Lebanese Media Coverage of the Russia-Ukraine War: An Analysis of Sawt Beirut International

Abstract

The Russia-Ukraine war is an ongoing war between the two supposed sister nations, Russia and Ukraine. Erupting from Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine two years ago, the war only seems to be gaining a footing, drawing in the involvement of international actors, reshaping geopolitical alliances, and intensifying global tensions. As a result of the nature of the war, it has garnered extensive media coverage from the West who are mostly sympathizers of Ukraine, and some parts of Asia who are sympathizers of Russia. This research examined how the Lebanese media, Sawt Beirut International (SBI), covered the Russia-Ukraine war. The study investigates how Sawt Beirut International (SBI), a Lebanese media outlet, framed the Russia-Ukraine war using Tankard’s framing mechanisms. While existing literature extensively examines Western and Asian media portrayals of the war, there is limited focus on how Middle Eastern outlets have covered the war, hence the reason for the study. This study employed frame analysis, realism and constructivist theories and adopted Tankard’s framing mechanism in analyzing how SBI covered the Russia-Ukraine war. Only the online news website of SBI was examined for data collection. Forty (40) news stories were sampled for analysis using the purposive sampling method. A codebook was developed using five of Tankard’s (2001) eleven parameters of framing mechanisms; Headlines and kickers, selection of quotes, leads, selection of sources or affiliations and photographs. The study found that Sawt Beirut International covered the war in two prevalent frames; the conflict frame and the sanctions frame.