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International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (4.9) (2018) 145-150
International Journal of Engineering & Technology
Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET
Research paper
50 days of war on innocent civilian: Ma’an news agency
coverage of Israeli and Palestinian conflict
Wesam Almahallawi1*, Hasmah Zanuddin2
1,2Department of Media Studies, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
*Corresponding author E-mail: wesamalmahallawi@gmail.com
Abstract
Since the TV broadcasting was established in Arab countries until the 1990s, broadcasting during this specific time was based on a gov-
ernment control model, which derived from the view of broadcasting as an instrument of state advance that must be under the control
from government. This kind of TVs, limits the broadcastingto highlight the government issue (1). In these kind of TVs, they focus with
the leader’s opinion more than the Palestinian problem. By the way, the theme in Arab media determined to highlight the leader’s opin-
ion who claims the right to speak on behalf of Palestinians. In September 1991, the first private TV in the Arab world was established
when MBC went on the air from London. More private TVs followed after that like: Orbit in 1994 and ART in 1995, both based in Italy
owned by Saudi businessmen, Future Television and LBC, both Lebanese based in Beirut, in 1995, and Al-Jazeera based in Qatar in
1996. In 2002 the number of the Arab TV stations was expanded to more than 150 TVS as government or privately owned, with capabil-
ity of reaching the Arab people in any place in the world. This paper focuses on the media coverage of the conflict between two parties
Palestine and Israel. The preview studies show that, in a conflict the media has an influential role and has responsibility for increasing
violence or contributing to the resolution of conflict and mitigation of violence (2). This study examined 61 news coverage and framing
of the Israel and Palestine conflict, known as the 50 days’ war from 8 July – 26 August 2014 by Ma’an News Agency, which delivers
news to Ma’an TV (Palestinian satellite television station). A quantitative content analysis was employed to examine the news published
during the war using five generic frames developed by (3). Holsti Inter-coder reliability and validity test value is 0.988 or 98% agreement.
The results showed that conflict and human-interest frames were significantly visible compared to other frames in Ma’an news coverage.
Portrayal of images of civilian killing, children and women killed in their homes and suffrage news coverage, in this war. Responsibility
frame stressed on hospitals bombing and embargo of medications which reduced chances for Palestinian of immediate medical help. The
economic frame highlighted the economic and financial losses of Palestinians as consequences of 50 days’ war. Most of them lost their
income, businesses, agriculture land and homes and became refugees.
Keywords: Media framing; content analysis; Israeli and Palestinian conflict; and Gaza war 2014.
1. Introduction
What defines mass media involvement in crises, wars, and con-
flicts across the globe emanates most often than not from the per-
spectives through the way mass media covers, treats, and reports
the issues. (4, 5). Mass media sometimes act as a mediator during
conflicts thereby report crises in a way that a lasting solution is
projected or redress is sought to ameliorate tensed conflicts until
final resolution is achieved (6, 7). On the other hand, mass media
create or aggravate conflicts by being partial while reporting the
issues. Media roles before, during, and after conflicts therefore are
determined by how the issues are framed to reflect the interest that
the mass media are protecting. (8, 9). Mass media reports are
pregnant of different focuses and meanings. The reports depict
how media takes an active part during conflicts and are responsi-
ble for increased violence or whether media are independent of
conflict, thereby report conflicts in ways contributing to conflict
resolution (2, 10).
Many factors contribute to how mass media cover events or issues,
most especially conflicts between two or more parties. The media
coverage of conflicts or events will not only influence the parties
involved in the conflict but also the bystanders, who are influ-
enced by the direction of the reports and thus are forced to take
sides in line with what the media make them believe about the
conflict. (11, 12). Local conflicts are framed by local media to
influence either one of the parties involved and at the same time
members of the society who will act justly or otherwise by sup-
porting one party or the other based on how mass media manipu-
late or manage the issue. Local conflicts attract international me-
dia attention only when such issues have degenerated to a level
whereby fundamental human rights are compromised. Internation-
al conflicts, particularly issues on wars between or among coun-
tries are most often won by the party that has the support of inter-
national media (6).
The conflict, which predated independence of many countries of
the world combines geographical disputes with religious inclina-
tion and superiority.(13, 14). Media reports on the issue are almost
on daily basis with casualties on increase by the day and oppres-
sions compelling attention. (15)The media reports of the issue
vary between local and international media as well as within inter-
national mass media depending on the ownership structure of the
media. (16). This study will only focus on the coverage of one
local media agency owning and operating Ma'an satellite TV
channels. Regarding media framing of conflicts, Ma'an news
agency uses different frames to build news around the issue based
on the interest which it is trying to protect. Therefore, this study
146
International Journal of Engineering & Technology
examines the news published during the war using five generic
frames developed by (3).
The conflict on geographical boundary between Israel and Pales-
tine started in 1948 and ravages till now. However, this study will
focus on the conflict between Israel and Palestine from July 8 to
August 26, 2014. The conflict within this period was considered
the most violent in the history of the boundary dispute between
them because it had bad impact on humanity and the economy and
was reflected in media framing.
Content of the broadcast media on the conflict within the period
specified cover news items on the issue and how they were struc-
tured by Ma'an news agency while reporting the issue. News
items reported daily in the online version of Ma'an news agency
during the last war between Israel and Palestine which started on 8
July and continued until 26 August, 2014 constitute the sampled
content. Therefore, we have 61 news items from Ma'an news
agency. A content analysis will be conducted of news published
by this agency. This study will investigate five generic frames
(conflict, responsibility, morality, economic consequences, and
human interest) proposed by (3), as dependent variables. The news
coverage will be the independent variable.
This study will examine the coverage of Ma’an news agency,
which mean in Arabic together - (Arabic: ) - is
a large wire service created in 2005 in Palestine. It has partner-
ships with twelve local Radio and eight televisions. Ma'an News
Agency publishes news daily in three languages English, Arabic,
and Hebrew, furthermore, Ma'an news agency considered as the
largest wire services in Palestinian, it's website visitors exceed
three million per month. Furthermore, it's publishes analysis, fea-
ture stories, and opinion articles. The agency's headquarters is
in Bethlehem and it has an office in Gaza, Ma’an has established
as well five new offices in main cities in Palestine. Thus, crews
will be able to cover all events in Palestine and broadcast them to
audiences everywhere. On Saturday at 8 p.m. (25 June 2011)
Ma’an Network aired its first ever satellite TV news bulletin on
Mix-Ma’an TV [Nilesat, frequency 10891, horizontal] along with
all local Ma’an TV stations across the West Bank. The news bulle-
tin focuses on Palestine providing in-depth coverage from all Pal-
estinian cities in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and cities inside
Israel.
1.1. Objective and research questions:
This study starts research into the nature of news coverage of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The main aim of this study is to exam-
ine how media coverage of the conflict between Israel and Pales-
tine are structured in the online version of Ma'an news agency to
convey accurate information about the conflict, and how this out-
let affects the audience understanding, interpretations and decision
making on the issue reported. In addition, this study seeks also to
identify the frames used by Ma'an news agency while reporting
issues related to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Through
the analysis of its content this study aims at answering these ques-
tions:
1- What is the frequency of coverage of the Israeli and Pales-
tinian conflict by Ma’an news agency Arabic online ver-
sion?
2- How does Ma'an news agency frame the conflict between
Israel and Palestine during the last war 2014?
3- Does Ma'an news agency news coverage for the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict focus on human interest issue especial-
ly that related to women and children?
2. Literature Review and Theoretical
Framework
According to New York Times (2009), the contention on the own-
ership of land between Palestine and Israel takes the form of war
between the Arab countries and Israel from 1948. After this spe-
cific war Palestine was divided into three areas. Jewish Israelis,
whose ancestors began migrating to the area from the 1880s, they
believed that, they have the right to own this land based on a
promise from God. Furthermore, for the Jews, the migration was
also based on their perceived necessity for a peaceful haven from
widespread hostility toward the Jewish nation. On the other hand,
the Palestinian people believing that they are the rightful inhabit-
ants of the land because their ancestors have settled there for many
decades. The evolution of the stages of sovereignty throughout the
historic of Palestine to the present is shown in Figure 1. (17) ex-
plained that the stage of sovereignty went through different stages
from 1946 until 2000. The first panel shows the land which has
been owned in 1946 by Jewish residents. The second clarified the
UN plan for partition of the land between both Palestine and Israel,
the partition plan gave the Jews the right to own 55% of the land.
The Palestinians supported by the Arab world refused this plan,
but in this time, they did not have enough power to protect their
land, quite the opposite of the Jews who were highly armed and
supported by Europe. In 1948, the third panel shows that Israel
was declared as a state on the white area.
Fig. 1: Loss of Palestinian territory between 1946-2000.
Furthermore, under the Oslo Accords, the panel 4 shows in 1967,
Israel occupied the areas A and B in Gaza and West Bank, as a
result of that, less than half of the Gaza and West Bank became
under limited area of Palestinian control. The leaders of the state
of Israel acquired much of Area C as Israeli territory, followed by
forcing Palestinians to live in cantons or ghettos largely confined
to Areas A and B without earnest sovereignty, and called this a
two-state solution (17).
The conflict started from 1948 up till now, however, it decreases
subsequently. The frequency of the attacks between Israel and
Palestine increased from 2008 until 2014. Indeed, the 2014 Gaza
War was the third major war between them in less than six years.
This war is considered as the most violent in the history of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, after 50 days of conflict in
Gaza, among the population of 1.8 million, it found that 2143
Palestinians were dead (including 577 children, 263 women and
102 elderly), and 11230 were injured, 10800 buildings had been
destroyed and 8000 partially destroyed, 40000 homes had been
damaged, and more than 350000 people had been displaced from
their homes (18).
2.1. Research design and Theoretical framework
2.2. Media Framing theory
In defining media framing, according to (19) defines as a process
that effects the audience to act, think and feel a particular way by
raising the value of specific ideas and dropping others, elevate
conformity in community thought. Entman clarifies that in nonco-
ercive political systems, the most important way to push agenda is
framing, and take one direction way to affect the public by telling
them what to think about. For example, the government of Israel
uses this method to push its agenda against the Palestinian people.
International Journal of Engineering & Technology
147
According to (20), the media in Israel try to ignore the Palestinian
issue all the time, in contrast, it considered as the voice of the
Jewish majority in Israel.
From another point of view, some scholars mention two major
methods for news frame setting. First of all, it is considered as the
way the news frames influence public knowledge. Second is how
the news frames influence beliefs, behavior’s and cognitive levels
when current issues are presented in the media outlets. Some oth-
ers considered that news frames can influence the understanding
on the value of the topic (21).
The element of news framing was reviewed by (19) who point out
that, the frame will choose an issue that is considered true and will
be featured in the form of communication text. Therefore, framing
theory proposes that the mass media do more than make saliency.
It chooses which part from the story to focus on and which other it
has to remove (21).
Previous studies on the media role in the Israel and Palestine con-
flict show that the media outlets more often did not present their
reports impartially (22). For example, (23), in a framing study
compared Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya coverage of the Israel-
Palestine conflict during the 2008/2009 Gaza conflict and one year
later, during a period of calm. Findings propose that both net-
works used framing theory to highlight Palestinian scenes over
Israeli. Moreover, they frame Palestinians as victims in this con-
flict. Both networks showed images of Palestinian sadness, gave
more time to Palestinian voices to describe their suffering, regular-
ly described Palestinian casualties, and personalized Palestinian
deaths. Their study finds that content analysis results show some
stark differences, and some similarities, in the ways Al-Jazeera
and Al-Arabiya reported on and framed the Israel-Palestine crisis
during the two periods under study. On the other hand, according
to (24), the United States has strongly supported Israel against
Palestine.
(25), during a specific time period from 1995 to 2003, meas-
ured the impact of media framing on public attitudes and expecta-
tions of Israelis toward the Oslo peace process. This study sug-
gests three main contributions: first of all, the study analysis the
impact of media coverage on Israeli public opinion and its reflec-
tion on their outlook on the peace process over a long period time.
Second, experiential evidence proposes that the role of framing the
news varies between different aspects of public opinion. As a
result, the scholar found the effects of news framing to be stronger
on the overall outlook than on present macro situation. In fact, the
Central of Media in Political and Social Phenomena confirms that,
the information which reported by the media mode estimate was a
main source of effect on future expectations of Israeli public opin-
ion. Last, the author agrees with the previous studies which dis-
play that the response from the public to the positive framing is
less than negative framing. This means that the Government will
have limited ability to motivate the public to move forward with
the peace process. In the final analysis, the news coverage of both
conflict and peace process in most cases highlighted the negative
issues while neglecting the positive sides; this shows the negative
impact of the news media on public opinion in the failure of peace.
The previous studies show that, media framing theory is very im-
portant to know how the Media outlets framing the news which
related directly with the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, and which
frames they are used. In this study, the researcher examined news
coverage and framing of the Israel and Palestine conflict, known
as the 50 days’ war from 8 July – 26 August 2014 by Ma’an News
Agency, which delivers news to Ma’an TV (Palestinian satellite
television station). In addition, we investigated five generic frames
created by Semetko and Valkenburg (conflict, responsibility, mo-
rality, economic consequences, and human interest). Those frames
are the most common frames as identified by (3) as:
- Conflict frame: The conflict frame asserts conflict be-
tween individuals, groups, or institutions as a means of
holding audience interest. According to (26) the conflict
frame was the most common frame in U.S. news.(3).
- Human Interest: The human-interest frame takes a hu-
man face or an emotional side to the presentation of an
event, issue, or problem. (26) described this as the “hu-
man impact” frame, and, next to conflict, found it to be a
common frame in the news. Framing news under the
terms of human interest is a best way to achieve this.
This frame put the news in a personalized, emotional-
ized or dramatized form, to capture audience attention.
(3).
- Morality frame: In the Morality frame the event, or issue
is determined as a status of moral imposition or religious
precept. The objectivity as a professional rule of editing
news leads the editor to refer to morality frames indi-
rectly, by using quotation or searching about others to
ask questions (26).
- Economic consequences frame: (26) pointed out that
this frame determines the events, or the issue in terms of
the consequences or how it will affect the economic sit-
uation of the "individual, group, or institution". In addi-
tion, (3) identify the economic frame as a popular frame
in the news. All the time the broad impact of an event is
a significant value of news, followed by considerable
economic consequences.
- Attribution of responsibility frame: (3), defined the at-
tribution of responsibility frame as a problem that hap-
pened and the parties such as government or individuals
or group, has the responsibility for its cause or solution.
(3) designed a method to measure the above frames by asking
twenty questions about the news stories that yield results re-
lated to the expected frames. For example:
1- Conflict frame: Does the article reflect disagreement between
(parties/individuals/groups)?
2-Human Interest frame: Does the story confirm how groups and
individuals are influenced by the problem/issue?
3- Attribution of responsibility: Does the article mention that some
level of the government is responsible for the problem/ issue/
problem?
4- Morality: Does the article include any moral message?
2.3. Research Framework Design
The study is investigating five generic frames (conflict, responsi-
bility, morality, economic consequences, and human interest) as
proposed by (3), as dependent variables (Figure 2). The news cov-
erage will be the independent variable.
Fig. 2: Research Framework Design
3. Methodology and Materials
Quantitative content analysis method was used for the data col-
lected. Since the entire study entails comparing news coverage and
structure among Ma’an News Agency output, effort was made to
generate relevant data that will provide information on the news
framing pattern from the media. which considered the most com-
mon way in the previous studies to analyze such data. (27-29).
Data collection involved news stories focusing on the Israel-
Palestine conflict, published on the online version of Ma’an News
Agency. The news stories were published during the 50-day war
between Israelis and Palestinians from July 8 until August 26, 201.
148
International Journal of Engineering & Technology
A total of 61 news stories were collected from the online version
of Ma’an News Agency (Al-Ma’an TV -Palestinian satellite tele-
vision station is available online). Examination of the news pub-
lished during the war was based on five generic frames developed
by (3) (conflict, responsibility, morality, economic consequences,
and human interest). The coding book and coding sheet were de-
signed as instruments for the research. The coding book has six
sections, which are Section A: Basic Information, Section B: Con-
flict frame, Section C: Human interest frame, Section D: Econom-
ic frame, Section E: Attribution of responsibility frame, and Sec-
tion F: Morality frame. Coding and Coding Book News were
translated into English before coders examined them using the
coding sheet variables. At the same time, coding sheet and coding
book instructions were also translated into Arabic and were given
to the Arabic coders in order to test for research instrument relia-
bility. Non-Arabic coders were given the English set of coding
sheet and coding instruction. Then, the inter-coder reliability test
was carried out to gauge reliability and validity of the research
instrument using the Holsti formula. The Holsti test score showed
high agreement between coders and this reflecting a highly relia-
ble research instrument with the Holsti CR score 0.98 or 98 per
cent agreement among coders. The following formula was used to
obtain the inter-coder reliability measure:
where:
CR= Holsti’s CR level of agreement
M= observed agreement
N1= agreement of coder 1
N2 = agreement of coder 2
CR = 0.98 or 98%
4. Result and Discussion
4.1. Conflict Frame
A total of 61 news items were recorded by Al-Maan Online News
Agency during the 50 days of Israelis attack on the Palestinians.
The news level gradually increased during the last week of the war.
The last week achieved higher news coverage of the conflict be-
tween Israel and Palestine because of the increasing violence in
last days of war and because the negotiation for peace started
again between parties.
Table 1: Al-Maan News frequency per week during war
2014
Period
Week no.
Frequency
Percentage %
From 08/07 to 13/07
Week 1
4
6.5%
From 14/07 to 20/07
Week 2
10
16.4%
From 21/07 to 27/07
Week 3
5
8.2%
From 28/07 to 03/08
Week 4
4
6.6%
From 04/08 to 10/08
Week 5
2
3.3%
From 11/08 to 17/08
Week 6
12
19.7%
From 18/08 to 26/08
Week 7
24
39.3%
Total
61
100%
Fig. 3: Ma’an Total News Coverage during Palestinian – Israeli Conflict
2014
Al- Ma'an news agency framed the conflict between Israel and
Palestine during the last war in 2014 by reflecting 63 per cent of
the news coverage on disagreement between parties-individuals-
groups-countries scenarios. The news also gave insight into
whether one party-individual group-country reproached another as
much as 83 per cent. And almost 60 per cent of the articles refer to
sides or to more than two sides of the problem or issue between
Israelis and the Palestinians. Al-Maan focused less than 10 per
cent on which side was the winner of loser during the war, where
it carried the message winning or losing is not important. Table 2,
shows news articles distribution according to the conflict frame.
The results show that Ma’an News Agency used conflict frames
more than others frames.
Table 2: Conflict frame and disagreement
Variables
Y
es
Per-
centa
ge
N
o
Per-
centa
ge
Does the article reflect disagreement be-
tween parties-individuals-groups-countries?
3
9
63.9
%
2
2
36.1
%
Does the article refer to two sides or to more
than two sides of the problem or issue?
3
5
57.4
%
2
6
42.6
%
Does one party-individual-group-country
reproach another?
5
1
83.6
%
1
0
16.4
%
Does the article refer to winners and losers?
6
9.8%
5
5
90.2
%
Almost 40 per cent of the news focused on bombing of civilian
areas as seen in Table 3. The results show that the frequency of
news included information about bombing of Palestinian civilian
area (39.3%) more than the news which included information
about Israeli areas (27.9%).
Table 3: Conflict frame: bombing of civilian area
Variables
Y
e
s
Per-
cent
age
N
o
Per-
cent
age
Does the news article include information about
bombing of civilian areas? (Palestinian civilian
area)
2
4
39.3
%
3
7
60.7
%
Does the news article include information about
bombing of civilian areas? (Israeli civilian area)
1
7
27.9
%
4
4
72.1
%
The news frequencies also included leaders’ opinion (Table 4).
The results show that the news on Israeli leaders’ opinion counted
as much as 83.6 per cent while the coverage on the Palestinian
leaders’ opinion was only at 63.9 per cent shown in Table 4.
Table 4: News coverage of leaders’ opinion as conflict frame
Variables
Y
e
s
Per-
centa
ge
N
o
Per-
centa
ge
Does the news article reflected Leaders opin-
ion about the conflict? (Palestinian leader
opinion)
3
9
63.9
%
2
2
36.1
%
Does the news article reflected Leaders opin-
ion about the conflict? (Israeli leader opinion)
5
1
83.6
%
1
0
16.4
%
Does the news article reflected Leaders opin-
ion about the conflict? (another leader opin-
ion)
3
5
57.4
%
2
6
42.6
%
4.2. Human Interest frame
The following Table 5 shows that more than 50% of news reflects
human interest issues, while 62.3% of news employed adjectives
or personal vignettes that generate feelings of outrage, empathy-
caring, sympathy, or compassion. As for visual information, more
than 60% of the articles contain visual information that might
generate feelings of outrage, empathy-caring, sympathy, or com-
passion. Almost 46 per cent the news article provides a human
example or “human face” on the issue such as women and chil-
dren crying in pain. The news coverage stressed more than 57 per
cent in their coverage to give emphasize on how individuals and
groups were affected by the issue/problem. Al-Maan preferred less
International Journal of Engineering & Technology
149
focus on the private or personal life of the actors in their news to
build human interest frame.
Table 5: Human Interest frame
Variables
Y
e
s
Per
cent
age
N
o
Per
cent
age
Does the article provide a human example or
“human face” on the issue?
2
8
45.9
%
3
3
54.1
%
Does the article employ adjectives or personal
vignettes that generate feelings of outrage, empa-
thy-caring, sympathy, or compassion?
3
8
62.3
%
2
2
36.1
%
Does the article emphasize how individuals and
groups are affected by the issue/problem?
3
5
57.4
%
2
6
42.6
%
Does the article go into the private or personal
lives of the actors?
2
1
34.4
%
4
0
65.6
%
Does the article contain visual information that
might generate feelings of outrage, empathy-
caring, sympathy, or compassion?
3
7
60.7
%
2
4
39.3
%
4.3. Attribution of responsibility frame
The attribution of responsibility frame results are shown in Table
6. The table depicts the frequency of news suggesting that some
level of Israeli government was responsible for the issue/ problem.
A total of more than 34 per cent blamed the Israeli government for
the issue/problem. Coverage on the Palestinian government
amounted to 9.8 per cent of the attribution of responsibility frame
where the Palestinian government was seen as not responsible for
the issue/problem.
Table 6: Attribution of responsibility frame
Variables
Y
e
s
Per-
cent
age
N
o
Per-
cent
age
Does the article suggest that some level of the
government is responsible for the is-
sue/problem? for Palestinian
6
9.8
%
5
4
88.5
%
Does the article suggest that some level of the
government is responsible for the is-
sue/problem? for Israeli
2
1
34.4
%
4
0
65.6
%
4.4. Economic frame
The results shown in Table 7 suggest that the main issue in the
economic frame was mentioned as financial losses or gains of
future for the Palestinian (32.8%). However, during the war, the
focus on economic issues was less compared to other frames espe-
cially
Table 7: Economic frame
Variables
Y
e
s
Per-
cent
age
N
o
Per-
cent
age
Is there a mention of financial losses or gains
now or in the future? for Palestinian
2
0
32.8
%
4
1
67.2
%
There is a mention of financial losses or gains
now or in the future? for Israeli
9
14.8
%
5
2
85.2
%
There is a mention of the costs/degree of ex-
pense involved? for Palestinian
6
9.8
%
5
5
90.2
%
There is a mention of the costs/degree of ex-
pense involved? for Israeli
3
4.9
%
5
8
95.1
%
There is a reference to economic consequences
of pursuing or not pursuing a course of action?
for Palestinian
9
14.8
%
5
1
83.6
%
There is a reference to economic consequences
of pursuing or not pursuing a course of action?
for Israeli
2
3.3
%
5
9
96.7
%
However, Al-Maan, throughout the 50 days of war gave coverage
more on financial losses for Palestinians, less for Israelis. Almost
10 per cent of the economic frame news mentioned the cost/degree
of expense involving the Palestinians. Almost 15 per cent of the
economic frame also covered the reference to economic conse-
quences of pursuing or not pursuing a course of action for the
Palestinians. Lower focus in every category of the economic frame
was given to the Israelis.
4.5. Morality frame
The morality frame as shown in Table 8, reflected the frequencies
of news which contains general moral message is (41%). Al-
Ma,an News Agency used less morality frames in their news com-
pared to conflict, human interest, attribution of responsibility and
economic frames. However, it did give some focus on moral mes-
sage, by making reference to morality, God and other religious
tenets. Al-Maan also offered specific prescriptions about how to
behave at 23 per cent out all total frame focus.
Table 8: Morality frame
Variables
Y
es
Per-
centa
ge
N
o
Per-
centa
ge
Does the article contain any moral mes-
sage?
2
5
41 %
3
6
59%
Does the article make reference to morality,
God, and other religious tenets?
1
2
19.7%
4
9
80.3%
Does the article offer specific social pre-
scriptions about how to behave?
1
4
23%
4
7
77%
5. Conclusion
The Israeli and Palestinian conflict has been an important issue in
the world for decades. Mass media plays an important role all the
time in conflict. In fact, their role has two different and divergent
forms. Moreover, the media takes an active part in a conflict and
has responsibility for increasing violence or contributing to con-
flict resolution and violence alleviation (2). From the detailed
content analysis of conflict issue coverage, it can be concluded
that news coverage related with this specific conflict between
Israel and Palestine in 2014 increased in the last week from 18/08
to 26/08/2014. Therefore, Ma’an News Agency used conflict
frames more than others frames in their news coverage of the 50-
day war between Israelis and Palestinians. However, the human-
interest frame contributed significantly as the voice for the Pales-
tinians. The result is in tandem with the opinion of (6) that mass
media sometimes act as a mediator during conflicts and thereby
report crises in a way that a lasting solution is projected or redress
is sought to ameliorate tensed conflicts until final resolution is
achieved.
The Palestinian and Israeli conflict has long been presented as a
just quest for Jewish nationhood hindered by an unfortunate, in-
tractable Palestinian problem; media coverage stresses how the
problem affects the Israeli people. This is in tandem with previous
researches found by (30) and (31) in which, Israelis are presented
as a nation with whose catastrophic history of persecution, in the
same time Palestinians are ignored “Israel has dedicated an enor-
mous amount of resources to perverting our identity and the char-
acter of our struggle,” writes Mustafa Barghouti. Previous studies
compared with this study illustrate this; the USA media show their
bias toward Israel, while the Palestinian media coverage show
their bias toward the Palestinian side in this conflict especially in
time of war.
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