Framing the 2023 Gaza War: An Analytical Study of TRT Arabic’s Main News Broadcasts

This study aims to investigate the framing tactics used by the Turkish channel TRT Arabic when covering the 2023 Israeli war on Gaza. It focuses on the frames used by the channel to present the news items on the 2023 conflict in terms of humanitarian concerns, consequences, responsibility, strategy, and ethics. A quantitative content analysis was conducted of the discursive framing of the 90 news bulletins of TRT Arabic discussing the 2023 Gaza war. The data included news reports and interviews that spanned the 2023 conflict. Results suggest that the channel's news coverage was mainly within the humanitarian frame, which is consistent with Turkey’s official stance on Palestinians' rights. TRT Arabic predominantly used field reporters as information sources and employed framing-based journalism tactics in order to manipulate the news coverage. Some of the tactics included omission, selection, and repetition. Furthermore, TRT Arabic provided a full reconstruction of the war events on the ground, through field reports, log updates, and live or phone interviews. The study then concludes that the channel focused on the war and its effects, using field reporters and selective framing. Common formats were documentary reports and interviews. The findings also demonstrate how the media, even progressive media, can shape public perceptions by choosing to emphasize certain aspects of complex events.