Words Carry Weight: An Analysis of Bias Present in American Media during the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Media coverage of the infamous Israeli-Palestinian conflict spiked exponentially in light of the October 2023 attack by Hamas. As the tension broiled into war, many international news outlets faced controversy for their biased representation of the conflict, yet no research was officially conducted into American outlets and their impact on American beliefs. This research aims to explore bias detected in articles published by major American news outlets, and the global significance of these findings in relation to their impact on audiences. The paper delves into the proven influence of media outlets on the beliefs of their audiences and government policy, the characteristics which contribute to susceptibility to bias, and academically proven indicators of bias in written text. The paper further recounts the detailed set of indicators coded for in each of the thirty two articles from four major American news outlets total. After compiling all necessary data, the outlets were assigned a ranking in terms of severity of bias for each characteristic, which led to key revelations regarding the degree and quality of bias present in each outlet. The paper ultimately found that all American news outlets fail to provide the critical historical context necessary to properly comprehend the conflict, regardless of whether they displayed bias towards a side or not. The large variety of bias detected in the outlets analyzed reveals the involuted nature of America's political landscape, and the role that media outlets play in feeding cultural division and government stagnation in times of need for effective policymaking.