Copyright 2015, Xu Zhang

Media coverage of the ISIS threat: Transnational media and global journalism

by

Xu Zhang, B.A.

A Thesis

In

Mass Communication

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in

Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Lea C. Hellmueller Ph.D. Chair of Committee

Glenn Cummins Ph.D.

Erik P. Bucy Ph.D.

Mark Sheridan Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School

August, 2015

Texas Tech University, Xu Zhang, August 2015

ii

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express sincere gratitude to his thesis committee

members, as this work would not be possible without their insightful comments, guidance

and encouragement through the entire process. As thesis committee chair, Professor Lea

Hellmueller has provided tremendous guidance despite her busy schedule and enabled the

author to expand and deepen his knowledge in the field of mass communication,

specifically, the comparative study and global journalism. Professor Glenn Cummins

taught the author how meticulous a scholar should be in producing an academic work.

His thorough review of the research and data analysis greatly improved the thesis. The

author is also greatly indebted to Professor Erik P. Bucy. He provided the author with the

invaluable suggestions and comments on content analysis codebook. His insightful

knowledge on framing analysis helped the author learn how to conceptualize framing

theory and empirically connect it with specific case study.

The author is also grateful to Harrison Gong, a PhD candidate in College of

Media and Communication at Texas Tech University. He provided the author with

assistance on codebook refinement and inter-coder reliability check. His help greatly

improved the codebook’s reliability as well as validity.


iii

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ ii

ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ v

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. vi

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii

I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1

II. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................... 4Globalization, Global Events and News Media .............................................................. 4 Call for A New News Genre: Global Journalism ........................................................... 6 Operationalizing Global Journalism ............................................................................... 9 News Domestication ..................................................................................................... 10 Framing and Journalism Research ................................................................................ 11 Source and Framing ...................................................................................................... 13 Framing Globalized Issues ............................................................................................ 15 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 17

III. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................... 19Design ........................................................................................................................... 19 Media Selection ............................................................................................................ 19 Unit of Analysis ............................................................................................................ 21 Sampling and Time Frame ............................................................................................ 21 Coding Scheme and Instruction .................................................................................... 23 Inter-Coder Reliability Check ....................................................................................... 27 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 28

IV. RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 30Story Type ..................................................................................................................... 30 News Sources ................................................................................................................ 31 Frames ........................................................................................................................... 34 News Story Context ...................................................................................................... 35

V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 43 News Story Type........................................................................................................... 44 News Sources ................................................................................................................ 45 News Frame .................................................................................................................. 47 News Story Context ...................................................................................................... 48 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 51

VI. LIMITATION AND FUTURE RESEARCH ............................................................. 53


iv

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 55

A. NEWS SAMPLES (GLOBAL LEVEL NEWS STORIES) CNN SAMPLES ............ 65

B. NEWS SAMPLES (GLOBAL LEVEL NEWS STORIES) AL-JAZEERA ENGLISH SAMPLES......................................................................................................................... 68


v

Abstract

Based on the notion of global journalism and a comparative approach, this study

presented an empirical inquiry into the similarities and differences in transnational news

outlets’ global crisis reporting by comparing Al-Jazeera English’s and CNN’s online

coverage of the ISIS threat. This study also investigated to what extent the global

journalism news style is presented in CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s online coverage of

global challenges. To analyze these issues, the study conducted a quantitative content

analysis of CNN’s and Al-Jazeera’s online news reports on the ISIS threat from June

2014 to December 2014.

Results showed significant differences between CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s

online news reports in regard to source use and news frame adoption. Most CNN’s

reports cited government official sources while Al-Jazeera English relied more on news

media outlets’ sources to cover the ISIS threat. In terms of news frames, CNN mainly

adopted the “geopolitics” as primary frame to present news. In comparison, Al-Jazeera

English’s dominant primary frame was the “existential threat” frame. Additionally, two

news media outlets presented the ISIS threat at different geographical levels of context.

In both media outlets’ online coverage, news stories at the global level of context

demonstrated the global journalism reporting style.

Key Words: globalization, global journalism, transnational media, ISIS threat,

CNN, Al-Jazeera English, content analysis


vi

List of Tables

1. Story type ...................................................................................................................... 30

2. Story type: CNN, Al-Jazeera English ........................................................................... 31

3. Source: CNN, Al-Jazeera English ................................................................................. 33

4. News frames: CNN, Al-Jazeera English ....................................................................... 35

5. News story context: CNN, Al-Jazeera English ............................................................. 36

6. News frames and story context: CNN ........................................................................... 40

7. News frames and story context: Al-Jazeera English .................................................... 41


vii

List of Figures

1. News frames and story context: CNN ........................................................................... 42

2. News frames and story context: AJE ............................................................................ 43


1

Chapter I

Introduction

As a radical militant group, ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) grabbed news

media attention beginning in June 2014 for their military conquest of Iraqi and Syrian

territories, brutal beheadings and torture of hostages, ruthless treatment of local

minorities, and incredible capacity of recruiting foreign jihads. With thousands of people

being killed and displaced, the ISIS presence has been an obvious threat to the stability

and security of the Middle East (Gonchar, 2014).

ISIS also presents an unknown threat to the whole civilized world, including the

United States (Gonchar, 2014). In August 2014, the U.S. launched military operations

against the ISIS targets in Iraqi territory. One month later, the U.S. and five Arab

countries’ military forces began to bomb the ISIS targets in Syria (Stewart & Perry,

2014). Except for the U.S. and its Arab coalition, more than 40 countries got involved in

the conflict as well. They either participated in military action or provided humanitarian

aids to the locals (the CBS news, 2014).

Supported by the ideological foundations of Salafi-jihadism, the ISIS militant

group advocates extreme violence and celebrates nauseating brutality on social media

sites (Cheterian, 2015). The group often records its violent behaviors and posts the

recordings online. Those media messages usually go viral and become efficient tools of

the ISIS’s propaganda (Liang, 2015). In response to the ISIS’s brutal actions, the United

Nations Secretary in General, Ban Ki-moon announced, “the international community

needs to be unified to deal with ISIS” (Al-Jazeera English, 2015). Taking all the


2

information together, the ISIS presence has been a very serious intercontinental problem

that involves regions and countries around the world.

Given the global nature of this event, the role of global news networks in covering

the ISIS threat is an important and timely topic. In the light of globalization, technologies

advanced communication and brought revolutionary changes to mass media, especially

the broadcast media (Herbert, 2001). Armed with advances in technology over the last

few decades, such as satellites and the Internet, news networks like BBC and CNN are

capable of transmitting the images and narratives of global issues to distant countries and

disparate cultures and bringing individuals from every corner of the globe to the same

village of the dialogue (Guo, Holton & Sun, 2012). One impact of this “global reach” is

that the public’s awareness of international events, organizations and leaders is highly

dependent upon the international hard news coverage that is supplied by the main

broadcasters (Alaberg et al. 2012). The satellite based 24-hours global news channels’

reporting influences public viewers’ perception, interpretation and judgment of

transnational news events (Herbert, 2001).

More importantly, it is necessary to examine the news coverage of an influential

transnational event beyond the traditional container of communication and journalism

studies: nation-state. In today’s globalized world, media and news flows are characterized

by individualization and deterritorialization. The nation-centeredness of news media can

no longer be taken for granted (Hellman & Riegert, 2012). Comparative journalism

research should not be limited to the old “logic” of nation-state level of analysis.

Comparing one nation with another does not adequately capture the crucial phenomena of

a globalized journalism (Reese, 2010). Instead, media scholars need to focus their


3

attention on how transnational phenomena are observed beyond national frames of

reference (Esser, 2013). As Hellman and Riegert (2012) once discussed, how “de-

territorialized” news platforms present global issues has become one of key paradigms

for empirical study of emerging transnational news spheres.

Consequently, based on the idea of global journalism, this study compares CNN’s

and Al-Jazeera English’s news coverage of the ISIS threat through their online reports.

This study employs content analysis to examine sources and frames that two transnational

news organizations (CNN and Al-Jazeera) used in their online coverage of the ISIS threat.

Specifically, according to different geographical levels of story context (Guo et al, 2012),

this study develops a four-dimensional framing matrix and coding scheme. On the basis

of pre-defined framing categories, this study initially sorts out the frames used in online

news coverage and then categorizes those identified frames under different levels of

context--individual, national, international and global. In doing so, this study explores to

what extent CNN and Al-Jazeera English have incorporated a global outlook into their

online reporting of a recent global crisis.


4

Chapter II

Literature Review

Globalization, Global Events and News Media

As an academic buzzword, globalization has attracted an interdisciplinary

assortment of scholars (Kellner, 2002; Norris & Ingheart, 2009; Castells, 2010). These

researchers extensively studied the relationship between globalization and relevant

phenomenon based on three distinct as well as interrelated paradigms--cultural, media-

technological and political-economic (Vobic, 2012). The core part of their arguments is

that globalization has re-organized the world’s order, enhanced the dominance of world

capitalist economic system; supplanted nation-state with transnational organization

(Kellner, 2002) and eroded the local culture and tradition through a global culture (Norris

& Unghear, 2009). Under this trend, new information and communication technologies

enabled global networks to connect people on a planetary scale in a real or chosen time

(Castells, 2010). Satellites, specifically, as worldwide change agents, have made world

global, interconnected and interdependent (Pelton, 2010).

Today the whole world has become part of everyday life and whatever happens at

the local level has to be seen as an aspect of a global setting (Heinrich, 2012). In this

interconnected world, it is reasonable to assume that a specific event happened in place A

might have a direct or indirect impact on places B, C, D or even the entire world. As

Jarvis (2007) stated, cross-national issues such as the global health pandemic, global

environmental problems, financial meltdowns, rising poverty and international terrorism

are able to influence the people at each corner of the world. For instance, recently, in

2014, the global alert triggered by the outbreak of Ebola pandemic in West Africa once


5

again reminded people of how close and interrelated they are in a globalized world (BBC

news, 2014).

News media have been playing a substantial role in the process of shaping a

globalized village and forming an interconnected world. Armed with satellite

transmission, the Internet and other advanced technologies, electronic media have made

instant communication between different places possible (Bielsa, 2008). Today, because

journalists can access information from the world with only the touch of a button, it

seems much easier for them to distribute news to a large-scale audience. As a result, the

media coverage of internationally renowned sport events such as the Olympic games, or

the historical moment like the “9/11 terrorist attack,” could be delivered to the global

audiences simultaneously.

News media’s capacity of global reach is not only measured by their speed of

disseminating the messages and information about crucial events, but also through how

they report on those events. Cottle’s (2009) study found that news media usually

“mediatize” or “stage” global events through highlighting some issues while neglecting

others. He pointed out that news media today are likely to “enact” global issues,

especially the global crises such as natural disaster, war and humanitarian catastrophe. He

also discovered that through three different as well as interrelated forms of staging, which

include global surveillance, global-focusing events and global spectacle, news media are

capable of making global audiences recognize some certain types of remarkable issues,

affecting citizens far away from their home locations and even pressuring legitimate

governments for intervention. Perhaps, a well-known media phenomenon, “CNN effect”

is a typical example of how 24/7 broadcast news media influenced government elites’


6

response toward and citizens’ opinion of mediatized global affairs (Hawkins, 2002;

Robinson, 2002; Youssef, 2009).

The global sharing of news stories gave more people around the world ability to

learn about global issues much faster than ever before. This trend compressed the world a

single place and accelerated public’s interaction on a transnational scale. Under these

circumstances, it is fair to say that the increased access to news, via new media

technologies in a post-modern condition of time-space compression, would appear to

encourage the perception of an interrelated world (Cottle, 2009). The process of

intensifying social interconnections, which is triggered by globalization and globalized

news media, has created “a greater awareness of our own place and its relative location

within the range of world experience” (Reese, 2010, p.344).

In sum, globalization has blurred the national boundaries, prompted news media’s

capacity of global reach and burgeoned the new mode of news flows. In an age of global

interconnectedness and mobility, the boundary between local and global is not clear-cut

and citizens around the world mutually interact with and depend on each other.

Call for A New News Genre: Global Journalism

Globalization has been blurring the spatial boundaries that are traditionally

defined by nation-state. Does this process necessarily have an impact on journalism?

Some scholars would believe so. For instance, Gerodimos (2013) discussed that although

the relevance of space and power may seem somewhat remote when talking about

something as supposedly straightforward as news, the news content and the process

through which it is gathered, packaged and relayed are directly affected by the spatial and

political context within which journalists operate. Under the trend of globalization, news


7

content today is increasingly deterritorialized and involves complex relations across

national borders and continents (Beer, 2010). As Gerodimos (2013) illustrated, news

content nowadays not only reflects complexity, interaction, connection and

interdependence of different geographical spaces, but also blends challenges and

opportunities to create a global public sphere.

This emergent trend posed a potential challenge to journalism studies and all

relevant researchers. The challenge herein is, in a globalized era, it might be difficult to

categorize some news stories in the established and taken-for-granted national-

international binary fashion because some do not necessarily take place within strictly

defined geographical boundaries. Such news story could be either a global story that has

local importance or a local event that has global implications. This complexity and

interdependence remind journalism scholars that only employing a domesticate/foreign

category to sort out multi-faced transnational news events might only generate relatively

oversimplified results.

In order to address this concern, the notion of global journalism is under

theoretical construction. By examining power, space and identity, Berglez (2008)

proposed that unlike traditional journalism, which is based on the national outlook, global

journalism is a news style that uses a global outlook to investigate how people and their

actions, practices, problems, life conditions etc., in different parts of the world are

interrelated. As another proponent of global journalism, Reese (2008) also emphasized

the importance of going beyond traditional nation-state level of analysis to organize

journalism studies. He stated that in an emergent global news arena, newsgathering

practice orients beyond national boundaries in a deterritorialized fashion. Additionally,


8

when there are multiple perspectives, there is also simultaneity of awareness among

global audiences, which allows reflectiveness and timeliness in their reaction to each

other. In a globalized world, journalism must navigate between its “vertical orientation”

aligned with its host nation-state and a “horizontal” perspective--a global outlook, which

is characterized by more cosmopolitan, pluralistic, and universal values that transcend

narrow national frameworks (Reese, 2008). Two pioneer scholars (Berglez and Reese)

went so far as to consider the “global outlook” as the theoretical underpinning that

undergirds the notion of global journalism. Particularly, Berglez (2008) considered the

global outlook seeks to understand and explain how political, economic, social and

ecological practices in different parts of the world shared commonalities. The global

outlook is a type of knowledge that correlates with journalists’ intellectual work of

explaining news events (Berglez, 2008).

Within a global outlook, journalism is able to transcend the national frame of

references, contextualize motives, expose interconnectedness and explore the scope of

problems as well as human consequences. Moreover, journalism with a global outlook

may also express a consciousness of the world as a single place (Cottle, 2009; Ojala,

2011). Following with this logic, global journalism can overcome “the shortcomings of

traditional international news--including lack of context and under-representation of key

regions and perspectives” (Reese, 2008, p. 243). It is also able to provide public

audiences with a broader and more genuine view to look at the world.

As discussed above, the concept of global journalism is very helpful to media

scholars to analyze and define transnational news events in this globalized era.


9

Operationalizing Global Journalism

The notion of global journalism is innovative and timely. After all, journalism is a

social practice that has to adapt to global influences, even though one big “global village

journalism has not evolved” (Reese, 2010, p.348). However, in addition to connection

and interdependence, globalization’s multi-faced nature also brought journalism studies

dispersal and complexity. This leads to the difficulty of making a clear operationalized

definition of global journalism. Some might ask questions like this: in time of

globalization, what kind of journalistic practice could be perceived as “global

journalism?” Does it really exist? Could it be observed in practice? Is it just an alternative

explanation of foreign correspondence?

Actually, global journalism is not a theory to be tested, but that it has already

arrived (Berglez, 2008). In Ojala’s (2011) qualitative analysis of news coverage of the

U.S. President Obama’s speech in Cairo, the author demonstrated that the implementation

of global journalism constructed a particular social imagery in a way that the political

space was not organized in a state-centric manner. Thus, there was a transnational news

narrative presented in news texts. More recently, Leuven and Berglez (2015) explored the

global journalism practice in three quality newspapers: The Times, Le Monde and De

Standard. In this study, two authors operationalized global journalism by two measurable

variables--complex relations (further measured by global space, identity and power) and

reader engagement techniques (further measured by linkage between global condition

and home audiences) that appeared in news outputs. Meanwhile, based on geographical

space, the study also drew a distinction between foreign reporting and global journalism.

Comparing to foreign reporting, which puts news stories in a particular political, spatial


10

or cultural context (usually within a nation), global journalism is more concerned about

the connection among separate events, processes and global settings. In terms of spatial

context, global journalism actively seeks to connect events with multiple locations or

tries to put the global actor (such as the U.N.) in the center of news stories. In this way,

the practice of global journalism can demonstrate global powers, identities and spaces.

News Domestication

In spite of relentless efforts made by several scholars, another side of the

cognitive coin shows the complete opposite thinking that casts doubts on the concept of

global journalism. Typically, some said that journalism research generally concentrated

on units of analysis that are defined by territorial borders (Hanitzsch, 2009). The

traditional nation-state level of analysis dominates the field, especially when journalism

deals with foreign news reporting. Through analyzing international news production of

Japanese and Danish news organizations, Clausen (2003) suggested that even in a

globalized world, international events are still disparately interpreted by news media in

different countries through a “nation-state” prism. Moreover, Riegert (2011) made a

conclusion that the national TV news coverage of prominent international events usually

manifests national actors and different national perspectives. As a result, media framed

causes and consequences of those events in different ways. Not only national media, even

for transnational news outlets, full-sided story is absent from news coverage as well when

it reports on several specific cases. In covering the 1991 Persian Gulf War, CNN’s

reporting was labeled as “concentrated and emotion-based coverage of a select conflict,

packed on an oversimplified ‘moral play’ format of good versus evil”(Hawkins, 2002, p.

63). The author claimed that this kind of coverage actually evokes an emotional response


11

among the citizens of a distant country and forces that country’s government to intervene

in the conflict (Hawkins, 2002).

These empirical results not only indicated that international news events are

usually “domesticated” through a national journalistic lens, but also emphasized the

continuing stability and centrality of the nation-state paradigm (Olausson, 2011). This

traditional vertical view is on the opposite side of the horizontal view of the global

outlook. These two conflicting views de facto represent “globalization” and

“domestication” discourses in media and journalism studies.

Framing and Journalism Research

The tension between globalization and domestication has made transnational

journalism research a very important topic (Merrill & de Beer, 2004; Loffelholz &

Weaver, 2008). Among multiple approaches and paradigms, news framing is relatively

prevalent and compelling. In academia, within a decade, many scholars have examined

how news media framed prominent transnational events. From the HIV pandemic

(Bardhan, 2001), to the 2003 SARS crisis (Tian & Stewart, 2005) to the Iraq War

(Dimitrova & Ahern, 2007) and the global financial crisis (Marron, 2010), existing

literatures demonstrated how different global issues were presented in news media

through framing analysis.

Framing theory is considered as second level agenda setting (McCombs, Shaw &

Weaver, 1997). It is originated from the field of political communication. As Scheufele

(1999) discussed, in the field of mass communication, framing could be theorized and

analyzed at both the macro-level and micro-level. The macro-level of analysis refers to


12

“media frame.” It is different from “individual frame,” which is a cognitive cluster of

schema that guides media audiences to process information (Entman, 1993).

At the macro level, according to Entman (1993, p.52), “to frame is to select some

aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in

such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, casual interpretation, moral

evaluation and treatment recommendation for the item described.” Similarly, McCombs

and Valenzuela (2000) see the focus of media framing is on the salient characteristics and

attributes in which a news object is portrayed in mass media. In another word, by making

some certain aspects more salient than others in media content or making several pieces

of information more noticeable, meaningful, or memorable to audiences (Entman, 1993),

framing leads to different construction of reality (Dimitrova & Ahern, 2007).

In journalism studies, the concept of framing is more relevant to macro level

rather than individual level of analysis because it directly deals with how news media

present social realities. So, framing in news content study broadly refers to the process of

how media organize a news story, thematically, stylistically, and factually, to convey a

specific story line (Lee & Maslog, 2005). It usually suggests some certain types of

dynamic or relationship between different pieces of information and news actors

appeared in news text. It provides viewers with a very special interpretation of reality that

media intend to deliver. It is also a necessary tool that helps media to reduce a complex

issue to a “manageable” information package (Gans, 1979).

Aside from theorizing the concept of media framing, researchers also want to

know what factors might have influence on media frames’ creation (Scheufele, 1999).

This idea is known as “frame building.” In news content research, scholars have


13

identified several factors that influence the final production of news content (Shoemaker

& Reese, 1996). These identified factors include individual journalists’ attributes

(personal ideologies, attitudes and professional norms), organizational routines and a few

of external factors (political actors, authorities, interest groups, stakeholders and etc.).

They are potential source of influences that can shape and impact news framing.

Source and Framing

In the process of constructing social realities, journalistic practitioners generally

rely on different news sources to present news stories. According to Gans (1979), sources

used in news are news actors who are interviewed, observed and quoted by journalists in

news reporting. Shoemaker and Reese (1996) regarded news sources as different “names

with particular interest” in news. These “names” give mass audiences a diversity of views

expressed in news stories. News sources usually reflect what social actors journalists and

news media value the most in their news coverage. Thus, it is a good indicator that could

reflect news outlets’ special attributes (Branaman, 2009).

Several studies have illustrated that news sources’ selection had a profound

influence on how news media framed social issues. Crawley’s (2007) article investigated

the similarities and differences in news coverage of agricultural biotechnology on

Northern California and Missouri community newspapers. The findings revealed that

community newspapers included different types of news sources than had been studied

national newspapers. Thus, community newspapers presented readers different aspects of

the issue and challenged dominant political and social actors.

Dimitrova and Stromback (2011)’s comparative analysis of the news coverage of

election news in Sweden and the U.S. discovered that news source selection was directly


14

associated with media’s preferred definition of issues in news frames. Specifically,

ordinary citizens were sources contributed to “issue framing.” On the contrary, political

actors were sources contributed to “conflict frame.”

The studies listed above explicated the close relation between frames and news

sources selection. Generally speaking, in news coverage, news sources act as “frame

sponsorship” that cultivates and influences news frames (Gamson, 1988).

Among different voices, news media seem like to be favorable of official sources,

those who are labeled as “known”(Gans, 1979). By studying agenda-building process,

Berkowitz (1987) found government official sources were frequently used in TV news

stations. This media attribute is even more salient in event-driven news coverage. For

instance, because the Iraq war related news reports in ABC, CBS and NBC were

conformed to Bush administration officials, all those mainstream broadcasts failed to

demonstrate different aspects and voices of the Iraq war (Hayes & Guardino, 2010).

Moreover, Schiffer (2006) examined the media coverage of Downing Street Memo

Controversy. The study found official words and actions were mostly cited in television

coverage whereas anti-war activists’ voices were marginalized or even ignored.

A few studies listed here demonstrated that selected government sources in media

coverage successfully supported officials’ pre-determined and preferred news frames and

further helped officials to manage the contour of events. There is no question that the use

of news sources impacts the framing building process and media presentation of news

events (Dimitrova & Stromback, 2011). Through looking at how different news actors

shape media frames, researchers are able to explore unique attributes of news messages

about a particular issue (Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007).


15

Framing Globalized Issues

A framing approach is useful to transnational comparative media research because

it not only suggests the extent to which certain news frames are shared in different news

media but also reveals, “which force--domestication or globalization--has more influence

on news media’s framing of a given issue” (Guo et al., 2012, p.1919).

In terms of studying news media and several different prominent global issues,

many researchers have employed framing to examine similarities and differences in

media coverage and made comparison between different contexts. In an ambitious

comparative research project, Vreese, Banducci, Semetko, and Boomgarden (2006)

investigated the news coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary election in 25

member states of the European Unions. By examining the prominence of the EU political

actors and related institutions in different countries’ news coverage, the study found that

the EU election was much more visible in 10 new EU member states’ news media than

15 old member states. Still focusing on the EU topic, Cauwenberge, Gelders and Joris

(2009) compared how French, Dutch, and Belgian quality newspapers framed the EU

constitution. Three scholars found different frames, such as the “economic

consequences,” “conflict,” “ human rights,” and the “nationalization” were presented in

the EU constitution related news stories in accordance with different countries’

newspapers.

With regard to global warming issues, Good (2008) analyzed different frames

employed in the news coverage of climate change in American, Canadian and

international newspapers. The research further suggested that comparing to Canadian and


16

other international newspapers, the U.S. newspapers were more likely to marginalize

climate change and global warming in their news coverage.

As another prominent global issue, the North Korean nuclear test draws media

scholars’ attention as well. Dai and Hyun (2010) conducted a comparative framing

analysis of the North Korean nuclear test in the U.S., South Korean and Chinese elite

news agencies. In addition to the dominant “threat” frame, two scholars also discovered

that the North Korean nuclear test was domestically interpreted by different news media

in order to cater to different national audiences.

In exploring another sensitive and controversial global topic, Shehata (2007)

investigated Swedish and American elite news press coverage of Muhammad Cartoons.

The findings indicated that the “intolerance” frame was dominant in media coverage and

official voices were frequently cited.

By combining the comparative approach with framing analysis, the studies listed

above intended to capture the nuance and unique features that embedded in the media

coverage of different global news events. Their insightful analyses suggested that framing

played an instrumental role in helping media outlets to shape and present transnational

events. However, the shortcoming of these studies is that both of them are restricted to

the nation-state level of analysis. Under the trend of globalization, in order to gain better

understanding of multi-faced global issues, the comparative journalism research built

upon the new paradigm that is needed.

In order to fill this gap, the current study tries to look at how global media outlets

frame a recent and urgent global issue--the ISIS threat. Although the term “global media”

can be defined in multiple ways, the understanding of it in this study is dependent upon


17

the organizational level of analysis and an economic perspective. That is, “global media”

is defined as news outlets that gather, produce and distribute news story and information

across national borders. By doing so, they serve global market instead of a provincial one

(Reese, 2008).

For analyzing different issues, this study employs framing theory and quantitative

content analysis to examine the similarities as well as differences in news coverage of the

ISIS threat on CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s online news sites. Furthermore, by linking

news frames to news story contexts, this study measures whether or not the force of

globalization had shaped two media’s framing of the ISIS threat.

Research Questions

Before investigating news coverage of the ISIS threat on CNN and Al-Jazeera

English, the study firstly examines news story types in two transnational media outlets’

online coverage. The idea is to see how two transnational media outlets presented their

online reports of the ISIS threat. Thus, the first research question is formulated.

RQ1: What types of news stories were presented in CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s

online news coverage of the ISIS threat?

The following analyses concern the media coverage of the ISIS threat on CNN

and Al-Jazeera English online websites.

Considering the selection of news sources influences news framing of the event

(Dimitrova & Ahern, 2007), the second research question is listed below.

RQ2: How did CNN compare to Al-Jazeera English in terms of citing different sources in

their news coverage?

According to framing theory, the third research question is followed.


18

RQ3: How did CNN compare to Al-Jazeera English in terms of using different frames in

their online coverage?

Through addressing research questions listed above, this study explores in time of

globalization, whether or not different transnational news outlets share some common

features in their coverage of the same global news event.

The last analysis concerns the concept of global journalism. This study assumes

that transnational news outlets are more likely to present a specific transnational event

from a “global” outlook because of their deterritorialized nature (Olausson, 2011).

Therefore, the last two research questions are framed below.

RQ4: To what extent, is global journalism presented in CNN’s online coverage of the

ISIS threat?

RQ5: To what extent, is global journalism presented in Al-Jazeera English’s online

coverage of the ISIS threat?

For answering last two research questions, the current study tries to examine the

geographical space of news story context in which the event is reported and framed. On

the basis of a key building block of global journalism (space), this study developed a

model of four-space level of story context: individual, national, international and global

(Guo et al, 2012). The diversity of geographical locations presented in news stories is a

good indicator of a global perspective (Berglez, 2008).

By connecting each frame identified in news coverage to the geographical space

of news context, this study is able to deeply examine to what extent the practice of global

journalism is presented in CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s online coverage of the ISIS

threat.


19

Chapter III

Methodology

Design

This study employed quantitative content analysis as a primary methodology to

answer all research questions, because it is “a systematic, replicable and statistical

method in which to describe the communication, draw references about its meaning or

infer from the communication to its context, both production and consumption” (Riffle,

Lacy & Fico, 2014, p. 19). As a versatile research methodology, content analysis has

been applied to various disciplines such as psychology, political sciences, history and

language studies (Prasad, 2008). Content analysis is also suitable for comparative

analysis of media materials either from the same cultural context or various cultures in

different languages (Rossler, 2012). In this study, content analysis identified sources,

news frames and geographical spaces of news story context presented in CNN’s and Al-

Jazeera English’s online news coverage of the ISIS threat.

Media Selection

According to this study design, CNN and Al-Jazeera English are ideal media

platforms to investigate. First of all, no matter CNN or Al-Jazeera English, both of them

are world prestigious transnational news outlets. As a global giant medium, CNN has a

staff of over 4000 broadcasting and reaches to almost 260 million global audiences

(TAIPEI News, 2005). Likewise, since Al-Jazeera English was launched in 2006, its

programming has been distributed to over 260 million homes in 120 countries

(Figenschou, 2014). These figures mean that both CNN and Al-Jazeera English have a

large amount of global audiences. In addition to their global scales, the “CNN effect”


20

(Hawkins, 2002) and “Al-Jazeera effect”(Figenschou, 2014) reflected two media outlets’

well-known reputation.

Secondly, at media organizational level, in mission statements, two news media

outlets claimed their global visions. CNN aims to “broadcast news stories to countries all

over the world in English and various regional languages”(vision statement, CNN). In a

similar fashion, Al-Jazeera English intends to “challenge the established narratives and

give global audience an alternative voice…keep global viewers informed”(mission

statement, Al-Jazeera English). Their visions indicate that they gather and disseminate

news at a global or at least a transnational level. Compared to national media, since CNN

and Al-Jazeera English benefit from new technologies and operate at a transnational

level, they are relatively independent of domestic regulations and state’s institutionalized

political elites (Wojcieszak, 2007). So, the evidence of global journalism might be more

easily observed in their news coverage.

Although two news organizations claimed that they represent global media, it is

impossible to ignore a fact that both of them are based on specific countries of origin.

CNN is based on the United States and Al-Jazeera English is funded by the Qatar ruling

family (El-nawawy & Iskandar, 2003). This domestic force could influence the presence

of global journalism in CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s online coverage.

Finally, CNN represents the Western media’s dominant status quo in transnational

news flows (Figenschou, 2014). On the contrary, Al-Jazeera English is on the behalf of

the Arab world. Its presence brings different perspectives and sends information from the

global South to the North (Zingarelli, 2010).


21

Two media outlets’ commonalities and differences make the comparison of their

framing on the ISIS threat during a specific period feasible and reasonable.

Unit of Analysis

In this study, the unit of analysis in coding sources is news source, and unit of

analysis in coding story type, frame and story context was each single news item about

the ISIS threat presented on CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s official online websites.

News item in this study is understood as the group of continuous verbal elements that

refer to the same topic--the ISIS threat. Exclusively, news item in this study does not

contain visual and video elements.

Sampling and Time Frame

This study focused on the online reports between June 1, 2014 and December 31,

2014. Time frame selection is dependent upon several milestones of the event. According

to news reports, the ISIS militant group initially took over the Iraqi second largest city

Mosul on June 3, 2014 and caused social disorder in Iraq (Chulov, 2014). After that, ISIS

continuously achieved its military triumphs and territorial gains. Till the end of 2014, the

ISIS militant group was still holding a strong presence in the Middle East even though

the U.S.-led coalition air bombardment campaign on the ISIS’s targets had already lasted

for four months. Based on these facts, online news reports during this selected time

period would reflect different aspects of the event.

For CNN, through typing the key word “ISIS” and setting up the time period on

the online database LexisNexis, this study finally located 644 news items. Because the

LexisNexis has no comprehensive data for Al-Jazeera English news items, the search

engine on Al-Jazeera English official website was used. By typing the keyword “ISIL,”


22

the searching engine yielded 588 news items in total within the selected time period. All

reports were downloaded and then converted into PDF text files for analysis.

Ideally, the study should have analyzed and coded all news reports. However, due

to the time constraint, selecting a portion of samples from entire population of news items

was considered sufficient.

This study chose the constructed week sampling strategy to generate samples

from the whole population of news items. Several previous studies have substantiated the

efficiency of constructed-week sampling in newspaper content research (Luke, Caburnay,

& Cohen, 2011; Riffe, Aust & Lacy, 1993; Song & Chang, 2012). For online news

research, Hester and Dougall (2007) concluded that constructed week sampling is more

efficient than simple random sampling or consecutive day sampling. They also suggested

that at least two and as many as five-constructed week allows reliable estimate of content

in a population of six-month of online news.

Using calendar as sampling frame, this study firstly listed all Mondays within the

selected time frame (from June 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014). Then, the following

procedure was to use the Research Randomizer to randomly pick up a single Monday.

The idea of using the Research Randomizer was to make sure each identified Monday

could have equal chance to be selected.

The selected Monday would be the first day of the week. The similar procedure

was then repeated to choose remaining days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and etc.) in

order to “construct” an entire week. The selection process would be repeated until five

“constructed” weeks were finally formed. After “constructing” five weeks, news items


23

published in all days within those five weeks were selected as final samples of entire

population.

Based on five-constructed week sampling strategy, this study finally generated

180 news items for CNN and 140 news items for Al-Jazeera English. In total, 320 news

items about the ISIS threat were coded in this study.

Coding Scheme and Instruction

In this study, 16 variables in total were coded. The first variable “item date” is

designed to record the news item publication date (month and day). The publication year

was not recorded due to all news items were published in 2014. 5 or 6 numbers were

assigned to indicate news publication date. For instance, the earliest news item published

on June 1 was recorded as “06011.” If 10 news items were published on June 1, 2014,

they were accordingly recorded from “06011” to “060110.”

The second variable “media” indicated from which media outlet news items were

retrieved. This variable has dichotomous level. Since this study mainly compares two

transnational media’s online reports, number “0” and “1” were assigned to CNN and Al-

Jazeera English accordingly.

The third variable “story type” measured what news style was used in CNN’s and

Al-Jazeera English’s online news items. It has four categories: brief (news items that

report information of contingent events and has up to three paragraphs), article (news

items that report what happened, who, how, when and where), feature (news items that

describe individual experiences or testimonials by the author as a witness to one or more

events, or use literary language in news texts) and opinion (news items that include

reporting of facts and in-depth of analysis). In this study, the “story type” is a categorical


24

variable and different numbers from “0” to “3” were accordingly assigned to each

category. This coding instruction is based on Journalistic Role Performance around

Globe project.

This study includes several news source variables. In this study, news source is

understood as news actors who were interviewed, observed, directly or indirectly quoted

by journalists or news media in news reporting (Gans, 1979). Specifically, news sources

used in CNN and Al-Jazeera English were classified into following categories:

government official, business company, military, expert, news media outlet; international

organization, ordinary people, civil society, ISIS/insurgent groups and anonymous.

Meanwhile, the category “other source” was offered as well. Each category represents a

single variable and both of them are at dichotomous level (0 = absence, 1 = presence). All

categories were developed based on a preliminary analysis of 20 online news reports each

from CNN and Al-Jazeera English. In addition, these categories were very relevant to

news events.

Apart from news sources, this study examined news frames CNN and Al-Jazeera

English adopted in their online coverage of the ISIS threat. The study initially identified

two primary frames--the “geopolitics” and “existential threat.” Then, eight secondary

frames including the “failing state,” “political opportunism,” “Strategic games,”

“geopolitical alignment,” “ISIS prowess,” “human rights crisis,” “economic

consequences” and the “ISIS propaganda” were further identified. All news frame

categories were developed from a preliminary analysis of online news stories under

research and previous framing literatures (Goffman, 1974; Entman, 1993; Reese, 2010).

Those frames were pertinent to analysis of the news story because the ISIS threat is a


25

multilayered event. It involves the politics, international relations, terrorism and human

rights issues.

Particularly, the “failing state” frame concerns during the time of crisis, in

response to expansion of the ISIS militant group, legitimate nations or governments in

affected regions were failed to maintain political or social order. Within this frame, for

instance, some articles mentioned the impotence of Iraqi government and troops on

defending their country. The “political opportunism” frame concerns political separation

and unification. It specifically addresses political debate or discussion between different

political actors in response to the ISIS threat. Within this frame, some articles talked

about how the Republication leaders criticized the President Obama’s Middle East

Policy. The “strategic game” encompasses specific nations’ strategies of dealing with the

ISIS threat. Those strategies could be either political, militarily or lawful. Within this

frame, for example, some articles addressed how the U.K. implemented new anti-

terrorism law to prevent British citizens joining the ISIS group. The “geopolitical

alignment” frame is about governments or nations seek out either political, militarily or

lawful cooperation with other governments/nations to deal with the ISIS. Specifically,

this frame suggests the international relations between different countries. Within this

frame, for instance, some articles discussed the visit of the U.S. Secretary of State John

Kerry in Turkey. All in all, four news frames demonstrated above suggested the first

primary frame--“geopolitics.”

The other four frames suggest another primary frame--existential threat. Among

them, the “ISIS prowess” frame is mainly about the ISIS militant group’s military

advance and territory gains. Within this frame, some news articles mentioned how ISIS


26

took over a new city in Iraq or analyzed the ISIS group’s organizational structure. The

“human rights crisis” frame focuses on humanitarian disaster caused by the ISIS threat.

Within this frame, some articles reported beheaded Western journalists, displaced local

citizens or suppressed females and religious minorities. The “economic consequences”

frame emphasizes on news event from an economic perspective. Within this frame, oil

prices or local economies were reported in some articles. The last frame “ISIS

propaganda” concerns the efficacy of the ISIS’s recruiting message. Within this frame,

some articles described how the ISIS online information provoked teenagers in Australia

joined in ISIS.

In this study, numbers from 1 to 8 were assigned to different news frame

categories. Thus, the variable “frame” is a categorical variable.

The last variable in this study measures the geographical space of news story’s

context presented in online coverage. It contains 4 categories. They are individual (story

context is based on individual persons or a family), national (news story takes place

within media host nation), international (deals with relations between 2 nations but less

than 5 nations) and global (news story explicitly involves in more than 5 nations or an

international organization such as the U.N. is main actor in news story). To be noticed,

CNN’s host nation is the United States. So, for CNN, only the news stories that happened

in the U.S. could be coded as “national.” The same rule is also applied to Al-Jazeera

English (its host nation is Qatar).

The very idea behind coding the variable “story context” is based on the notion of

global journalism. According to Berglez (2008), multi-spatial news stories involve

processes with transnational scope and they are good estimates of global outlook.


27

Moreover, one criterion of a global journalism news style is to “report space as

multifaceted geography, with processes and practices simultaneously occurring in

separate places worldwide”(Berglez, 2010, p.5). Therefore, this study considered that the

more nations and regions simultaneously involved in a news story, the more global

outlook the news story had presented.

The validity of variable “story context” can be guaranteed, because if a coding

scheme is faithful to the theory in its orienting coders to the focal concepts, it could be

regarded as a valid coding scheme (Potter & Donnerstein, 1999).

Different numbers from “0” to “3” were assigned to indicate each category of

spatial level. Because each succeeding category is larger than the previous one, this

variable is at the ordinal level.

Inter-Coder Reliability Check

Two well-trained coders each coded the same 10% of the entire sample to test the

inter-coder reliability. 32 stories from the total 320 were randomly selected to check the

levels of agreement between two independent coders in coding the “story type,” different

news source variables, the “news frame” and the “story context.” Before coding, two

coders discussed the concept of this study and coding schemes. Inter-coder reliability was

measured by Krippendorff’s alpha index, because this index “allows for different number

of coders and is explicitly designed to be used for variables at different levels of

measurement” (Lombard, Duch and Bracken, 2002, p. 592). The inter-coder reliability

decided by Krippendorf’s alpha was .81 for the “story type,” .88 for news sources, .73 for

news frames and .77 for the “story context.” Aside from Krippendorf’s alpha, another

index of reliability--percent agreement was also used in this study because “it is simple,


28

intuitive and easy to calculate” (Lombard et al., 2002, p.590). In this study, all categories

achieved at least 80% agreement. The final results of inter-coder reliability across all

variables were acceptable.

Data Analysis

The first research question asked what story types were used in online news

reports of the ISIS threat on CNN and Al-Jazeera English. This research question was

addressed by measuring the frequency of different news story types presented in two

media outlets’ online reporting.

The second research question deals with news source selection in two online news

media coverage of the ISIS threat. For addressing this question, cross tabulation was run

to analyze the relationship between multiple news source variables and the variable

“media.” Cross-tabulation could not only analyze the joint frequency with chi-square

statistics, but can also determine whether variables are statistically independent or if they

are associated (Michael, 2008). Meanwhile, cross tabulation test is a suitable analysis for

categorical variables. Furthermore, after each source variable was coded in data file

(absence/presence), by computing all of them, this study created a new variable, which is

called the “number of sources.” The design of this variable was trying to measure how

many types of news sources were used in each single sample of news item. In the mean

time, for comparing the mean difference between the number of news sources used in

CNN and the number of news sources used in Al-Jazeera English, an independent

samples t test was employed. The basic idea behind doing this test was to demonstrate a

relatively comprehensive picture of how two transnational news outlets used different

news sources in their online coverage of the ISIS threat.


29

The third and fourth research questions consider what media frames were adopted

by CNN and Al-Jazeera English. In order to answer those questions, cross-tabulation test

that involved the variable “media” and the variable “frame” was used to analyze this

issue because two pertinent variables are at nominal level of measurement.

Finally, last two research questions tried to look at to what extent the global

journalism was presented in two media online coverage of the ISIS threat. Cross

tabulation test that analyzed the variables “media” and “story context,” “frame” and

“story context” were run for addressing last two research questions.


30

Chapter IV

Results

Story Type

The first research question asked what news story types were used in CNN and Al-

Jazeera English online news writing of the ISIS threat. The frequency analysis of news

story type was conducted and it showed that for both CNN and Al-Jazeera English, four

different news story types--brief, news article, feature story and opinion piece were

disproportionally used in their online coverage to present the news story (Table 1). In all

320 news reports being analyzed in this study, 26 of them were briefs (8.1%), 24 were

feature stories (7.5%); 70 were opinion pieces (21.9%) and 200 were the most common

news style--article (62.5%).

Table 1

Story type

Story type Frequency

(N = 320)

Percentage

(N = 320)

Brief 26 8.1

Article 200 62.5

Feature 24 7.5

Opinion 70 21.9

Note: news story type was coded on predetermined numeric values.

Specifically, among 180 CNN news samples, 112 (62.2%) were articles, 46

(25.6%) were opinion pieces, 17 (9.4%) were feature stories and only 5 (2.8%) of them

were briefs. Similarly, among 140 Al-Jazeera English news stories, the most frequent

used story type was the article (62.9%). Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera English almost equally


31

used briefs (15%) and opinion pieces (17.1%) in its online coverage. In a sharp contrast

to other news story types, feature stories only accounted for a relatively small percentage

(5%) in Al-Jazeera English’s news coverage (Table 2).

The results showed that CNN and Al-Jazeera English shared some commonalities

as well as differences in their news coverage in terms of how to present the news. In

comparison, Al-Jazeera English used more briefs in its news coverage than CNN.

However, there was no significant difference between them in terms of using other news

story types. For both media, article, which records basic factual information of event was

the most common story type.

Table 2

Story type: CNN, Al-Jazeera English

Story type

Frequency Percentage

CNN

(N =180)

AJE

(N =140)

CNN

(N = 180)

AJE

(N = 140)

Brief 5 21 2.8 15

Article 112 88 62.2 62.9

Feature 17 7 9.4 5

Opinion 46 24 25.6 17.1

Note: news story type was coded on predetermined numeric values.

News Sources

The second research question was concerned about news sources selection in

CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s online news coverage. In covering the ISIS threat, both

two transnational media outlets cited multiple sources in their news coverage. In order to

make a comparison, an independent-samples t test comparing the mean difference of


32

number of sources used in news between CNN and Al-Jazeera English was conducted.

The retrieved test statistics indicated that the number of sources cited in CNN (M = 2.72,

SD = 1.42) was not significantly different from the number of sources cited in Al-Jazeera

English (M = 2.51, SD = 1.34), t (318) = 1.38, p = .17, d = 0.15.

In order to investigate what types of sources were cited in CNN’s and Al-Jazeera

English’s online coverage, several cross tabulation tests were run for each of pertinent

source variables. The results below showed how CNN and Al-Jazeera English cited

different sources in their online coverage.

In this study, news sources were categorized in 11 groups--government official,

business, military, expert, news media, International organization, ordinary people, civil

society, anonymous, ISIS/insurgents and others. For CNN, the following sources are most

frequently appeared in news coverage: government official (80%), news media (37.8%),

military (31.3%), ordinary people (26.1%), and expert (24.4%). For Al-Jazeera English,

the most frequent cited source was from news media outlets (64.3%). The following

categories were government (48.6%) and military (37.9%). In terms of the most frequent

cited source, CNN is different from Al-Jazeera English (Table 3).


33

Table 3

Source: CNN, Al-Jazeera English

Sources CNN (n =180) AJE (n = 140)

Government 144a (80%) 68b (48.6%)

Business 0a 1a (0.7%)

Military 56a (31.1%) 53a (37.9%)

Expert 44a (24.4%) 26a (18.6%)

News media 68a (37.8%) 90b (64.3%)

International organization 21a (11.7%) 16a (11.4%)

Ordinary people 47a (26.1%) 31a (22.1%)

Civil society 34a (18.9%) 29a (20.7%)

Anonymous 16a (8.9%) 11a (7.9%)

ISIS/insurgents 22a (12.2%) 16a (11.4%)

Other 38a (21.1%) 10b (7.1%)

Note: Each subscript letter denotes a subset of media categories whose column proportions do not differ significantly from each other at the .05 level. Sources were coded on a presence/absence basis. One single news sample might cite more than one source.

Breaking down the overall findings to details, the retrieved test statistics showed

that there was a clear-cut difference between CNN and Al-Jazeera English in terms of

using government official sources, χ2 (1) = 34.79, p < .001, 80% of CNN online reports

cited governmental sources and in sharp contrast, only 48.6% of Al-Jazeera English

online news coverage cited government official sources.

Another significant difference between CNN and Al-Jazeera English was about

the use of news media outlets’ sources, χ2 (1) = 22.14, p < .001, In comparison, 37.8% of

CNN and 64.3% of Al-Jazeera English online reports quoted news media outlets’ sources.


34

In terms of using military, expert, international organization, ordinary people,

civil society and anonymous sources, there was no significant difference between CNN

and Al-Jazeera English. To be noticed, 22 of 180 CNN news reports (12.2%) and 16 of

140 Al-Jazeera English online reports (11.4%) directly or indirectly quoted ISIS’s

announcement or interviewed the ISIS’s spokesmen. Moreover, because the news event

involved military campaigns, military official and personnel sources were also cited in a

relatively large proportion in two media outlets’ online coverage (CNN, 31.1%; Al-

Jazeera English, 37.9%).

Frames

The third research question asked what frames CNN and Al-Jazeera English

adopted in covering the ISIS threat. The cross-tabulation test was run for each relevant

variable. The retrieved test statistics indicated that there was a significant difference

between CNN and Al-Jazeera English in terms of adopting different news frames, χ2 (7) =

48.99, p < .001. The overall results were demonstrated in Table 4. Of the 8 frames

investigated in this study, several frames differ clearly between CNN and Al-Jazeera

English. First, for CNN, a large amount of its coverage heavily focused on the “strategic

games (28.9%),” the following largely adopted frames were the “political opportunism

(19.4%),” “human rights crisis (18.3%)” and the “ISIS propaganda (15%).” For Al-

Jazeera English, the “strategic game” was the most frequent adopted frame as well

(26.4%). However, the following extensively employed frames were the “human rights

crisis (21.4%),” “ISIS prowess (17.9%)” and the “failing state (13.6%).”


35

Table 4

News frames: CNN, Al-Jazeera English

Frame CNN (n = 180) AJE (n = 140)

Failing state 4a (2.2%) 19b (13.6%)

Political opportunism 35a (19.4%) 5b (3.6%)

Strategic games 52a (28.9%) 37a (26.4%)

Geopolitical alignment 11a (6.1%) 17a (12.1%)

ISIS prowess 17a (9.4%) 25b (17.9%)

Human rights crisis 33a (18.3%) 30a (21.4%)

Economic consequence 1a (0.6%) 2a (1.4%)

ISIS propaganda 27a (15%) 5b (3.6%)

Total 180 (100%) 140 (100%)

Note: χ2 (7) = 48.99, p < .001 Each subscript letter denotes a subset of media categories whose column proportions do not differ significantly from each other at the .05 level. Frames were coded on predetermined numeric values.

News Story Context

The last two research questions were formulated to ask to what extent the global

journalism news style was presented in CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s online coverage.

As mentioned earlier, the geographical space of news story context measured the

evidence of global journalism presented in two media outlets’ online news coverage of

the ISIS threat. For addressing the last two research questions, several cross tabulation

tests were run for relevant variables. The retrieved test statistic indicated a significant

difference between CNN and Al-Jazeera English in terms of presenting news stories in

several geographical spaces of context (Table 5).


36

Table 5

News story context: CNN, Al-Jazeera English

Story context CNN (n = 180) AJE (n = 140) Total

Individual 8a (4.4 %) 12a (8.6%) 20 (6.3%)

National 73a (40.6%) 0b 73 (22.8%)

International 83a (46.1%) 114b (81.4%) 197 (61.6%)

Global 16a (8.9%) 14a (10 %) 30 (9.4%)

Total 180 (100%) 140 (100%) 320 (100%)

Notes: Each subscript letter denotes a subset of media categories whose column proportions do not differ significantly from each other at the .05 level. The story context was coded on predetermined numeric values.

Specifically, 8 of 180 CNN online news stories (4.4%) and 12 of 140 Al-Jazeera

English (8.6%) online stories focused on individuals or families. At this level, news

stories mainly talked about human rights issues and the influence of the ISIS’s recruiting

message on individual persons. Also, in CNN’s coverage, 73 of 180 (40.6%) news stories

are national. In a sharp contrast, there was no national story in Al-Jazeera English’s

coverage. This is the most obvious difference between CNN and Al-Jazeera English. At

the International level of context, there was a significant difference between CNN

(46.1%) and Al-Jazeera English (81.4%). Meanwhile, 16 of 180 (8.9%) CNN stories and

14 of 140 (10%) Al-Jazeera English stories presented the ISIS threat at a global level.

For comprehensively examining the evidence of global journalism in two media

outlets’ coverage, the study also investigated the relationship between news frames and

the geographical space of story context. The cross tabulation test for relevant variables

was run to analyze the association between news frames and story context (based on the

geographical space level).


37

For CNN, the retrieved test statistics indicated that there was a significant

difference between story context and news frames (Table 6 and Figure 1). At the

individual level of context, CNN mainly relied on the “human rights crisis (50%)” and the

“ISIS propaganda (50%)” frames to cover the story. At the national level of context, the

“political opportunism (43.8%)” and the “strategic game (34.2%)” frames were mostly

suggested. At the international level of context, the “strategic game (32.5%)” and the

“human rights crisis (24.1%)” were most adopted frames. Lastly, at the global level of

context, the “human rights crisis (43.8%)” and the “ISIS prowess (25%)” were two main

frames used by CNN.

For Al-Jazeera English, retrieved test statistics also showed a significant

difference between story context and news frames (Table 7 and Figure 2). At the

individual level of story context, the “human rights crisis (83.3%)” was the most adopted

frame. At the international level of context, the “strategic games (29.8%),” “ISIS prowess

(18.4%)” and the “failing state (14.9%)” frames were mainly used to elaborate the news

story. At the global level of context, two frames, the “ISIS prowess (28.6%)” and the

“human rights crisis (28.6%)” were mostly adopted and equally presented in news

coverage. In terms of presenting the ISIS threat at the global level of context, CNN and

Al-Jazeera English almost adopted same frames in their online coverage.


40

Table 6

News frames and story context: CNN

Notes: Each subscript letter denotes a subset of media categories whose column proportions do not differ significantly from each other

at the .05 level.

News frame and story context were coded on predetermined numeric values.

Story context Failing

state

Political

opportunis

m

Strategic

game

Geopolitical

alignment

ISIS

prowess

Human

rights

crisis

Economi

c

conseque

nce

ISIS

propaga

nda

Total

Individual 0a 0a 0a 0a 0a 4a(50%) 0a 4a (50%) 8

National 0a 32c

(43.8%)

25b

(34.2%)

1a,b

(1.4%)

3a,b

(4.1%)

2a

(2.7%)

0a,b, c 10a,b

(13.7%)

73

International 4a

(4.8%)

3b

(3.6%)

27a

(32.5%)

7a

(8.4%)

10a

(12%)

20a

(24.1%)

0a,b 12a

(14.5%)

83

Global 0a,b,c,d,e 0d,e 0c,e 3a,b (18.8%) 4a,b, d

(25%)

7a,b,d

(43.8%)

1b

(16.7%)

1a,c, d, e

(16.7%)

16

Total 4

(2.2%)

35

(19.4%)

52

(28.9%)

11

(6.1%)

17

(9.4%)

33

(18.3%)

1

(0.6%)

27

(15%)

180

(100%)


41

Table 7

News frames and story context: Al-Jazeera English

Story context Failing

state

Political

opportuni

sm

Strategi

c game

Geopolitical

alignment

ISIS

prowess

Human

rights

crisis

Economic

conseque

nce

ISIS

propagand

a

Tota

l

Individual 1a,b,c,d

(8.3%)

0a,b.c.d 0c,d 0a,b 0b,d 10a

(83.3%)

0a,b, c, d 1a,b, c, d

(8.3%)

12

International 17a,b

(14.9%)

5a,b

(4.4%)

34b

(29.8%)

15a,b

(13.2%)

21a,b

(18.4%)

16a

(14%)

2a,b

(1.8%)

4a,b

(3.5%)

114

Global 1a

(7.1%)

0a 3a

(21.4%)

2a

(14.3%)

4a

(28.6%)

4a

(28.6%)

0a 0a 14

Total 19

(13.6%)

5

(3.6%)

37

(26.4%)

17

(12.1%)

25

(17.9%)

30

(21.4%)

2

(1.4%)

5

(3.6%)

140

(100%)

Notes: Each subscript letter denotes a subset of media categories whose column proportions do not differ significantly from each other at the .05 level. News frame and story context were coded on predetermined numeric values.


42

Figure 1. News frames and story context: CNN


43

Figure 2. News frames and story context: Al-Jazeera English


44

Chapter V Discussion and Conclusion

This study examined how two transnational news media outlets--CNN and Al-

Jazeera English covered the issue of the ISIS threat respectively. It also investigated in a

globalized era, whether or not the global journalism practice has been incorporated in

transnational media outlets’ news coverage of global challenges. Based on the content

analysis of CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s online news coverage of the ISIS threat, this

study offers a descriptive analysis of news story presentation and news source selection.

This study also explores the notion of global journalism and tries to empirically

conceptualize it in a different way. Moreover, the comparative approach enables this

study to pragmatically address the questions of how different transnational news channels

reported on the same global crisis.

News Story Type

The findings of this study revealed that both CNN and Al-Jazeera English used

different story types to present the ISIS threat (Table 1 and 2). Those story types include

brief, article, feature and opinion. Among four types of writing, news article, which refers

to a classic and common genre of news writing that records five basic factors of news

event (what, who, where, when and how), was mostly used in the online news coverage

of the ISIS threat. In addition to article, a few feature stories were also presented in two

media outlets’ news coverage. In contrast to article, feature story deals with detailed

description of issue-related events and people. Producing feature stories requires media

and journalistic practitioners to send information directly from the “front line.” So, the

presence of feature stories in CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s online news coverage


45

actually reflects two media outlets’ capacity of global access. When covering ISIS, CNN

and Al-Jazeera English were able to send their correspondents to the key area and collect

first-hand materials. It should also be noted that, both CNN and Al-Jazeera English had a

relatively large amount of opinion pieces in their coverage (Table 2). Those opinion

pieces not only expressed the factual information, but also demonstrated the in-depth

analysis of different issues.

News Sources

Two news media outlets under this study relied on a fairly similar mix of sources

in their online coverage of the ISIS threat. For CNN, among all 11 different sources

included in this study, governmental official source was the most frequently cited (Table

3). For Al-Jazeera English, government official source was also largely presented in its

news coverage. This finding supports the previous research that government officials

have much influence on media coverage of news events (Crawley, 2007; Shehata, 2007;

Gans 1979). In most cases, when to report on a serious geopolitical issue like the ISIS

threat, like ordinary audiences, journalists might have no direct access to the event. Under

the time constraint, in order to wrap up and deliver news quickly, media and journalists

seek for the government official’s interpretation of news event. Compared to sending

correspondent to locals and digging into multiple sources, direct quoting or interviewing

government officials could save a lot of time. Two transnational media outlets’

dependence on government officials also implied that although transnational media

outlets benefit from the advanced technology and operate at a global level, political

powers still have influence on their news reporting.


46

It should be noted that compared to CNN, Al-Jazeera English’s most frequent

cited sources were from news agencies. In addition to their own correspondents, Al-

Jazeera English also heavily cited news sources from other news media outlets such as

Reuters, Agency France and several American national broadcasters (CBS and ABC).

This implied that in the process of covering the ISIS threat, Al-Jazeera English might

actively seek out the International cooperation with other prestigious news agencies.

Similarly, some CNN news reports also cited news outlets’ sources in its coverage.

However, instead of using sources from International news agencies, CNN was more

likely to use American national news agencies’ sources, such as ABC and FOX news.

Moreover, two media outlets also relied on ordinary people’s sources. In some

news reports, especially feature stories, ordinary people were the main actors that

construct the news. Their words were cited to reflect how the ISIS militant group affected

innocent people’s lives.

Lastly, several CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s news stories cited military

official and personnel’s sources. The difference herein is CNN’s military sources were

mostly from Pentagon and the U.S. high-ranking military personnel whereas Al-Jazeera

English’s military sources were a mixed combination of the U.S. military official, Middle

East nation’s Generals and individual soldiers.

Above all, government official, military, news media agencies, ordinary people

and experts were the most prominent news actors in CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s

online coverage of the ISIS threat. When journalists focused on different aspects of the

event, different sources were cited accordingly.


47

News Frame

CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s online coverage showed a significant difference

in their use of news frames on reporting the ISIS threat. The most dominant frame in two

news media’s online coverage was the “strategic game” frame. This seems logical

because the ISIS militant group posed an urgent threat to the whole civilized world. This

requires each legitimate government to implement appropriate strategy to deal with ISIS.

However, the proportion of the “political opportunism” in CNN was much higher than

that in Al-Jazeera English. This reflected that CNN emphasized political debates and

unifications a lot in covering the issue. In comparison, Al-Jazeera English was barely

concerned about political parties’ debates. Instead, human rights issues were the second

concerned aspect in Al-Jazeera English’s online coverage.

Another difference between two media’s online coverage was the use of the

“failing state” frame, which focuses on the Arab nations that were vulnerable to the

ISIS’s military advance. In Al-Jazeera English’s coverage, many news reports adopted

the “failing state” frame while for CNN, only a few of its coverage used the “failing

state” frame. This could be partly explained by one of Al-Jazeera English’s editorial

policies--focus on locals when to report news (Figenschou, 2014). The large adoption of

the “failing state” frame also implied that Al-Jazeera English is a pro-Arab transnational

news outlet. It frequently reported news from the Arab nations’ perspective and intended

to demonstrate how different Arab nations faced to ISIS. Meanwhile, the proportion of

the “ISIS prowess” frame is much higher in Al-Jazeera English than that in CNN. The

reason for this might be the ISIS threat was more imminent and close to the Arab nations

than the other parts of the world.


48

The “human rights crisis” frame was presented in both CNN’s and Al-Jazeera

English’s media coverage. The reason for this might be due to the ISIS’s human rights

violation was an essential aspect of the event. So, news media could not ignore human

rights issues. The last difference between CNN and Al-Jazeera English was about the use

of the “ISIS propaganda” frame. Compared to Al-Jazeera English, CNN was more likely

to emphasize on the ISIS’s social media information efficiency.

In sum, the most common frames in CNN were the “strategic games,” “political

opportunism” and the “human rights crisis.” According to this study design, these

common secondary frames suggested that when CNN reported on the ISIS threat, the

primary frame “geopolitics” was adopted. In other words, the political aspects of the

event were the center foci of CNN’s online reports.

For Al-Jazeera English, the most common frames were the “strategic games,”

“human rights crisis,” “ISIS prowess” and the “failing state.” These common frames

illustrated that Al-Jazeera English’s news coverage mainly adopted the “existential

threat” as primary frame to cover the news stories.

News Story Context

This study investigated all online news stories’ context based on the geographical

level of analysis. The results showed that news stories at individual, international and

global levels were presented in both two news outlets’ online coverage.

The main difference between CNN and Al-Jazeera English is about producing the

national news stories. In CNN’s coverage, national stories were demonstrated a lot.

However, for Al-Jazeera English, national stories were completely absent. Its coverage

did not include any piece of information that relates to Qatar government’s stance on and


49

response to the ISIS threat. According to Wojieszak (2007), as a transnational media

outlet benefits from advanced technology, Al-Jazeera English was relatively independent

of domestic regulations and state’s institutionalized political elites. It circumvents the

relationship between news outlet and national power structures previously prevalent in

the Arab world (Wojieszak, 2007).

It is also interesting to look at how different news frames were categorized under

different levels of story context in two media’s online coverage. In CNN’s coverage,

individual stories were relevant to beheaded Western journalists and how American

citizens were affected by the ISIS’s recruiting message. In comparison, Al-Jazeera

English’s individual stories focused on the displaced local religious minorities,

suppressed females and the ISIS’s recruiting message. So, at this level of context, two

news media mainly used the “human rights crisis” frame and the “ISIS propaganda”

frame to present news. However, stories were slightly different in terms of from which

angle to report news.

At the national level of context, CNN extensively focused on the U.S. political

debates and national strategies. A lot of CNN’s online news reports mentioned debates

between the Republicans and the Democrats with regard to ISIS. Some news stories even

questioned the U.S. President Obama’s Middle East policy and the efficacy of his

administration’s strategy of dealing with ISIS. This seems logical because ISIS was

regarded as a terrorist group that disordered the Middle East. Considering “9/11” and the

Iraq War, the U.S. government was seriously concerned about the stability of the Middle

East, especially the Iraq. Thus, although ISIS seemed far away from the U.S. homeland,


50

the U.S. political elites perceived it as an imminent treat, both politically and

ideologically.

At the international level of context, CNN’s news coverage focused on how other

nations implemented certain strategies to deal with the ISIS threat. Those nations were

mainly Western ones, such as the U.K., Australia and Canada. The reason for this might

be the ISIS’s recruiting messages influenced many Western nations. CNN tried to

demonstrate how the Western world responded to the ISIS threat. So, the “strategic

game” frame was mostly adopted at this level of context. CNN’s online coverage also

focused on American, British and French hostages held by ISIS. In covering this kind of

story, the “human rights crisis” frame was adopted. Similarly, at the international level of

context, most Al-Jazeera English’s stories were relevant to how different nations

implemented strategies to deal with the ISIS threat. To be different from CNN, at this

level of context, Al-Jazeera English did not merely focus on the Western world. Instead,

it mainly reported how ISIS achieved its territorial gains in Iraq and Syria. For handling

this kind of report, the “ISIS prowess” frame was adopted.

Lastly, at the global level of context, CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s news

coverage were mainly related to human rights issues and analysis of the ISIS militant

group. At this level of context, news stories were not limited to one or several nations.

Instead, the whole context was put into a global setting. The global level news stories

demonstrated that the ISIS threat was an urgent cross continental problem that challenged

all human beings. In two media’s coverage, global level news stories involved either a

majority of nations around the world (usually include global North and South) or the

United Nations. For instance, one Al-Jazeera English’s news story reported how the U.N.


51

implemented sanctions on the ISIS’s leaders’ finance. Another story from Al-Jazeera

English covered how the world reacted to suppressed Yazidis. At this level of context,

news coverage precipitated the development of global citizenship.

According to Berglez (2013), global journalism is considered an emerging type of

news reporting that investigates how people and their actions, practices, problems and life

conditions and etc., in different parts of the world correlated. In this study, news stories

have been categorized into four different levels--individual, national, international and

global. Among them, global-level stories reflected the evidence of global journalism. At

this level, the news event was no longer treated as an isolated case. Instead, two media

outlets dedicated to link different locations of the world together to illustrate news stories.

Conclusion

The current research constitutes the first examination of the media coverage of the

ISIS threat in the Middle East. To date, no study has thus far examined how transnational

media outlets presented the ISIS threat. More importantly, with findings, this study not

only advances previous studies on framing and media coverage, but also conceptualizes

the concept of global journalism by investigating news stories’ context.

In the area of framing and news coverage analysis, this study supports earlier

research findings of how government officials influenced the process of the framing

building. Several news frame devices developed in this study also contribute to the

explanation of a new global crisis--the ISIS threat. In terms of studying the news

coverage of transnational global crises, comparing with the previous research, this study

is not limited to national media. Rather, transnational media coverage was investigated.


52

This study also contributes to theorization and conceptualization of the global

journalism. Based on Berglez (2013)’s conceptualized model (power, space and identity)

and a four-dimensional framing matrix (Guo et al, 2012), this study explores the evidence

of global journalism in news content. The study showed that when transnational news

media presented a multi-faced global crisis, stories were put into different levels of

context in accordance with reporting on different aspects of news event. The similarities

and differences between two transnational media outlets’ online coverage were partly

attributed to different attributes of media outlets, such as editorial policies. This explained

how media organizations’ special traits influenced and shaped their news content

(Shoemaker & Reese, 1996).


53

Chapter VI

Limitation and Future Research

As discussed above, the current research offers a tentative effort to study the

concept of global journalism. It also provides implications for mass communication

research, particularly in transnational news research and framing. However, this study has

several limitations. Firstly, this study only examined CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s

media coverage of the ISIS threat. In order to broaden horizon and generalize research

findings, content analysis of the ISIS threat related news stories from other transnational

news media, such as BBC world, France 24, CCTV international should be conducted.

Moreover, this study only examined news texts from CNN’s and Al-Jazeera English’s

official online websites. The future study should also focus on news anchors’ live

reporting. After all, transnational media like CNN and Al-Jazeera English have their 24/7

live reporting, which is different from the textual news on those media’s official

websites. So, in addition to online news coverage, examining news anchors’ transcripts is

also helpful to comprehensively understand how transnational media covered a global

crisis.

Secondly, this study mainly employed quantitative content analysis to measure

the global journalism. This might be a potential limitation because quantified data might

not provide full detailed analysis of news content. So, future research that sets agenda on

global journalism should employ qualitative discourse or textual analysis as alternatives

to explore the deep meaning behind news texts.

Lastly, the sample size for content analysis in this study was relatively small.

Although previous research has suggested that the constructed-week sampling is efficient


54

strategy to examine online news (Hester & Dougall, 2007), future research should

consider other alternative effective samplings for content analysis of online news.

Despite those limitations, the current study provides empirical findings for

research in the area of transnational journalism and comparative communication. It also

provides useful implications for global journalism research. In order to better theorize the

concept of global journalism, future research should develop more sophisticated as well

as innovative conceptualized definition. In addition, the comparison between national

media and transnational ones will enable scholars to investigate if the global journalism

has been an everyday routine in today’s globalized media.


55

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Appendix A

News Samples (Global Level News Stories) CNN Samples

We who work to promote human rights operate in the realm of treaties, rule of

law, and state responsibility.

These are benchmarks of accountability that presume our world civilization has

moved well beyond the horrors of the past: From the Biblical destruction of the

Amalekites through Genghis Khan and the Crusades to the gas warfare of World War I.

Such atrocities may have continued well into the 20th century with the Nazi Holocaust

and Khmer Rouge, but the Nuremberg trials, the development of international

humanitarian law and human rights conventions, and the establishment of international

criminal courts signaled that justice for the worst crimes was possible.

So we are dumbstruck when we confront the blatant and self-advertised brutality

occurring in the parts of Iraq and Syria that have fallen under the control of the so-called

Islamic State. There, the members of this group make no effort to hide their atrocities or

even to make them look less atrocious. To the contrary, they advertise it and appear to

relish their primitivism, showing a degree of sophistication only in their use of video

technology and social media to document and disseminate evidence of their crimes.

One of the key tools of the human rights trade is "naming and shaming," by which we

seek to expose wrongdoers to the opprobrium their crimes deserve, and ensure

accountability. We have better and more fine-tuned instruments at our disposal now than

ever before to investigate and document rights abuses, as well as more comprehensive

legal mechanisms for holding accountable those who commit crimes against humanity

and other serious violations.


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But what if those wrongdoers know no shame? What if they are proud of their

deeds, seeing them in some manner as an expression of God's will and not beholden to

human law, even law that is universal in scope and application?

The fundamental challenge to our understanding of human rights abuse and how to

counter such abuses is exemplified in the handful of accounts of Yezidis who survived

the massacre in northern Iraq. From his hospital bed in Dohuk, one survivor with bullet

wounds in his legs and pelvis recounted, "First they wanted us all to convert to Islam

and we said yes just to save our lives." Then, he said, "They started shooting at us

randomly."

He estimated that Islamic State militants massacred about 80 men and kidnapped

the women and girls. The mind-set of the attackers seems to have been to eradicate the

Yezidis' most fundamental thoughts -- their religious beliefs -- and doubting the

genuineness of their forced conversion, to eliminate them.

As human rights activists, we feel despair at the extraordinary savagery of ISIS --

not just against executed journalist James Foley, but against hundreds of thousands of

Shia, ethnic and religious minorities, and other Iraqi and Syrian civilians. We are

humbled by the challenge of restoring humanity to the conflicts that roil so much of the

Mideast. We recognize that our work, whether it be laying the groundwork for future

indictments or seeking secure and dignified asylum for the displaced, in the short term at

least, will be limited.

We realize that only political action at the highest levels has the capacity to

prevent mass killings.

Precisely because of the extreme brutality and the deep political, cultural, and


67

sectarian polarization, the universal values of human rights have never been so important.

And even if the perpetrators are beyond shaming, the moral imperative to name names

has never been greater.


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Appendix B

News Samples (Global Level News Stories) Al-Jazeera English Samples

The United Nations Security Council has taken a tough line against the Islamic

State group in Iraq and Syria, blacklisting six people including the group's spokesman

and threatening sanctions against its financiers and weapons suppliers.

The 15-member council unanimously adopted on Friday a resolution that aims to

weaken the Islamic State - an al-Qaeda splinter group that has seized swaths of territory

in Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate - and al-Qaeda's Syrian wing al-Nusra Front.

The Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has

long been blacklisted by the Security Council, while al-Nusra Front was added earlier this

year.

"We have watched in horror their brutal actions," said Mark Lyall Grant, UK

ambassador to the UN and presiding officer of the UN council meeting. "They are

deliberately targeting civlians."

Both groups are designated under the UN al-Qaeda sanctions regime.

Hours after the resolution was adopted, early Saturday morning, US warplanes

carried out more air strikes in northern Iraq, according to the Kurdish news agency

Roodaw.

The strikes were on four sites near the Mosul Dam which is controlled by the

Islamic State, witnesses said.

Friday's resolution named six people who will be subject to an international travel

ban, asset freeze and arms embargo. They include Islamic State spokesman Abu

Muhammad al-Adnani, an Iraqi described by UN experts as one of the group's "most


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influential emirs" and close to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The Islamic State's swift and brutal push to the borders of Iraq's autonomous

ethnic Kurdish region and towards Baghdad has sparked the first US air strikes in Iraq

since the withdrawal of American troops in 2011.

The Security Council resolution "deplores and condemns in the strongest terms

the terrorist acts of ISIL and its violent extremist ideology, and its continued gross,

systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international

humanitarian law."

Individuals blacklisted:

The resolution also blacklisted Said Arif, a former Algerian army officer who

escaped house arrest in France in 2013 and joined al-Nusra Front in Syria, and Abdul

Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al-Charekh of Saudi Arabia, dubbed "a leading terrorist

internet propagandist" who heads the group in Syria's Latakia district.

Hamid Hamad Hamid al-Ali and Hajjaj bin Fahd al-Ajmi, both from Kuwait,

were sanctioned for allegedly providing financial support to al-Nusra Front - Ajmi's

fundraising includes at least one Twitter campaign, according to UN experts - while

Abdelrahman Mouhamad Zafir al-Dabidi al-Jahani of Saudi Arabia was named because

he runs al-Nusra Front's foreign fighter networks.

Britain initially aimed to adopt the text by the end of August, but accelerated its

plan after a surge by the Islamic State, which poses the biggest threat to Iraq since

Saddam Hussein was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2003.

The resolution condemns the recruitment of foreign fighters and expresses

readiness to blacklist people financing or facilitating travel of foreign fighters.


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It expresses concern that revenue generated from oilfields captured by both groups is

being used to organise attacks.

Islamic State fighters are selling oil from oilfields in Iraq and refineries they

control to local communities and smugglers, augmenting their existing ample finances,

US intelligence officials said on Thursday.

The resolution condemns any direct or indirect trade with Islamic State or Nusra

Front and warns such moves could lead to more sanctions.

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