1 the Media Image of Israel in German Online News a Thesis
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The Media Image of Israel in German Online News A thesis presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University and the Institute for Communication and Media Studies of Leipzig University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degrees Master of Science in Journalism (Ohio University), Master of Arts in Global Mass Communication (Leipzig University) Thomas C. Roehl April 2021 © 2021 Thomas C. Roehl. All Rights Reserved. 1 This thesis titled The Media Image of Israel in German Online News by THOMAS C. ROEHL has been approved for the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, the Scripps College of Communication, and the Institute for Communication and Media Studies by Alexander H. Godulla Professor of Empirical Communication and Media Research Scott Titsworth Dean, Scripps College of Communication, Ohio University Patrick Donges Director, Institute for Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University ii Abstract ROEHL, THOMAS C., M.S., Journalism; M.A., Global Mass Communication, April 2021 3460865 The Media Image of Israel in German Online News Director of Thesis: Alexander H. Godulla Committee Members: Jatin Srivastava, Freya Sukalla The German relation to Israel is marked by its historic circumstances, namely the Shoah and the antisemitism which made it possible, but also cooperation between the two countries nowadays. Previous research on the portrayal of Israel in German print media, in particular during times of escalation in the Arab-Israeli conflict, have found a bias against Israel. This study provides an analysis of the media image of Israel in German online news media during a low-escalation period in the Arab-Israeli conflict, accounting for the changes in the media landscape due to digitalization and providing a comparison to traditional media. A sample by five German news outlets – Bild.de, n-tv.de, Spiegel.de, t-online.de and Zeit.de – during a 2019 low escalation-phase was analyzed using a structural objectivity content analysis. A focus was put on the overall evaluation as well as the topics and actors who can be found in the reporting. The findings show an overall balanced depiction with some outliers, in contrast to the portrayal of Israel during periods with high conflict. iii Dedication Dedicated to my parents, Wolfgang and Brigitte, for their support and encouragement throughout the process. iv Acknowledgments I wish to thank my committee members for the time and effort they put into the thesis process and for answering my many questions. Thank you to Dr. Alexander Godulla for serving as the committee chair and Dr. Jatin Srivastava and Dr. Freya Sukalla for serving as committee members. A special thanks to the faculty members of the Institute of Communication and Media Sciences at the University of Leipzig and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University for providing this unique opportunity, in particular to Dr. Bernhard Debatin, Dr. Aimee Edmondson, Dr. Alexander Godulla and to Rosanna Planer. I am very grateful to have been part of this program. v Table of Contents Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... x 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 2. The Construction of Media Images ................................................................................. 9 3. Israel’s Media Image in the German Press ................................................................... 17 4. Research Design............................................................................................................ 28 4.1 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 28 4.2 Hypotheses ............................................................................................................ 30 4.3 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 32 4.4 Data Collection ..................................................................................................... 35 4.5 Coding ................................................................................................................... 39 5. Results ........................................................................................................................... 42 5.1 Structure of Material ............................................................................................. 42 5.1.1 Publications and Relevance ......................................................................... 44 5.1.2 Sections ........................................................................................................ 45 5.1.3 Types of Text ............................................................................................... 48 5.1.4 Lengths of Articles ....................................................................................... 50 5.1.5 Sources ......................................................................................................... 51 5.1.6 Topics in the Reporting ................................................................................ 52 5.1.7 Actors in the Reporting ................................................................................ 53 5.1.8 Quotes .......................................................................................................... 57 5.1.9 Quoted Actors .............................................................................................. 58 5.2 Hypothesis Testing................................................................................................ 59 5.2.1 Israel in the News......................................................................................... 60 5.2.2 Israelis in the News ...................................................................................... 75 5.2.3 Israel in Quotes ............................................................................................ 87 vi 5.2.4 Israel in the Headlines .................................................................................. 94 5.2.5 Overall Evaluation of Israel ......................................................................... 99 5.2.6 Differences Between the Publications ....................................................... 101 5.3 Additional Findings ............................................................................................ 104 5.3.1 Evaluations in Opinion Pieces ................................................................... 104 5.3.2 Topics and Evaluation................................................................................ 106 5.3.3 Conflict and Evaluation ............................................................................. 108 6. Discussion ................................................................................................................... 111 7. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 121 8. References ................................................................................................................... 126 Appendix A: Tabluar Overview of the Literatur ............................................................ 146 Appendix B: Nullhypotheses and Alternative Hypoytheses ........................................... 154 Appendix C: Codebook................................................................................................... 159 Appendix D: Structure of Material ................................................................................. 189 Appendix E: Hypothesis Testing .................................................................................... 197 vii List of Tables Page Table 1 Relevance of Articles in the Sample ................................................................... 43 Table 2 Frequencies of Sections in the Sample ............................................................... 46 Table 3 Frequencies of Sections per Publication............................................................ 47 Table 4 Types of Text per Publication ............................................................................ 49 Table 5 Mean Length of Article per Publication............................................................. 50 Table 6 News Agency Credits per Publication................................................................ 52 Table 7 Frequencies of Selected Topics per Publication ................................................ 53 Table 8 Frequencies of Most Common Actors per Publication ...................................... 54 Table 9 Average Number of Quotes by Country per Publication ................................... 57 Table 10 Frequency of Quoted Actors per Publication .................................................. 58 Table 11 Frequencies