Email this article Children in The New York Times’ Israeli-Palestinian War Coverage: A Corpus-Based Critical Analysis
Abstract
Abstract
This study investigates the discursive use of children in The New York Times’ coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from October 2023 to July 2024. Combining quantitative corpus-based methods with qualitative critical discourse analysis, the research identifies key lexical features and examines the framing techniques used by the newspaper to narrate the war. Findings indicate that the image of children is a powerful discursive tool to influence both emotional and cognitive responses. It serves various discursive purposes, such as humanising discourse, evoking emotions from pity to horror, framing the conflict in moral terms, legitimising political actions, and maintaining narrative cohesion. Particularly, the strategic use of children’s images not only vilifies the opposing side by highlighting a stark moral contrast but also justifies military action, reinforcing the perceived righteousness of one’s own cause. Furthermore, a significant disparity is noted in the individualisation of children: Israeli children are often depicted with detailed personal stories, enhancing their humanisation, while Palestinian children are more frequently represented through aggregated numbers, highlighting the scale of the tragedy but possibly diluting personal aspects of their suffering.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Baker, Paul. 2023. Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. London: Bloomsbury.
https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350083783
Błażek, Wojciech, and Anna Wasilewska. 2021. "War in Children's Linguistic Creations: Personality Traits and Conceptualisation of Ideas". Colloquium Wydziału Nauk Humanistycznych i Społecznych AMW 13 (4): 205-219.
Bodineau, Sylvie. 2014. "Vulnerability and Agency: Figures of Child Soldiers within the Narratives of Child Protection Practitioners in the Democratic Republic of Congo". Autrepart 72 (4): 111-128.
https://doi.org/10.3917/autr.072.0111
Fairclough, Norman. 2013. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London: Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315834368
Freh, Fuaad. 2015. "Psychological Effects of War and Violence on Children". Journal Psychological Abnormalities Child 4: e106.
"Israeli-Palestinian Fatalities Since 2000-Key Trends", Archived July 3, 2010 at the Wayback Machine United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Johnson, Adam, and Ali Othman. 2024. "A Coverage of Gaza War in the New York Times and Other Major Newspapers Heavily Favored Israel, Analysis Shows". The Intercept, January 9.
Kilgarriff, Adam, Vít Baisa, Jan Bušta, Miloš Jakubíček, Vojtěch Kovář, Jan Michelfeit, Pavel Rychlý, and Vít Suchomel. 2014. "The Sketch Engine: Ten Years On". Lexicography 1 (1): 7-36.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40607-014-0009-9
Koller, Veronika. 2009. "Analysing Collective Identity in Discourse: Social Actors and Contexts". Semen Revue de Sémiolinguistique des Textes et Discours 27: 18.
https://doi.org/10.4000/semen.8877
Lowen, Mark. 2024. "More than 25,000 Now Killed in Gaza since Israel Offensive Began, Hamas-Run Health Ministry Says", BBC News, January 22.
Meghdari, Sedighesadat, and John Stephens. 2017. "Children's Literature about War and the Shaping of Children's Identity". Malaysian Journal of Languages and Linguistics 6 (1): 63-76.
https://doi.org/10.24200/mjll.vol6iss1pp63-76
Scahill, Jeremy, and Grim Ryan. 2024. "Leaked NYT Gaza Memo Tells Journalists to Avoid Words 'Genocide,' 'Ethnic Cleansing,' and 'Occupied Territory'". The Intercept, April 15.
van Leeuwen, Theo. 1996. "The Representation of Social Actors". In Texts and Practices: Reading in Critical Discourse Analysis, edited by Carmen R. Caldas-Coulthard and Malcom Coulthard, 32-70. London: Routledge.
Wessells, Michael G. 2017. "Children and Armed Conflict: Interventions for Supporting War-Affected Children". Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 23 (1): 4-13.
https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000227
Wodak, Ruth. 2014. "Critical Discourse Analysis". In The Routledge Companion to English Studies, edited by Constant Leung and Brian Street, 302-316. London: Routledge.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7358/lcm-2024-002-tozu
Copyright (©) 2025 Laura Tommaso, Marianna Lya Zummo – Editorial format and Graphical layout: copyright (©) LED Edizioni Universitarie
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Announcements
Edited by Julien Longhi (CY – Cergy Paris Université) and Giuliano Rossi (Università degli Studi di Milano), with the collaboration of Claudia Cagninelli (Università degli Studi di Milano) and Nora Gattiglia (Università degli Studi di Genova).
Authors have to read through the Information for Authors and the Author guidelines carefully before beginning the submission process.
Deadline for papers submission: January 15th, 2025
Request for revision following peer review: by March 30th, 2025
Deadline for revised version submission: by April 30th, 2025
Publication: June 2025
Call for papers Vol 12 (2025) No 2: “Discourse and the Contemporary Chinese Media”
Edited by Chiara Bertulessi (Università degli Studi dell’Insubria), Lutgard Lams (KU Leuven), Bettina Mottura (Università degli Studi di Milano).
Authors have to read through the Information for Authors and the Author guidelines carefully before beginning the submission process.
Deadline for papers submission: June 10th, 2025
Request for revision following peer review: by Sepetember 10th, 2025
Deadline for revised version submission: by October 10th, 2025
Publication: December 2025
Lingue Culture Mediazioni - Languages Cultures Mediation
Registered by Tribunale di Milano (27/11/2013 n. 380)
Online ISSN 2421-0293 - Print ISSN 2284-1881
Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature, Culture e Mediazioni
Università degli Studi di Milano
Editors-in-Chief: Paola Catenaccio (Università degli Studi di Milano) - Giuliana Garzone (IULM, Milano)
Editorial Board: Marina Brambilla (Università degli Studi di Milano) - Giovanni Garofalo (Università degli Studi di Bergamo) - Dino Gavinelli (Università degli Studi di Milano) - Antonella Ghersetti (Università di Venezia Ca’ Foscari) - Maria Grazia Guido (Università del Salento) - Elena Liverani (IULM, Milano) - Stefania Maci (Università degli Studi di Bergamo) - Andrea Maurizi (Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca) - Chiara Molinari (Università degli Studi di Milano) - Stefano Ondelli (Università degli Studi di Trieste) - Davide Papotti (Università degli Studi di Parma) - Francesca Santulli (Università di Venezia Ca’ Foscari) - Girolamo Tessuto (Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli) - Giovanni Turchetta (Università degli Studi di Milano) - Stefano Vicari (Università degli Studi di Genova)
International Scientific Committee: James Archibald (Università degli Studi di Torino) - Natalija G. Bragina (Institut Russkogo Jazyka im. A.S. Puškina; RSUH, Mosca) - Kristen Brustad (University of Texas at Austin) - Luciano Curreri (University of Liège) - Hugo de Burgh (University of Westminster) - Giuditta Caliendo (Université de Lille) - Giorgio Fabio Colombo (Università di Venezia Ca' Foscari) - Daniel Dejica (Universitatea Politehnica Timisoara) - Anna De Fina (Georgetown University, USA) - Claudio Di Meola, (Sapienza Università di Roma) - Lawrence Grossberg (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) - Stephen Gundle (University of Warwick) - Décio de Alencar Guzmán (Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brasile) - Matthias Heinz (Universität Salzburg) - Rosina Márquez-Reiter (The Open University) - John McLeod (University of Leeds) - Estrella Montolío Durán (Universitat de Barcelona) - M'bare N'gom (Morgan State University, Baltimore) - Daragh O'Connell (Cork University) - Roberto Perin (York University, Toronto) - Giovanni Rovere (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg) - Lara Ryazanova-Clarke (University of Edinburgh) - Françoise Sabban (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris) - Kirk St.Amant (Louisiana Tech University, University of Limerick/University of Strasbourg) - Paul Sambre (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) - Srikant Sarangi (Aalborg University) - Junji Tsuchiya (Waseda University, Tokyo) - Xu Shi (Zhejiang University)
Section Managers: Maria Matilde Benzoni, Università degli Studi di Milano (Modern history) - Paola Cotta Ramusino, Università degli Studi di Milano (Russian linguistics and translation) - Mario de Benedittis, Università degli Studi di Milano (Sociology) - Kim Grego Università degli Studi di Milano (English linguistics and translation) - Giovanna Mapelli, Università degli Studi di Milano (Spanish linguistics and translation) - Bettina Mottura, University of Milan (Chinese studies) - Mauro Giacomo Novelli, Università degli Studi di Milano (Contemporary Italian literature and culture) - Letizia Osti, Università degli Studi di Milano (Arab studies) - Maria Cristina Paganoni, Università degli Studi di Milano (English linguistics and translation) - Giuseppe Sergio, Università degli Studi di Milano (Italian linguistics) - Virginia Sica, Università degli Studi di Milano (Japanese studies)
© 2001 LED Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto