The geopolitics of reporting a genocide: an analysis of the coverage of the Israeli invasion of Gaza in Foreign Affairs and the New York Times

This article critically examines the media coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza following the invasion of October 2023. It reports on a critical discourse analysis of Foreign Affairs output (the official journal of one of the world’s most powerful think tanks, the Council on Foreign Relations) during the initial months of the conflict, in parallel with an examination of how these narratives are echoed in the New York Times. The analysis of the output of Foreign Affairs and the New York Times during the first six months of the Israeli invasion indicates a hierarchy of geopolitical influences marked by double standards in covering the conflict. The article argues that there is a symbiotic relationship between elite think tanks and agenda-setting global media in co-constructing media narratives that reflect the dominant geopolitical conditions.