The December 2025 article in Media, War & Conflict by Eslam Abdelraouf from Sultan Qaboos University examined the framing of Pro-Palestine campus protests in the US, at Columbia University, in Al Jazeera English and CNN International.
There were large protests condemning Israel’s operation against Hamas, framing it as a war against Palestine – and indeed, whether Israel’s war is against Hamas or Palestine is a key point of contention in the coverage. The mobilization in campuses has mirrored that of the protests during the Vietnam War or the Free Speech Movement. This study focuses on the media framing of the protests from April to May 2024 in Columbia University, a prestigious ivy-league institution.
The research questions were:
“1.How do the two media outlets, CNN and Al Jazeera, frame pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University using language, imagery, and discourse? What ideological or political bias patterns emerge from this coverage?”
and
“2.How do the socio-cultural and geopolitical contexts of CNN and Al Jazeera influence their coverage of pro-Palestinian protests? What do these portrayals reveal about the outlets’ broader values, ideologies, and alignment with power structures?”
There were video samples of the outlets analyzed for the study. Both CNN and Al Jazeera did cover the Columbia Pro-Palestinian protests. CNN used relatively negative terms and frequently framed the protests as anti-Semitic and used terms such as “hate speech” and “radical voices”, with “Anti-Semitism” being the first among all words used in coverage.
In contrast, Al Jazeera’s most frequently used word was “Ceasefire” followed by “Genocide”, seeing the protests as justified and used terms to condemn Israel. It broadcasted the protesters’ chants and used the phrases of the protesters, criticizing police intervention. These emphasized the peaceful nature of the protests and saw the police as “aggressors”.
Semiotic-discursive analysis revealed biased approaches by both. CNN favored Israel, and for example muted the protesters’ anti-Israel chants in some videos and frequently interviewed Jewish students. Al-Jazeera on the other hand emphasized the necessity of protecting the protesters and ensuring their safety. For example, the channel framed the possible consequences such as employment difficulties as violations of human rights.
Using Norman Fairclough’s CDA, the broader sociopolitical context was analyzed. US media mirrored the country’s political positioning and foreign policy narratives. Similarly, the Qatar-backed Al Jazeera has positioned itself as presenting the voices of Palestinian resistance movements.
In conclusion, the analysis revealed linguistic strategies used by the networks combined with symbolic ones. According to the author, Al-Jazeera presented the protests within the broader context of the occupation, while CNN focused on the current protests. There were stark political and editorial differences. Further research might focus on traditional platforms vs. social media platforms, for example.
The article “Covering conflict: A comparative analysis of Al Jazeera and CNN’s Discourse on Pro-Palestine Campus Protests in the US. Media” by Eslam Abdelraouf is in Media, War & Conflict. (Free abstract).
Picture: Columbia University, 116th and Broadway, New York, NY, USA by Joshua Tsu.
License Unsplash.
