Images of Conflict and Explicit Violence on Arab TV: A Visual Content Analysis of Five pan-Arab News Networks

Abstract

This study employed a quantitative content analysis in order to examine the framing of visual images of conflict and violence in television news programming from five transnational satellite news channels that broadcast to/from the Arab world - Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, Al Arabiya, Alhurra, and BBC Arabic. Comparisons were conducted between the individual networks, and between two dimensions of network taxonomy - western (BBC Arabic, Alhurra, and Al Jazeera English) and liberal commercial (Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya). The images form 6,595 shots were examined using a five category coding scheme for conflict and violence. Results show that liberal commercial Arab networks - news outlets that broadcast from the Arab world to an international audience - displayed more conflict visuals than western networks, which broadcast from the west to an Arab audience. Violent imagery was also more explicit on liberal commercial networks. However, most of the visuals displayed on both types of Arab media did not focus on conflict at all, indicating that fear of a violent Arab media may be an over-reaction.

Keywords

• arab media
• violent images
• visual framing