Framing the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and Syria: A comparative analysis of AJE’s and CNN’s news media coverage

This study examines how Al-Jazeera English (AJE) and Cable News Network (CNN) covered the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and Syria to investigate how the news outlets varied in their use of frames and sources during the two months. This study quantitatively analyses 185 online news articles collected between 6 February 2023 and 6 April 2023, utilizing media framing theory. It reveals that the most utilized frames included economic consequences, morality and human interest, emphasizing personal stories and the human impact of the disasters. However, CNN emphasized responsibility attribution, solution, fear and threat frames, while AJE focused on the conflict frame. Differences were also found in the type and selection of sources between the news outlets and across the two countries. AJE featured more Syrian sources compared with CNN. Moreover, governmental sources dominated Turkey’s coverage and health workers were prominent in Syria’s news reports.