Gender hierarchies in reporting genocide

An analysis of the dehumanization of Palestinian men in Western media

Bibliographic Data

ID12918293
AuthorsNoura El Masry (Lebanese American University, corresponding author), Zina Sawaf (0009-0006-5504-6016, Lebanese American University), Gretchen King (0000-0002-0168-4235, Lebanese American University), Sami E Baroudi (0000-0001-9889-234X, Lebanese International University), Sami Baroudi (Lebanese American University)
Year2025
Volume18
Issue4
Pages310-321
Publication date2025-08-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCommunication Culture and Critique (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1753-9137 • E-ISSN: 1753-9129
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/ccc/tcaf032
OpenAlexW4413911616
LanguageDE
Citations received2
References cited21

This article investigates how Western media’s coverage of the first three months of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, specifically the language adopted by two major Western media outlets the BBC and CNN, dehumanizes Palestinian men. This research question is answered through a quantitative methodology that applies web scraping to collect 265 articles from the BBC and 4,441 from CNN to then analyze the number of articles and occurrences of keywords plus the frequency variation of both from October 7 to December 31, 2023. The analysis uncovers a clear dehumanization of Palestinian men, mainly by ignoring or naturalizing the suffering and death of these men and by framing them as violent, hypersexual and irrational terrorists. The article concludes that the BBC and CNN adopt a coverage that conveys an anti-Palestinian media bias and dehumanizes Palestinian men while reinforcing gender hierarchies in reporting genocide

Criminology · Dehumanization · Genocide · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Middle East Politics and Society · Psychology · Gender Studies · Law · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access