Visual moralization of conflict on TikTok: A typology of journalistic framing

This study introduces Visual Conflict Moralization (VCM), a typology explaining how news organizations embed moral cues in the visual and narrative architecture of conflict reporting to shape audience perceptions on digital platforms. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), framing theory, and platform affordances, the authors analyze 736 video journalism artifacts from six global outlets covering the Israel–Gaza war (October 2023–April 2025). Care/Harm and Sanctity/Degradation were most prevalent, while Fairness/Cheating and Loyalty/Betrayal, though rarer, drove higher engagement. Narration and visual richness enhanced engagement; text-heavy formats mitigated it. They also propose two new moral dimensions, extending MFT for conflict contexts. By centering coverage of the Israel–Gaza war, their analysis foregrounds disparities in visual representation, especially of human experiences. This article offers a replicable model for multimodal analysis in digital journalism, and provides theoretical and practical guidance for ethical, engagement-driven visual communication across platforms, with implications for both scholarly critique and newsroom practice.