Beyond peace journalism

Reclassifying conflict narratives in the Israeli news media

Bibliographic Data

ID3917031
AuthorsK Tenenboim-Weinblatt (0000-0001-9268-3969, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, corresponding author), Thomas Hanitzsch (0000-0002-7104-6300, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Rotem Nagar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Year2016
Volume53
Issue2
Pages151-165
Publication date2016-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022343315609091
OpenAlexW2314451757
LanguageEN
Citations received40
References cited50

This article presents a general framework for deconstructing and classifying conflict news narratives. This framework, based on a nuanced and contextual approach to analyzing media representations of conflict actors and events, addresses some of the weaknesses of existing classification schemes, focusing in particular on the dualistic approach of the peace journalism model. Using quantitative content analysis, the proposed framework is then applied to the journalistic coverage in the Israeli media of three Middle-Eastern conflicts: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the conflict surrounding Iran's nuclear program, and the Syrian civil war. The coverage is examined in three leading news outlets - Haaretz, Israel Hayom, and Ynet - over a six-month period. Based on hierarchical cluster analysis, the article identifies four characteristic types of narratives in the examined coverage. These include two journalistic narratives of violence: one inward-looking, ethnocentric narrative, and one outward-looking narrative focusing on outgroup actors and victims; and two political-diplomatic narratives: one interactional, and one outward-looking. In addition to highlighting different constellations of points of view and conflict measures in news stories, the identified clusters also challenge several assumptions underlying existing models, such as the postulated alignment between elite/official actors and violence frames

Elite · Ethnocentrism · Journalism · Linguistics · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Psychology

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