act and in September 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) published a report in which accused both Israel and Palestine of committing war crimes.
[2] Globalisation has been used by many scholars with different backgrounds to describe a certain phenomenon that has been happening to mankind In this paper, we use the term to refer to the increase of interconnectivity and interdependence that not only the media producers have been facing, but also the very media consumer, mainly on television which is our focus.

See the whole article:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AW_d0_v0zsNBZGhodnE5Nm1fNGR3cjhjNWN3&hl=en