conflict & communication online, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2010
www.cco.regener-online.de
ISSN 1618-0747

Franziska Oehmer
Aggressor or Victim? How the Antagonists of the Lebanon War 2006 are constructed in the German Newspapers

The present study analyzed the patterns of the German newspaper coverage about the antagonists of the Lebanon war 2006. The following research questions were addressed: Firstly, which actor of the Lebanon war 2006 is mainly portrayed as the aggressor and which as the victim - the Israeli, the Lebanese or Hezbollah actors? Secondly, are there any differences between the newspapers - "Sueddeutsche Zeitung", "Welt" and "tageszeitung". As findings of the quantitative content analysis indicate, Israeli actors are characterized as both aggressor and victim. The second most description of the aggressor role applied to actors of the Hezbollah. Lebanese actors are rarely portrayed as aggressor. They are, after Israeli actors, the second most group characterized in the victim role. Differences between the analyzed newspapers are found.