A MULTIMODAL CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF REPORTING THROUGH IMAGES BY INTERNATIONAL PRINT MEDIA FOR REPRESENTING ISRAEL-PALESTINE (2023-2025) WAR

Abstract

Since 1948, Israel-Gaza conflict has been the point of discussion for international print media. International press, not only in the form of texts but also images, has always portrayed these regional issues of unprecedented and unprovoked attacks, hostages, sufferings of civilians and refugees crisis to capture the attention of international readers or viewers. Both of the sides, Israel and Palestine, have been found blaming each other for political and armed escalations. However, much research has not been done on the narratives propagated by both sides during the crisis, which have left state of Israel alarmed and Palestine helpless. International press with the help of images, which are provided to them from the war zones, propagates the Palestinian and Israeli narratives to cover the hidden realities. For the study, equal number of images have been taken from international press to unmask the narratives of both sides. Kress and Van Leeuwen’s Multimodal discourse analysis model has been used to analyze the images presented by international print media. The result shows that Israel propagates a negative image of Palestinians by portraying them as terrorists. On the other hand, Israeli forces are portrayed as butchers killing innocent Palestinian men, women and innocent children not only by bombarding their residential areas but also by preventing the aid and forcing them to evacuate their homes.