Deconstructing Narratives: An Analysis of Dehumanization Techniques in the U.S. Media Representation of Palestinians at the Onset of the War on Gaza

Author

Faculty of Mass Communication, October University for Modern Sciences & Arts

Abstract

This research critically examines the representation of Palestinians in the U.S. media, focusing on dehumanization techniques employed by The New York Times and The Washington Post during the initial seven weeks of the 2023 War on Gaza. Drawing on the Duplex Theory of Hate, and adopting a qualitative content analysis, the study investigates media techniques that contribute to the dehumanization of Palestinians. These included impersonality, emotional distance, hostile language, fear, and anger-inducing language, animalistic and mechanistic representation, consistent negative portraying, in addition to derogation and moral exclusion. Furthermore, notable differences exist in the way Israeli and Palestinian people are portrayed. Stories presenting Israelis frequently include details that humanize their experiences, while Palestinians are represented collectively and their hardships are downplayed or justified. These findings contribute to the existing literature on media bias in conflict reporting, highlighting how the U.S. media influences opinions and reinforces unbalanced power dynamics. The study calls for more objective and humane media coverage that upholds ethical standards and human dignity.

Keywords

References

Alcaraz-Mármol, G., & Soto-Almela, J. (2020). Refugees’ dehumanization in the Spanish media: A corpus-assisted study within the semantic preference framework. Applied Linguistics Review. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2019-0069
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Alqurainy, S. H., Hamedi, A., & Abubakar, A. U. (2019). The road to the slaughter: ISIS process of dehumanizing the enemy. Opción: Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, (20), 757-774.
Asi, Y. M. (2023). Israeli prisons and the systematic dehumanization of Palestinian political prisoners. The New Arab.
Barnett, A. (2023, December 31). Palestinian Men are People Too. Medium. https://andrewbarnett567.medium.com/palestinian-men-are-people-too-aef0111fc359
Bar-Tal, D. (2000). Shared beliefs in a society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.701
Center for Constitutional Rights. (2023, October 18). Israel’s unfolding crime of genocide of the Palestinian people & U.S. failure to prevent and complicity in genocide: Emergency legal briefing paper. https://ccrjustice.org/israel-s-unfolding-crime-genocide-palestinian-people-us-failure-prevent-and-complicity-genocide
Cordellini, M. (2024, April 20). The dehumanization of Palestinian men by Western media. Berkeley Political Review. Retrieved from https://bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu/2024/04/20/the-dehumanization-of-palestinian-men-by-western-media/
Deprez, M. (2023). Visual Necropolitics and Visual Violence: Theorizing Death, Sight, and Sovereign Control of Palestine. International Political Sociology, 17(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olad016
Enloe, C. (1990). Womenandchildren: making feminist sense of the Persian Gulf Crisis. The Village Voice, 25(9).
European Review of Social Psychology, 19, 55–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463280801981645
Fromm, E. (1992). Anatomy of human destructiveness. New York: Holt. (Original work published 1973)
Goldenberg, T., & Frankel, J. (2024, May 22). How 2 debunked accounts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 fueled a global dispute over Israel-Hamas war. The Associated Press.
Haji, R., McKeown, S., Matthews, A., & Platten, S. (2021). (De)humanization and (Dis)trust: Representations of Muslims in the UK Newspapers Following the 7/7 London Bombings. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 27(2), 256-267. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000501
Hanif, F. (2021). British Media’s Coverage of Muslims and Islam (2018-2020). Retrieved from https://cfmm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CfMM-Annual-Report-2018-2020-digital.pdf
Haslam, N. (2006). Dehumanization: An integrative review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(3), 252-264. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1003_4
Haslam, N. (2019). The many roles of dehumanization in genocide. In L. S. Newman (Ed.), Confronting humanity at its worst: Social psychological perspectives on genocide (pp. 119-138). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190685942.003.0005
Haslam, N., Loughnan, S., & Kashima, Y. (2008). Attributing and denying humanness to others.
Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (2002). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. Pantheon Books.
Heywood, E., & Goodman, S. (2019). How Palestinian students invoke the category “human” to challenge negative treatment and media representations. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 29(2), 133-145.
Hicks, M. (2024, June 17). A Holocaust scholar called Israel’s actions in Gaza ‘genocide.’ It cost him a job offer. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-holocaust-scholar-called-israels-actions-in-palestine-genocide-it-cost-him-a-job-offer
Horrific testimonies: Israeli army tortures Palestinians in Gaza physically and psychologically. (2024, February 28). ReliefWeb. https://reliefweb.int/country/pse
Inbar, E., & Shamir, E. (2014). Mowing the Grass in Gaza. BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 255. https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/mowing-grass-gaza/
Jamal, H. (2024, January 18). Western feminism and the dehumanization of Palestinian men. The New Arab. Retrieved from https://www.newarab.com/opinion/western-feminism-and-dehumanisation-palestinian-men
Johnson, A., & Ali, O. (2024, January 9). Coverage of Gaza War in The New York Times and Other Major Newspapers Heavily Favored Israel, Analysis Shows. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2024/01/09/newspapers-israel-palestine-bias-new-york-times/
Jorgensen, C. M. (2016). A Case Study Analysis of Dehumanization in Rwanda and Darfur. Doctoral dissertation, Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/shss_dcar_etd/50
Jorgensen, C. M. (2016). A case study analysis of dehumanization in Rwanda and Darfur (Doctoral dissertation, Nova Southeastern University). NSUWorks, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – Department of Conflict Resolution Studies. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/shss_dcar_etd/50
Kovács, G., Alonso, P., & Saini, R. (2021). Challenges of Hate Speech Detection in Social Media: Data Scarcity, and Leveraging External Resources. SN Computer Science, 2(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-021-00457-3
Kovács, G., Alonso, P., & Saini, R. (2021). Challenges of Hate Speech Detection in Social Media: Data Scarcity, and Leveraging External Resources. SN Computer Science, 2(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-021-00457-3
Kuttab, D. (2007). The media and Iraq: a blood bath for and gross dehumanization of Iraqis. IRRC December 2007 Vol. 89 No 868. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818707.004
Lacy, S., Watson, B. R., & Riffe, D. (1996). Sample Size for Newspaper Content Analysis in Multi-Year Studies. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 73(3), 635-641.
Leyens, J.-P., Paladino, P. M., Rodriguez-Torres, R., Vaes, J., Demoulin, S., Rodriguez-Perez, A., & Gaunt, R. (2000). The emotional side of prejudice: The attribution of secondary emotions to ingroups and outgroups. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 186–197. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0402_06
Lloyd, M. (2017). Naming the dead and the politics of the 'human'. Review of International Studies, 43(2), 260-279. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210516000358
Markowitz, D. M., & Slovic, P. (2021). Why we dehumanize illegal immigrants: A US mixed-methods study. PLoS ONE, 16(10), e0257912. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257912
Matulewska, A., & Gwiazdowicz, D. J. (2021). In quest of genocide understanding: Multiple faces of genocide. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-021-09847-5
MEE Staff. (2023, October 9). Israel-Palestine war: 'We are fighting human animals', Israeli defence minister says. Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-fighting-human-animals-defence-minister
Middle East Eye [YouTube channel]. (2024, January 5). Julia Hartley-Brewer sparks controversy with conduct towards Mustafa Barghouti during interview [Video]. YouTube.
Middle East Monitor. (2024, May 3). Hypocrite, racist’ Western media enabling Israel war crimes in Gaza: Palestinian journalist. Retrieved from https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240503-hypocrite-racist-western-media-enabling-israel-war-crimes-in-gaza-palestinian-journalist/
Mikdashi, M. (2023, July 14). Can Palestinian Men be Victims? Gendering Israel's War on Gaza. Jadaliyya. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/30991
Naimark, N. M. (2001). Fires of hatred: Ethnic cleansing in twentieth-century Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Opotow, S. (1995). Drawing the line: Social categorization, moral exclusion, and the scope of justice. In B. B. Bunker & J. Z. Rubin (Eds.), Conflict, cooperation, and justice: Essays inspired by the work of Morton Deutsch (pp. 347–379). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Owais, J. (2023, October 17). How does the Canadian media report Gaza bombing? Institute of Palestinian Studies. Retrieved from https://breachmedia.ca/how-canadian-media-distorts-the-truth-about-palestine/
Oxfam International. (2024, January 11). Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict - Oxfam. Retrieved from https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/daily-death-rate-gaza-higher-any-other-major-21st-century-conflict-oxfam#:~:text=After%20further%20review%2C%20Oxfam%20is,%E2%80%A6%E2%80%9D%20in%20the%20opening%20paragraph
Pasaribu, A. N. (2021). Hate Speech on Joko Widodo’s Official Facebook: an Analysis of Impoliteness Strategies Used By Different Gender. ELTIN JOURNAL, Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia, 9(1), 56–64.
Pasaribu, A. N. (2021). Hate Speech on Joko Widodo’s Official Facebook: an Analysis of Impoliteness Strategies Used By Different Gender. ELTIN JOURNAL, Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia, 9(1), 56–64.
Philo, G., & Berry, M. (2004). Bad news from Israel (Vol. 317). London: Pluto Press.
Protonotariou, A., & Tsitlakidis - Charisiadis, C. (2023). Media Portrayal of Refugees and Migrants in Europe: Impact on Public Opinion and Policy-Making.
Schwartz, S. H., & Struch, N. (1989). Values, stereotypes, and intergroup antagonism. In D. Bar-Tal, C. G. Grauman, A. W. Kruglanski, & W. Stroebe (Eds.), Stereotypes and prejudice: Changing conceptions (pp. 151–167). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, N. (2019). Incarcerated childhood and the politics of unchilding. Cambridge University Press.
Eman  (2003). A Duplex Theory of Hate: Development and Application to Terrorism, Massacres, and Genocide. Review of General Psychology, 7(3), 299-328.
Sternberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2008). Application of the duplex theory of hate to massacres, genocide, and terrorism. In The nature of hate (pp. 165-196). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818707.008
Steuter, E., & Wills, D. (2009). Discourses of dehumanization: Enemy construction and Canadian media complicity in the framing of the war on terror. Global Media Journal - Canadian Edition, 2(2), 7-24.
Swann, S. (2023, October 20). How politicians, media outlets amplified uncorroborated report of beheaded babies. PolitiFact. https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/oct/20/how-politicians-media-outlets-amplified-uncorrobor/
TalkTV [YouTube channel]. (2023, November 10). Palestinians Deserve To Be Heard, They Deserve To Live: Man Lost 21 Family Members In Gaza Conflict [Video].
The Electronic Intifada [Producer]. (2023, December 5). Debunking Israel's "mass rapes" atrocity propaganda, with Ali Abunimah [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHEvpbppx_4oee80gW8A6aMXjKsq5-ECH
The New Arab Staff. (2023, October 18). Netanyahu deletes 'racist' tweet on Palestinian 'children of darkness' after hospital massacre. The New Arab. https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/netanyahu-deletes-children-of-darkness-post-after-gaza-hospital-attacked-101697588420656.html
The New Arab. (2024, July 8). A top UN official who recently resigned from his post in protest of Israel's war on Gaza has described the brutal campaign as the "most clear-cut case of genocide".
The New Humanitarian. (2023, October 23). Media coverage of Israel and Gaza is rife with deadly double standards. https://n9.cl/bjn2qq
TRT World. (n.d.). October 7 'rape claims' debunked as Israeli propaganda unravels. Retrieved from https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/october-7-rape-claims-debunked-as-israeli-propaganda-unravels-18165357
Tweissi, B. (2023). War in the Post-Truth Era: Western Media Coverage of Israel’s 2023 War on Gaza. Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.
United Nations. (2015). Report on conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons on the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners' Day.
Voice of America (VOA). (2023, October 30). Limited access for journalists covering Israel-Hamas war raises questions. Voice of America. https://www.voanews.com/a/limited-access-for-journalists-covering-israel-hamas-war-raises-questions/7334192.html
 
Weishut, D. J. N. (2015). Sexual torture of Palestinian men by Israeli authorities. Reproductive Health Matters, 23(46), 71-84.
Wich, M., Bauer, J., & Groh, G. (2020). Impact of Politically Biased Data on Hate Speech Classification. Proceedings of the First Workshop on Advances in Language and Vision Research (pp. 54–64). https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2020.alw-1.7
Wich, M., Bauer, J., & Groh, G. (2020). Impact of Politically Biased Data on Hate Speech Classification. Proceedings of the First Workshop on Advances in Language and Vision Research (pp. 54–64). https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2020.alw-1.7
Xu, Z., & Zhang, M. (2023). How news media visually dehumanize victims of humanitarian crises through framing disparities: A quantitative comparative analysis. International Communication Gazette, 0(0), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/17480485231216583
Zajonc, R. B. (2000). Massacres: Mass murder in the name of moral imperatives. Unpublished manuscript.
Zine, J. (2023, October 23). How Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are manufactured through disinformation. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-islamophobia-and-anti-palestinian-racism-are-manufactured-through-disinformation-216119

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics