Covering conflict: A comparative analysis of Al Jazeera and CNN’s Discourse on Pro-Palestine Campus Protests in the US

Abstract

This study examines how Al Jazeera English and CNN International framed the 2024 pro-Palestine campus protests in the United States, focusing on Columbia University. It explores how each network constructed distinct narratives that reflect wider ideological and political contexts. It illustrates the ideological role of media framing in historical conflicts. A descriptive qualitative approach is used to analyze relevant video segments from both channels. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), based on Fairclough’s model, serves as the primary tool for examining linguistic choices, discursive practices, and socio-cultural contexts in each network’s coverage. The analysis revealed distinct and systematic divergences in how each network constructed the meaning of the protests. CNN anchored its framing in themes of antisemitism, campus security, and the legitimacy of state intervention, repeatedly depicting the demonstrations as disruptive and disconnected from the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Al Jazeera, in contrast, situated the events within a longer trajectory of Palestinian resistance, emphasizing concepts such as genocide, solidarity, and ceasefire while foregrounding police violence and rights-based claims. These findings show how a single protest becomes a contested discursive arena through which competing geopolitical narratives are produced, underscoring the value of CDA for exposing ideological encoding in wartime media coverage.