Framing of the Beirut Explosion in Lebanese and British International Media.

Abstract

The Beirut explosion that happened on the fourth of August in 2020 did not solely shake Lebanon but the whole world. Many people turned to mass media as a main source of information about the details on this earth-shattering event. This study investigates the framing patterns of mass media outlets from Lebanon and the UK. An inductive framing analysis revealed that, overall, the countries were rather similar with respect to their framing of the Beirut explosion. Nevertheless, differences were also observed with regard to their use of reasoning and framing devices. Three frames were found, namely ‘Abaddon’, ‘Humanitarian’, and ‘Incompetent government’. This study offered the first framing analysis of the coverage of the Beirut explosion. It also added a new framing device in the inventory of rhetorical framing devices for inductive analysis of frames, namely, thematically strengthening contrast that happens at the level of discourse rather than specific lexical choices.