A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis of News Reports on the 2023 Israel-Hamas War

Abstract

This study analyzed news reports of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war in three media outlets (Al-Jazeera, China Daily, and CNN). An armed conflict between Israel and Hamas (Palestinian militant groups) has been taking place mainly in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023. The 2023 Israel-Hamas war has been the most violent and deadliest for Palestinians in the history of the conflicts between Israel and Palestine. Such a severe global issue has attracted significant international concerns and has been reported extensively. However, due to different ideologies, media outlets used different language to describe the war. This study compiled three corpora with 1,586,438 words for a horizontal comparison and analysis. Combining corpus linguistics (CL) and critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study aimed to reveal how these three media outlets constructed language to depict the war, demonstrating their political stances and revealing their ideologies from a more comprehensive perspective. Based on the findings from analyzing the linguistic features of the three corpora, this study hopes to provide a framework and methodological implications for future studies on news reports, especially on war topics.