The Israel-Palestine war from the eyes of Italian media

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has often been in the spotlight globally over the past eight decades. The most recent escalation, started on 7 October 2023, is just the latest chapter of tensions that date back at least since the end of World War II and the consequent establishment of the state of Israel in Palestinian territories. When escalations between Israel and Palestine hit, media from all over the planet direct their attention to the region. This is also the case for Italy and Italian media, especially with the rise of online media. Through the use of media bias and media representation, media platforms can create and adopt specific narratives to portray conflict such as the one between Israel and Palestine. These narratives, as this study will show, can often be unobjective and not impartial, possibly shaping how audiences perceive these events. Open and Il Corriere della Sera are two popular Italian news media platform with a strong online presence. The two titles are significantly different from one another in both their histories and their approach to reporting. Il Corriere della Sera is older and more established, being the more read newspaper in Italy. Open, on the other hand, is a younger publication which publish solely online, without a printed version like most other traditional newspapers. Through Critical Discourse Analysis, this thesis will investigate the presence of media bias, media representations and media narratives in articles from both publications regarding the conflict between Israel and Palestine between 7 October 2023 and 13 February 2024. This period comprises various significant events from the latest escalation, including the first attacks, a temporary truce with hostage exchanges, South Africa’s claim against Israel to the International Court of Justice and a controversy at the Italian national music festival Sanremo. Other than understanding which narratives were adopted by Il Corriere della Sera and Open between 7 October 2023 and 13 Feburary 2024, it is interesting to assess how differently, if at all, publications that seem to be quite different at their cores report on such a topical subject as the conflict between Israel and Palestine.