Abstract
This study examines how media portrayals of violent conflict shape public attitudes, using the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as a case study. We ask: (1) How do media outlets characterize conflicting parties and victims—particularly through humanizing language and blame attribution? and (2) How do these textual and visual frames affect public attitudes and behavior? We analyze over a year of coverage from 28 U.S. and international media outlets, using large language models, human coding, and computer vision to assess framing, dehumanization, and portrayals of victimhood. We measure the extent to which Palestinian civilians are humanized—through depictions of women and children in images, use of direct quotations, and active language—compared to Israeli civilians, and civilian victims in the Russia-Ukraine war. We then conduct a survey experiment that randomly varies exposure to real news articles. We estimate the causal effects of language and imagery on empathy, prejudice (primarily antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian racism), and policy preferences related to the conflict. For the first time, we also test whether humanizing coverage mobilizes (through empathy) or demobilizes (through helplessness) action to support victims. By linking media content to attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, this project quantifies the media landscape surrounding Israel and Palestine and speaks to the broader role of journalism in shaping intergroup perceptions and conflict-related attitudes.
