How is Islamic State represented and framed on BBC News Online in comparison to Al Jazeera Online?

METHODOLOGY & SOURCESThe chosen research methods will o�er an in depth analysis of how these two news outlets, BBC News online and Al Jazeera Online cover Islamic Sate and their actions around the world. Entman (1991) explained how having two comparative case studies helped the magni�cation of biases, framing, or other judgements journalists use when constructing a narrative (cited in Schaefer, et al., 2003: 94).

The �rst step would be content analysis to gather quantitative data. Content analysis as a scienti�c tool will o�er new insights, increases a researchers understanding of a certain particular phenomena or informs practical action (Krippendor� 2004). By using the two websites I can tally what words, headlines and names that are frequently used when reporting acts of terrorism. This form of analysis provides a systematic approach (Weaver 2007), however, this method alone doesn’t provide meaning and doesn’t o�er a contextual analysis which would provide an examination of tone/inference (Perkins and Holland 2008: 279).

To balance I this will then take the quantitative date I have collated and analyse the words further. Through discourse analysis I will magnify the language used and in what tone. I will look at how the news outlet is using certain words to create the framing of an event, this will help me work out the angle they are creating. This follows the principles of Van Gorp (2007) who suggested that the strong abstract nature of frames means a qualitative approach should be matched with a quantitative method.

Acts of terror across the globe apply a lot of pressure to news organisations to get the news out �rst and get it accurate. The public rely on these media organisations to break down these events into manageable and smaller bite sized pieces because they don’t have the time to understand complex issues and all the background (Lippmann, 1922). Therefore, they have to choose what’s left in and out of a story, this concept of choosing and packaging current issues is known as framing. (Entman,1993). Altheide (2006), Ho�man (2006) and Paletz and Boiney (1992) propose that journalists and news outlets play the main role in framing and creating media discourse on terrorists.

Shoemaker and Reese (1995) indicate a certain partisanship when it comes to reporting world events and these are in�uenced by many factors such as organisational factors, personal factors, political factors and even geographical factors. Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) conducted research that showed the �ve most common frames were; responsibility, con�ict, human interest, economic consequences, and morality frames, respectively. They also found the biggest di�erences were between sensationalists vs serious types of news outlets, the two I’m studying are considered serious so it would be interesting to see if they di�er at all especially as they are culturally and geographically di�erent outlets.

‘Us and them’ is also a factor when reporting because the journalist needs to categories a terrorist act and then label it as ‘our war/terrorism’ or ‘their war/terrorism’, they also need to distinguish what an incident is, whether it be a bomb, explosion or a violent clash. (Nossek 2004).

Ethical ImplicationsMy research and analysis will stick to discourse and content analysis, therefore no interviews will be conducted making this research very low risk in terms of ethical implications.

Strengths & Weaknesses +An area of study and topic which is relevant now and focuses how online publications cover

events. + Covers two website that di�er geographically and culturally.

+ The methods of research allow in depth and thorough analysis.+ Due to the vast coverage there will be plenty of case studies to analyse.

- It’s an ever changing subject and the coverage style can change over time.- Articles online may have been edited from their original publication.

- Scholarly work will not be as detailed or thorough due to how recent some attacks have been.

C O N TET X

L I T TRE A EU R REVIEW

This project is important now because we currently live in a society where terrorism or acts of violence take the headlines, so it would be ideal to know how two big media outlets; the BBC and Al Jazeera, frame them on their online news platforms. The years between 2014-2016 have seen the most deaths due to terrorism in Europe since 1993. Hamada (2003) explained how terrorism and violence are amongst the most sensitive issues within the Arab world, and they are linked to the instability of Arab social, economic and political environments.

ISIS have currently secured a foothold within the middle-east and have been responsible for atrocities in these areas and across Europe. Most notably the attacks in Paris, Brussels and Nice. By looking at how these three terrorist attacks were covered we can try to understand how framing and images are created. Nacos (2004) explained how a general trend in western media coverage of Islamic violence is to label it terrorism, as compared to Jewish or Christian violence. Doward (2015) highlights further that sensationalist media coverage on terrorism results in more violent acts being committed.

Highlighting the media discourse created would be helpful to see how these two media channels construct frames and report news. BBC News has always been one of the world leading news outlets and Al Jazeera was launched as an alternative to western-centric media (Sabbagh, 2012). Al Jazeera a�ects global politics by enhancing the Islamic world’s clout in this new, media centric-world (Seib 2008).

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