Media, Power, and the Gaza Narrative

About this episode

Khaled Ezzelarab discusses how Western media shapes public understanding of the Gaza conflict through language and political narratives.

How Western media shapes public understanding of Gaza, Palestine, and conflict through language, political narratives, and global power structures. In this Nordic Asia Podcast episode, Khaled Ezzelarab, Director of the Middle East Institute Program at the American University in Cairo and a former journalist, discusses how Western media narratives shape public understanding of the Gaza war and the broader Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He argues that mainstream Western outlets such as the BBC, CNN, and The New York Times have gradually changed their coverage over time, although dominant narratives still frame the conflict primarily as a cycle of “mutual violence” rather than addressing the deeper realities of occupation and structural inequality faced by Palestinians. Ezzelarab explains that media language plays a crucial role in shaping public perception. Terms such as “genocide,” despite being used by international experts and human rights organisations, are often avoided by major Western media outlets. At the same time, emotionally charged language is more frequently used when describing Israeli suffering than Palestinian suffering. According to Ezzelarab, these editorial…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Khaled Ezzelarab

Topics covered

• media influence
• Gaza narrative
• Western media
• political narratives
• public perception
• journalism
• conflict coverage

Keywords

• media
• Gaza
• Palestine
• narratives
• conflict
• journalism
• public perception
• Western outlets
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: American University in Cairo, BBC, CNN, The New York Times

Places: Gaza, Palestine

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