Framing practices of wire services in modern wartime : international frames during the final six months of the Battle of Aleppo

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the journalistic articles published by three major wire services-Associated Press, Reuters, and TASS -- during the final six months of the Battle of Aleppo, a major offensive that essentially tilted the tide of the Syrian Civil War to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The goal of this work is to discern the types of frames utilized by these three wire services, and how source selection may have influenced the creation of these frames. The articles, limited to the longest 15 published by each service, were analyzed for six frames defined by the researcher -- finality, sympathy for civilians, legitimacy -- opposition, legitimacy -- Assad, internal affairs, and international affairs. They were also analyzed for source selection, in which the types of sources were broken down into aid/research organizations, U.S. government, Russian government, civilians, journalists, Assad government, and rebels. The work found that Reuters and Associated Press framed the battle as an internal affair and an international affair, respectively, and integrated elements of the sympathy for civilians frame, while TASS was predominately interested in the international affairs framing. The use of sources in the studied articles also fit into the framing scheme they employed