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Journals / Erciyes İletişim Dergisi / 2026 / Cilt: 13 Sayı: 2

The Blind Spot of The Western Media: The Invisibility of Genocide in Reporting on the Israel–Palestine Conflict

Batı Medyasının Kör Noktası: Filistin-İsrail Çatışması Haberlerinde Soykırımın Görünmezleştirilmesi

Dursun Yılmaz(TOKAT GAZİOSMANPAŞA ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0000-0001-6161-3482
Fatih Ceylan(TOKAT GAZİOSMANPAŞA ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0000-0002-7494-5635
Pages
469–493
Publication Date
2026-07-30
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

These findings reveal that the news discourse on Gaza in Western mainstream media is structured around a security-centered framework that excludes discussions of legal responsibility.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:The purpose of this study is to reveal how the genocidal massacres committed by Israel during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that began on October 7, 2023, were rendered invisible by the Western media.
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Key Findings & Data:The sample for this case study consists of 75 news articles selected from The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and El País, representing the Western media.
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Conclusion & Impact:These findings reveal that the news discourse on Gaza in Western mainstream media is structured around a security-centered framework that excludes discussions of legal responsibility.
🔬Design:Araştırma Makalesi
📍Scope:2023 Verileri
⚙️Variables:Filistin-İsrail Çatışması · Haber Söylemi · Medya Çerçevelemesi

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal how the genocidal massacres committed by Israel during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that began on October 7, 2023, were rendered invisible by the Western media. The sample for this case study consists of 75 news articles selected from The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and El País, representing the Western media. The data compiled from these articles were coded into three categories—perpetrator positioning, victim representation, and international legal terminology—and subjected to content analysis. The analysis revealed that in most of the news articles, Israeli military actions were legitimized through passive language, security discourse, and state-sourced references; the Palestinian civilians were mostly represented in narratives of human loss that were disconnected from the perpetrator, out of context, and numerical; and concepts belonging to international law, such as genocide, occupation, collective punishment, and ethnic cleansing, were not used at all in a significant portion of the news articles examined. These findings reveal that the news discourse on Gaza in Western mainstream media is structured around a security-centered framework that excludes discussions of legal responsibility.

Özet

Bu çalışmanın amacı, 7 Ekim 2023'te başlayan Filistin-İsrail çatışması sırasında İsrail tarafından işlenen soykırım niteliğindeki katliamların Batı medyası tarafından nasıl görünmez kılındığını ortaya koymaktır. Durum çalışması (örnek olay incelemesi) yöntemi ile yapılan çalışmanın örneklemini, Batı medyasını temsilen ele alınan The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ve El País gazetelerinden seçilen 75 haber metni oluşturmaktadır. Bu haberlerden derlenen çalışmanın verileri, failin konumlandırılması, mağdur temsili ve uluslararası hukuk terminolojisinin kullanımı olmak üzere üç kategoride kodlanmış ve içerik analizine tabi tutulmuştur. Analizler sonucu, haberlerin büyük bölümünde İsrail askerî eylemlerinin pasif dil, güvenlik söylemi ve devlet kaynaklı atıflar yoluyla meşrulaştırıldığı; Filistinli sivillerin çoğunlukla failden koparılmış, bağlamsız ve sayısal insani kayıp anlatıları içinde temsil edildiği ve soykırım, işgal, toplu cezalandırma ve etnik temizlik gibi uluslararası hukuka ait kavramların, incelenen haberlerin önemli bir kısmında hiç kullanılmadığı görülmüştür. Bu bulgular, Batı ana akım medyasında Gazze’ye ilişkin haber söyleminin, hukuki sorumluluk tartışmalarını dışarıda bırakan güvenlik merkezli bir çerçeve etrafında yapılandığını ortaya koymaktadır.

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Cite This Article

Yılmaz, D., Ceylan, F. (2026). The Blind Spot of The Western Media: The Invisibility of Genocide in Reporting on the Israel–Palestine Conflict. Erciyes İletişim Dergisi, Cilt: 13 Sayı: 2, 469–493. https://doi.org/10.17680/erciyesiletisim.1882011

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