"Protocol": Framing Victimhood and Perpetration in UK Media Narratives of the Gaza War (2023-2025)

Abstract

This diploma thesis investigates the framing of victimhood and perpetration in BBC Online coverage of the conflict in Gaza between October 7th 2023 and October 2025. Through the lens of Entman's (1993) four framing functions - problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation and treatment recommendation - this research conducted a qualitative multimodal analysis of 50 BBC Online articles across five distinct and grounded conflict phases. After examination of the patterns present in the sample, the key findings were identified and collated. BBC Online's problem definition was found to consistently position Israel as the active authoritative agent. Initially, Hamas's military threat was the defined problem in Phase 1, before reports begin to focus on the humanitarian consequences of Israel's actions. A similar change over the chronology of the sample can be pinpointed for casual interpretation, whereby Israeli military action is framed firstly as a response to Hamas instigation, prior to dissipating under the weight of international humanitarian pressures. Differing textual and videographical moral weights are also attributed between Israeli and Palestinian victims throughout the sample, with a shift toward Palestinian suffering in later articles. Treatment recommendation is distinctively...